Pilar Rodríguez

Chef at Food&Wine Studio (Colchagua, Chile)

Although she was a late arrival to the world of gastronomy and her restaurant is located in a rural area, with all the complications this entails, Pilar Rodríguez has become one of Chile's most respected chefs.

Aged around 40, Pilar Rodríguez decided to take a year's sabbatical from her hectic life as head of marketing for Latin America and the Caribbean with fashion brand Tommy Hilfiger. The idea was to travel to Paris to study an MBA, but this never happened because cookery crossed her path. She studied at Le Cordon Bleu, and while working with Christian Lesquer, the chef advised her to go back to Chile and explore the country's fantastic stock of products and wine.

She did so, and in 2006 opened her own restaurant, Food&Wine, at the Viu Manet winery in Colchagua, where she serves up her own interpretation of Chilean gastronomy - with links to this O’Higgins region - with a special focus on wine.

It was, in fact, her work in enogastronomy that led the World Tourism Organisation to declare her a world gastronomy ambassador in 2020. She is the first woman to win the award.