Back to Basics, Cebuano Cuisine

The invitation came from Chef Jeremy Young, dean of the International Culinary Arts Academy Cebu (Don Gervacio Quejada St., Guadalupe, phone 4125241, 256-0461, www.icaac.net) for the final culminating dinner of 24 graduating student chefs. Every year, your favorite food columnist makes a pilgrimage to this culinary mecca because the food prepared there is indeed truly world class.

The theme for 2011 is a taste of molecular gastronomy, which is a new discipline of cooking founded in 1992. It uses innovations from various scientific endeavours to reinvent flavor combinations, textures and appearances. And a restaurant called El Bulli (town of Roses, Catalonia, Spain) which has embraced the principles of this discipline, has been judged as “number one” restaurant in the world for a record five times! I have viewed the food videos served in this restaurant and it has been my fervent desire to visit El Bulli at least once in my lifetime. I did not have to travel far to experience this novel gastronomic affair after all.

There were two sets of appetizers with three dishes for this dinner, punctuated by a sorbet before the main dishes. Set A of the appetizers were as follows: (1) Caviar, Oyster, Lychee, Chervil and Horseradish (2) Beef, Coriander, Soy, Lime Rock and Hami Melon (3) Sardine, Olive, Tomato and Arugula accompanied by a white wine, Bourgogne Aligoté Daniel Rion, 2009. Indeed, new flavor combinations and textures were introduced here, like oyster and caviar with horseradish, beef and melon with lime rock and the texture of the sardine was transformed into a crispy circular wall.

Even the sorbet that was served had a tantalizing set of flavor combinations; the sharp Roquefort and chili hot Jalapeño was toned down by the sweetness of the apple and the mascarpone.

Set B of the appetizers were the following: (4) Crab, Coconut, Cashew, Saffron and Mace (5) Monkfish, Capers, Lemon, Parsley, Banana and Haricot Vert (6) Scallop, Corn, Truffle Oil, Asparagus and Butter, served with a white wine, Riesling from Sud Tyrol, Cantine K. Martini & Sohn DOC. The powders made from capers, lemon and parsley (took hours to prepare!) and the process of spherification (or is it reverse spherification?) made no pretence that International Culinary Arts Academy Cebu has a kitchen equipped with modern facilities.

The second sorbet (beautiful presentation of the Butterscotch & Sweet Corn) introduced the three main dishes: (1) Pork, Cornbread, Sage, Grapefruit, Honey & Fennel (2) Lamb, Cherry, Celery & Granola and (3) Duck, Root beer, Anise, Watermelon, Foie Gras, Onion & Fennel. I found two contrasting textures of the pork very interesting, the lamb a bit too sweet but the duck dish had the wow factor... it had the qualities of what a perfect dish should be!

A cheese plate (Cheese, Bell Pepper, Garlic, Olive, Anchovy and Crouton) quickly followed and again we had new flavor combinations of garlic and anchovy with crunchy croutons and finally the two desserts, (1) Chocolate, Banana and Pistachio (2) Mandarin Orange, Almond, Caramel and Corn, a fitting ending to a very satisfying experience of molecular gastronomy.

Never mind if taste buds and olfactory nerves, excuse me, demanded overtime pay to decipher these dishes, while memory cells went on overdrive to encode these exciting new experiences. If I had won the lotto like our national hero (in Dapitan, Jose Rizal won the loteria in1892), I would have invited all my beloved readers to this lovely dinner.