CAFE YSABEL
Cafe Ysabel—thanks to the chef who has made it his life’s work—has carved out a reputation that probably will never be paralleled.
These days, digital marketing specialists love to use the word “influencer” for any social media “personality” with a following that numbers in the tens of thousands. I admit, the term, as it is currently used, rankles me. I find it offensive, and a bit lazy to label anyone, with no proven long-term impact, as such. I see no difference between a wannabe hipster and a millennial influencer: if you have to aspire to, or ascribe a label to validate yourself, then sorry dear, you’re neither hip nor influential.
Gene Gonzalez is one of the most influential Filipino chefs of the past half century; in one way or another—through Café Ysabel and his restaurants, through his newspaper columns and bestselling cookbooks, through the reckless feats of culinary derring-do he relishes in retelling during his well-attended talks, through his Center for Asian Culinary Studies – he’s inspired, directly or indirectly, thousands of young Filipinos to follow their dreams, embrace their inner “kusinero”, and become world-class chefs. Gene broke the barriers, and helped get rid of the traditional parental biases of deriding work in a restaurant kitchen in favor of the “glamour” of toiling away in a cubicle of a multinational corporation. Gene made it cool to be a chef; very cool, as a matter of fact, and that is real influence.
Café Ysabel first opened in 1982 as a tiny neighborhood restaurant in what was back then, a very quiet pre-restaurant row Wilson St. in San Juan. Its chef patron was a somewhat rambunctious young man imbued with a gourmand’s sophistication and fine palate, thanks to his “Lola Charing”. She was a lady from Pampanga whose refined old world sensibilities found expression via her innate talent as a cook. Her influence, then as now, is apparent in her grandson’s establishment. When Chef Gene moved his restaurant to the old house on P. Guevarra in 1985, the popularity of his “secret” café, so jealously guarded by its patrons, exploded. Overnight, it became the hottest restaurant in Metro Manila, thanks to its irresistible cuisine, and its swoon-inducing ambiance.
The dishes are decidedly classical. European in scope and finesse, but imbued with a Capampangan’s intrinsic
IT IS, QUITE LITERALLY, A HISTORIC RESTAURANT, HOUSED IN A 115-YEAR OLD ANCESTRAL HOME.
preference for unabashedly bold flavors. Over half of the dishes available when the restaurant opened in 1982 are still around. The regulars, the Ysabel loyalists, raise a ruckus whenever the chef even hints at the thought of removing their revered salpicado or gambas from the menu. There’s no need to adjust to fleeting preferences or to blindly follow trends when the specials are as strong, and as sublime as this café’s.
The Art of Erotic Seduction. This restaurant should come with that subtitle, as a warning, really. Or perhaps not, as all couples who decide to go here have already made an unspoken, tacit agreement that the date will not be for two persons who merely want to find a new BFF. More so if you’re seated on “seduction lane”, the row of tables-for-two on the balcony. It’s especially potent on a rainy night, when the droplets on the windows reflect the golden glow of the turn of the century lamps, infusing everything with a sensual sheen. Three decades on, it’s still the sexiest dinner spot in Metro Manila.
At the end of July, Café Ysabel will cease operations to give way to a fashionable new urban development. While it’s extremely sad to see a lengthy, meaningful chapter in Philippines culinary history come to a close, Chef Gene already has found a new home – another century old house, this time on M. Paterno St. – for his beloved Café Ysabel. Romance will continue to live on in old San Juan.