

With 1,000 registered cooks, Chef Surfing has its focus set on Latin America - chefsurfing
http://thenextweb.com/la/2013/01/24/with-1000-registered-cooks-chef-surfing-has-its-focus-set-on-the-latin-american-market/

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marquis
I wonder if the success in Latin America is due to existing cultural norms
where it is acceptable to eat food that has not been 'authorized', nor subject
to crackdown, by a city health dept. In Argentina you can go to a person's
home turned into a restaurant for a couple of nights a week, get an amazing
meal and hang out with great people who also stumbled across the place. Some
of the best meals ever in Buenos Aires were had in these places.

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chefsurfing
This is true. The grey zone in which "Closed door restaurants" operate in
Buenos Aires, for example, requires only that the chefs have catering licenses
issued by local government fairly liberally.

Chef Surfing is a startup born in Buenos Aires and inspired by the independent
chef movement of Argentina and South America. Our favorite purta cerrada
Cocina Sunae [1] by chef Christina Sunae serves the best south-east asian food
available in Buenos Aires. I highly recommend this place to tourists, expats
and local Argentines!

[1] <http://www.cocinasunae.com/>

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marquis
We had a perfect meal at Christina's, and perfectly paired with wine. I really
hope this takes off - we also loved <http://colectivofelix.com>, it was more
homely in feel and as it was smaller we were able to talk to the other guests,
making for a great evening together. If this could become the airbnb of food,
count me in as a life-time subscriber.

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j_camarena
We used the service once at Santiago, Chile.

Amazing experience. Much better than going to a restaurant.

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andrewcooke
which chef did you use? what was it for? i'm looking through and this seems
like it could be great for when a bunch of people come round and expect
food... but the idea that you can order a week's meals for $15.000 is also
tempting (we're going to gain weight...).

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j_camarena
We used chef Nancy (link is at the end. Was a "small group dinner" with around
7-8 people, we got Mexican Food :).

[https://chefsurfing.com/es/chefs/chile/region-
metropolitana-...](https://chefsurfing.com/es/chefs/chile/region-
metropolitana-de-santiago/santiago/chef-nancy)

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chefsurfing
Thanks for the writeup Anna. Founder of Chef Surfing Eric Knudtson, please
A.M.A.

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marquis
Can I suggest not getting the geo info when using the site? It was confusing
for me and several other people I've shown it to in the last minutes, as we
get various cities with no entries, and it's not clear what cities/countries
have actual chefs available. Once I selected Mexico for example, it was fine,
but it's not clear where the service is actually available.

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chefsurfing
Great suggestion, thank you Marquis! To everyone in California, we do have a
few chefs signed up in San Francisco [1] and Oakland [2] although we've only
just started to promote the site in the USA.

[1] [https://chefsurfing.com/en/chefs/united-states-of-
america/ca...](https://chefsurfing.com/en/chefs/united-states-of-
america/california/san-francisco) [2]
[https://chefsurfing.com/en/chefs/united-states-of-
america/ca...](https://chefsurfing.com/en/chefs/united-states-of-
america/california/oakland)

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rgluck
I've been following them for months, and the team rocks!

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chefsurfing
Gracias Senor Gluck!

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gobmcb
US needs to lighten up so we can get this here!

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Aegist
I can't wait for this to break out of the Latin American market and get over
here to Australia! :) I love the idea!

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etagwerker
Way to go Chef Surfing! I've been fortunate enough to meet Chef Nancy in
Santiago thanks to them.

