Curarrehue to Host the First Mogekonmen 2025 Festival Celebrating Mapuche Gastronomy as Living Heritage

Curarrehue will celebrate the Mogekonmen 2025 Festival on October 30, 31, and November 1, recognizing Mapuche gastronomy as the living heritage of Wallmapu. This free event, featuring a fair, workshops, and live cooking, aims to highlight ancestral cuisine and strengthen the local economy.

The Citizen

19/10/2025 5:42pm

Original article: En Curarrehue se realizará el primer festival de gastronomía mapuche: Mogekonmen 2025

Curarrehue Celebrates the Inaugural Edition of Mogekonmen 2025, Honoring Mapuche Gastronomy as Living Heritage of Wallmapu.

The festival will bring together prominent figures from the culinary and cultural world in a public celebration that highlights the memory and cuisine of the Mapuche territory.

On Tuesday, October 14, the Mogekonmen 2025 Festival officially launched with an impactful ceremony at the restaurant of lamngen Anita Epulef. This gathering brought together the organizing team, media, and special guests, reaffirming the essence of Mogekonmen, a Trawün (meeting) dedicated to preserving food heritage, territorial identity, and safeguarding the seeds and gardens of Kurarewe.

During the launch, the festival’s organizing team welcomed guests with a tasting of traditional dishes that showcased the richness of local products and provided all the details regarding the event, celebrating Mapuche gastronomy. It will take place on October 30, 31, and November 1, 2025, thanks to the network of chefs from Curarrehue and under the auspices of the Walüng Fair Coordination.

According to the Festival Mogekonmen Communications Team, the event is designed as a grand celebration of Mapuche Cuisine Day, aiming to position Curarrehue as a reference point for ancestral, sustainable gastronomy with territorial identity. It seeks to enhance the culinary identity of the region, emphasizing memory, ancestral techniques, cultivation, gathering, and the flavors that have sustained Mapuche families in southern Chile for generations.

It has been reported that during the three days of festivities, the public can enjoy a gastronomic and artisanal fair, master talks, panel discussions, and live cooking demonstrations featuring prominent figures from Mapuche cuisine and culture.

The festival aims to strengthen the local economy, raise awareness of traditional knowledge, and promote the transmission of skills between generations, bringing together gatherers, gardeners, cooks, and producers from the region.

Anita Epulef, a prominent Mapuche chef and one of the event organizers, states: «The relationship we have with the land through food is so important that it is good to share, especially nowadays (…) After experiencing this culinary event, we hope everyone becomes a little happier and more aware of what we have and who we are as a territory, a country, and as a people that recognizes its identity through food.»

Miguel Catricheo, a Mapuche chef from Curarrehue, who is also part of the festival organization, comments: «This festival analyzes several aspects where the Mapuche cuisine is examined. It’s not just a simple gastronomy festival; it contains educational elements from a cultural standpoint. For example, there’s an emphasis on generating a local economy and showing people a cuisine that has roots and from which many other modern cooking styles are derived. Today, gastronomy is heading toward the future but often forgets its roots, while Mapuche cuisine has profound foundational elements.»

Notable Guests Celebrate the Value of Mapuche Culture and Gastronomy

The free and open Mogekonmen Festival will feature prominent guests from the culinary, artistic, and academic worlds, including chef Rodolfo Guzmán (Boragó), anthropologist Sonia Montecino, journalist and writer Pedro Cayuqueo, and esteemed Mapuche figures in our country such as academic and writer Margarita Canio and chef Zuny Lepin, among others.

With this celebration, Curarrehue reaffirms its commitment to preserving Mapuche knowledge, sustainability, and local gastronomic development, welcoming people from the region and all of Chile to learn more about the intricate world of Mapuche gastronomy. For more details, follow the event’s Instagram at @mogekonmen.