Spanish cuisine

Spanish cooking has underpinned Chilean food since colonial times, but the migration of the late 19th and early 20th centuries —Galicians, Basques, Catalans, Asturians— brought its regional version to Santiago and organized it around the clubs and centers of each community. Many of those dining rooms in the historic center are still open to the public. In 1939 the Winnipeg, the ship chartered by Neruda, added more than two thousand Civil War refugees who left a cultural mark, and one at the table too.

Today tapas, tortilla, paella and jamón are found both in those regional centers and in bars and restaurants in Lastarria, Brasil, París-Londres and Concha y Toro, where Basque and Catalan cooking has its best exponents. It is a cuisine of long after-dinner talk, eaten in Santiago mostly in the heritage neighborhoods.