In Manila with Chele / 2

(see part one)

How much of the Philippines’ culture can be found in your food?
Plenty: at first I wanted to present a cuisine that would be a summary of all the Asian influences I collected when travelling. When I first began I even tried to pursue this initial idea. However, I later realised I had to do a different job.

What do you mean by different?
I believe a chef should be curious, he should try to discover the ingredients and culture of the place in which he’s staying. This is what we’re trying to do at Gallery Vask. Every day we go to the market to buy local fish, because it is very difficult to get it from suppliers – they only get fish from the Atlantic Ocean. And we regularly travel around the islands, so as to discover the indigenous culture and then translate these discoveries in our dishes. At the moment, 90% of the ingredients we use come from here and are often unknown to most locals too. This was a crucial step for us.

Tell us about ArroZeria
It’s the latest restaurant we opened. It’s a cheaper and more popular restaurant, it represents the research on rice I’m conducting with the IRRI, the International Rice Resarch Institute, which is located in the Philippines. There are very interesting varieties originally from the Philippines: for instance, one looks very similar to the Bomba variety, used in Spain for Paella. When I was at Identità Golose a few months ago, I spoke at length with the managers of Acquerello and discovered that some of the varieties with which they work come from the Philippines. This will be one of the topics I’ll cover during my lesson at Madrid Fusion, which will take place in Manila at the end of April.

Starting from your research on local ingredients, would you like to choose one you particularly like?
This is a very hard question for a chef! I’ll choose two, starting from the fact that during my research I understood that a characterising element of local cuisine is acidity, the sour note. They use lots of different vinegars, tamarind and many other things. Including of course Calamansi, a small lime with a very complex aroma because the juice and the zest have very different scents. I use this ingredient a lot and were it to be better promoted by the Philippines, we would find it in kitchens around the world.

How about the second ingredient?
The second ingredient is Alibangbang leaves. They are becoming truly important in my cuisine: I discovered them thanks to the meeting with an aboriginal tribe in the Philippines. They are called Aetas and live a two-hours’ drive from Manila, though their customs have remained unchanged for centuries. They made me discover these leaves they use to prepare a soup, cooked in bamboo, which is very close to a typical dish from the Philippines called Sinigang. Traditionally, the acid note in this recipe is given by the tamarind. I, instead, use Alibangbang leaves to prepare a soup, which I don’t call Sinigang even though it is quite similar, and it’s one of the most important dishes in my menu.