The fruit of the chañar tree may not ring any bells with the typical Chilean, but its historical and cultural significance run deep in some parts of the South American nation.

A short tree that thrives in the most arid of climates, the chañar or Chilean palo verde is served in an array of purposes for the native Atacameño people in Chile’s northern desert. Its sweet fruit can be roasted for coffee, ground into flour or made into a syrup-like molasses.

“Arrope de chañar” – the fruit’s dark syrup – is one of many indigenous, northern Chilean ingredients that chef Pancha Echeverría has worked into her cuisine.

Now the owner of four restaurants in San Pedro de Atacama, - Café Adobe, Estaka, Blanco and La Casona - Echevarría arrived to the desert landscape with a tough culinary task ahead. Low access to ingredients and lack of potable water equated to serious time and work spent finding the bare basics.

Sixteen years later, Echeverría has now managed to capture the flavor of northern Chile, put on display at Latin American culinary festival Ñam Santiago.

Before festival attendants, Echeverría and her co-chef crafted two gourmet creations firmly based in the Atacama culinary tradition. Her arsenal of ingredients hail from Arica on Chile’s Peruvian border down to Copiapó in Region III (Atacama).

Chañar flour adds a sweet touch to her first dish, a marinated southern hake complemented with carrots and onions. The flours serves as the center of attention, praised as being so appealing that even Echeverria’s dogs enjoy eating its unprocessed fruit.

Her second dish takes lamb meat and works in a range of local, northern ingredients.

As the base, she uses “pataska,” a dried, roasted grain that her husband, Mauricio Ciocca, describes as typical Atacameño. Echeverría mashes the grain down to the consistency of a patacón, a slice of fried banana traditional to Colombia.

To top off the dish, she chooses an Azapa olive – the typical bitter fruit, found by the barrel throughout Chilean fruit markets. The olive’s namesake hails from the Azapa Valley near Arica, a region also known for its tropical fruits like guava, bananas and mangoes.

These tropical fruits find their way into Echeverria’s cuisine as well. She compliments her lamb with a touch of mango-infused mayonnaise. A variation of the dish uses guava pulp. The dish is all about flavor balance between salty and sweet, which is where the fruit comes in.

Echeverria’s creativity with such ingredients has landed her the reputation as the woman who revolutionized northern Chilean cuisine. She has uncovered ingredients lost in modern culture and made them staples in her restaurants.

Beyond just cooking with these ingredients, Echeverría identifies them as her own. From the popular Pica lemon to the unknown chañar fruit, Echevería claims these items as “her” Chile.

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