DIAMOND HOTEL OFFERS FILIPINO CULINARY MASTERPIECES
Until July 1, chef Sau del Rosario takes diners on a culinary trip around the country while pastry chef Miko Aspiras spreads happiness with his desserts.
Atrip to Mexico started with tamales for Le Fleur chef and restaurateur Sau del Rosario. It was a recipe from his grandmother in whose kitchen in Angeles City he grew up as she prepared dishes for fiestas, reunions and padasal.
Two years ago, the Mexican Ambassador to the Philippines was at his restaurant and ordered Sau’s tamales, and two months later he was in Mexico cooking his grandmother’s tamales in front of Mexicans.
“I’m not sure if they hated me for it or if they liked me for it,” chef Sau says.
It’s not entirely accurate to say that it’s his grandmother’s tamales because it looks nothing like it; nothing like the one I grew up eating either. Instead of wrapped in banana leaves and with a gelatinous texture, Sau’s bobotu (tamales in Kapampangan) is set in a bowl. It’s a lovely textured appetizer with chicken topping and petals picked from his own garden.
This is our introduction to Diamond Hotel’s Filipino Festival set for June 21 to July 1 at Corniche restaurant featuring chef Sau del Rosario’s dishes and the desserts of chef Miko Aspiras.
It’s Sau’s third collaboration with the hotel and this time, he’s taking old Kapampangan recipes along with regional specialties and modernizing them.
“The reason I did it this way is because tamales is a dying recipe. Before, you could find it in the palengke or at every fiesta, ngayon ang hirap na niyang hanapin. I wanted to revive it and I felt that in its original form it was not too appealing to the young generation. They cannot relate to it; they’d say, ‘Ay, that’s my
lola’s food.’ Since I opened Café Fleur and began serving it there like this, it became a bestseller and the most Instagrammable dish on the menu.”
The Diamond collaboration also makes his food more accessible since his restaurants are located in Angeles City. Diamond Hotel offers Filipino culinary masterpieces
Along with tamales, Sau is also cooking a Kapampangan fave, bulanglang or sinigang sa bayabas. The guavas used as souring agent for the sinigang are also from his own backyard.
Trained in Paris, Sau applies classical French techniques in his cuisine, including the beautiful plating. “I thought that if we present this to the global market, in the international scene, it would be great. I don’t want to change the recipes, just simplify and refine them, and make them look good.”
His dishes are part of Corniche’s buffet, like in the appetizer section you will find his oyster ceviche, a mouthwatering dish of Aklan oysters with coconut cream, drizzled with calamansi and sprinkled with homemade chicharon for that added crunch. His maya-maya mayonesa is a delicate classic favorite made from snapper with aioli, capers, black olives, eggs and spices; and his paku with kesong puti and watermelon is a healthy mix of forest ferns from Pampanga served with palm vinegar and salted egg.
For the main entrees, he’s doing crispy pork kare-kare with truffle oil and the peanut taste is coming from macadamia nuts instead of peanut butter, lending the dish a subtlety that kare-kare is not known for, and the pork skin is so crispy!
The sisig paella is his trophy dish, featured at his recent Napa stint that became a blockbuster to many foreigners.
He’s also doing lechon in the styles of Luzon (stuffed with buro), Visayas (stuffed with Guimaras mangoes) and Mindanao (with Davao’s Malagos chocolate and cheese). Other dishes are bangus relleno, duck adobo, and camaron rebosado with salted egg yolk and aligue, which was my favorite during our tasting lunch.
All his dishes reflect, in one form or another, the house he grew up in in Angeles City, where his mother grew flowers in a sprawling garden and trees in the backyard. Today, he also has a farm at the back of his restaurant where he picks ingredients for his second restaurant, the farm-to-table 25 Seeds.
“It’s funny, I never wanted to be a chef because my dad was one. He studied at the Culinary Institute of America and he was a chef at Clark Air Base for 42 years. As a kid, I practically didn’t see him. He was working from 7 a.m. to midnight. That was his first and last job,” says Sau. “We’re eight in the family and he really had to work hard to send us all to college. When I was young, I couldn’t understand that and I thought, I don’t want to be like him.”
But he was also a lola’s boy on both sides of the family and their love of cooking overpowered his recalcitrance. “I learned the ABCs of cooking from them, but it was my dad who showed me the love and passion for one’s work.”
At the dessert spread, young and award-winning chef Miko Aspiras takes the spotlight with his creations looking like fruits.
His mansanas or apples are actually dulce-cinnamon mousse and Granny Smith apple compote dipped in red glaze decorated with chocolate leaf and twigs. His cherries sitting on miniature tin pots are layers of fluffy chocolate sponge, cherry mousse and cherry Chantilly. His mandarin cheesecake in graham crust is garnished with fresh orange segments; his macarons are made with keso de bola, and his dayap is a coconut mousse with dayap curd dipped in praline cocos.
“I think desserts bring happiness to the table, and I love that kind of feeling they bring to anyone who eats them,” Miko says.
* * * Diamond Hotel Philippines’ Filipino festival is ongoing until July 1 at Corniche restaurant. For reservations, call 528-3000 loc. 1121.
Visit the author’s travel blog at www. findingmyway.net. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @iamtanyalara.