Chef Chele Gonzalez and his wife, Teri Echiverri, recently had a daughter, the adorable Ainara Teresa, but that hasn’t stopped the culinary power couple from having Baby No. 2 — Chef Chele’s Kitchen — and Baby No. 3 — Deli by Chele — in quick succession two months later.
The two concepts now have physical stores on the ground level of The Podium, with a common dining area across from them where customers can enjoy Deli by Chele’s pastrami sandwiches and Chef Chele’s Kitchen’s new desserts.
Last Christmas Chele and Teri launched Chef Chele’s Kitchen with a star product you could order online, Burnt Basque cheesecake, which became so successful they’ve expanded the brand in the year since to include pies and cookies, while the Burnt Basque cheesecake is now available in different flavors and a limited-edition truffle version.
“The truffle cheesecake is only happening in Christmas,” Chele says. On it he shaves white truffles from Alba, black winter truffles and summer truffles from Spain, and if you have it warm from the oven, with the melting cheese melding with the freshly shaved truffles, you might feel like you’ve died and gone to heaven.
Last year when Chele and Teri lived in Spain for six months, Chele rediscovered his family’s heirloom recipes, “and I start to say, hey, can I borrow these?” laughs the chef. “They allowed me to borrow their recipes.”
Thus, the new Tarta de Limon (lemon pie), Tarta de Manzana (apple pie) and Tarta de Chocolate (chocolate-banana pie) were inspired by Chele’s sisters, and the chef gave them his own twist, adding more texture and complexity.
Therese, who’s a sucker for anything with meringue, fell hard for the Tarta de Limon, which layers baked meringue with a tangy lemon custard and crisp crust. Chele advised getting all three components in one mouthful, and again, as with the truffle cheesecake, it’s a heavenly combination.
As for the cookies: “My region is a dairy region,” Chele tells us, “so we have a lot of butter, a lot of milk. My aunts used to cook the butter cookies, the simple ones, typically similar to English biscuits.” For Christmas they would add cinnamon and ginger to the butter cookies, so Chef Chele’s Kitchen offers both Traditional Butter Cookies and Ginger and Cinnamon Butter Cookies. “And then Teri’s (cookies are) a little bit more in the American style,” notes Chele.
We asked Teri how she developed her recipes, and she says she did it gradually: “I just have recipes and then it's a pass on, pass on, then I add things, so we have the classic chocolate chip cookies, and then we have the ginger and cinnamon, we also have the chunky chocolate cookies and then the butter cookies.”
When asked if they enjoy baking together, Teri jokes, “Most of the time, away (we fight).”
Whatever their dynamic in the kitchen, these cookies are something else, in particular the Chunky Chocolate cookies, the large chunks of which should delight any chocolate lover.
Welcome to the piled-high club
Less than a week later, Deli by Chele was launched next door at The Podium with a celebration featuring two signature sandwiches: the XL Pastrami and Cochinillo Hero. Chele and co-executive chef Carlos Villaflor joined in a ceremonial slicing of the seasoned roast beef and chopping the cochinillo (with a plate, no less) after the ceremonial ribbon cutting, of course.
If you’ve not tried Chele’s XL Pastrami, it’s a treat: a magnificent deck of juicy brisket, layered with pickles. Even Therese, who steers clear of meat these days, had to indulge.
Indeed, pastrami plays a very big role in Chele’s deli fantasies. His menu contains — count them — six different versions of pastrami sandwich: the classic NY Style Brisket, XL Pastrami, Pulled Pastrami Cheese Melt, NY Pastrami Reuben, Wagyu Pastrami and Triple Pastrami. (Not to mention Pastrami Nachos and Smoked Potato Pastrami Salad.)
Part of his and Teri’s honeymoon was spent exploring New York delis (not a bad honeymoon destination), and Katz’s Deli on Houston St. was an inspiration. “Definitely, yes, we are inspired. But you know, he didn’t have a quest,” he says. “One thing for me, to prove myself, is to learn things — you go to our stores, you see a cold cut, but behind that cold cut is so much artisanal technique.”
Having a test kitchen at Gallery by Chele — especially during the extended lockdown, when his staff needed to stay busy — helped Chele innovate. “It’s a place to develop. We do bread, pastramis, cold cuts, cheeses, preserves, we develop all of these techniques.” One byproduct was a very special pastrami. “One day, it was like okay, we’re starting to open again, let’s do this pastrami sandwich — inspired by Katz’s Deli. That’s why I say Deli by Chele is a combination between a New York deli, then Filipinized with a lot of local produce, and then the Spanish as well. It’s a European-NY-Filipino deli.”
The Cochinillo Hero has another story. “Filipinos look for something sweet, so we match it to the Filipino palate: we do apple jam, apple coleslaw, apple mayonnaise.” Served on a buttery brioche bun with roasted garlic-honey dressing, the crispy pulled pork cochinillo is roasted Spanish-style, from Segovia. “And we call it ‘hero’ because, in Spain during Christmas, the cochinillo is the hero of any Spanish table.”
The two seafood offerings — Feisty Fin Smoked Salmon and Tiger Prawn Roll — are also inspired by chef Chele’s US trips. “I was obsessed with lobster rolls. When we went on honeymoon in US, we stayed there two years. And we tried so many — some very disappointing. I lived in Maine and went to Boston for an event, testing the lobster rolls everywhere.”
Chele’s version features big prawn chunks with celery and aioli sauce in a classic bun. “For me, it’s one of the best I’ve tried. It’s not lobster, but…” The Feisty Fin Smoked Salmon is very fresh, served on a deck of buttery bread with jalapeños for an added kick.
This only scratches the surface of Deli by Chele offerings: the Truffle Cream Cheese Spread is crazy good, the Duck Pastrami is out of this world, and his preserved Octopus Inasal, Mussels in Garlic and Mackerel in Garlic, Paprika and Chili will make any Filipino Noche Buena table sing “Hallelujah.”
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Deli by Chele and Chef Chele’s Kitchen are located on the ground floor of The Podium Mall, 18 ADB Avenue, Ortigas Center, Mandaluyong City. To order online, visit www.delibychele.com, their Facebook or Instagram pages @chefcheleskitchen and @delibychele or Viber message Chef Chele’s Kitchen at (0917) 653-8877 or email Deli by Chele marketing manager Mela Sison-Laxamana at sales@delibychele.com .