3 Filipina Chefs in 6-hands dinner

One restaurant, three Filipina chefs, a six-hands dinner — that was the premise behind “Filipinas,” chef Miko Calo’s latest Avec Series event at Restaurant Metronome.

Metronome has always been about collaboration (“avec” means “with” in French) — whether it be with chefs, farmers, producers or artisans — and “Filipinas” was a chance for Tatler Dining Chef of the Year 2022 Calo to team up with two world-class talents: Asia’s Best Female Chef 2016 Margarita Forés of Cibo, Lusso and Grace Park; and World Gourmet Awards Female Chef of the Year 2021 Johanne Siy, who’s based in Singapore and cooks at acclaimed restaurant Lolla.

“It’s exhilarating to be able to collaborate, learn from and share experiences with these two formidable women,” Calo said. “It’s a great start to our year!”

Added Forés, “It has been amazing witnessing the progress that women have made in the professional kitchen over the years. Advancement in business ownership by women today is now much improved in this very male-driven industry. And while we still have a way to go before equality becomes the norm, it’s events like Filipinas that help bring attention to the fantastic work women can do collaborating in the kitchen.”

Siy noted, “Being in Singapore has changed my worldview. It is a global food hub that gives one access to amazing produce from around the world, as well as exposure to different techniques and cuisines. This gives one a deeper appreciation for produce and a desire to really maximize them. In the same way, being away from my birth country makes me want to incorporate more of the flavors I grew up with into my cuisine. Sometimes, it’s only when you get out of the bubble that you realize how beautiful things really are.”

And, last Jan. 17, all 12 courses were beautiful in the hands of these culinary virtuosos.

A tiered trio of snacks was a stellar introduction to the menu, which was inspired by the flavors and textures of home that shaped their culinary perspectives and molded them into the chefs they are today.

“This is the most important course, actually, because this is where we say our thank you to the Singapore Tourism Board for making this event happen,” said Forés.

The first snack was Love Letters, chef Johanne’s love letter to Singapore, a Parmesan crisp enfolding an herb paste made from the leftover herbs in the kitchen of Lolla, according to Forés, who presented all the dishes that night. Topped with alyssum flowers and pansit-pansitan, crunching into this tiny, ultra-refined “taco” was a savory delight. In addition to being a love letter to Singapore, I thought it was Siy’s love letter to flavor.

The next snack was Ukoy from Forés’s home province of Negros. “In Negros we drop shrimp batter into hot oil made with rice flour, gather the crumbs, make it into a little pancake and top it with hibe (dried shrimp), but tonight your hibe is from Korea and on top is gambero rosso — red shrimps from Spain done in a little bit of a tartar kinilaw style, cured with Biasong lime from Mindanao and topped with my most favorite Singaporean flavored sauce, Hainanese ginger sauce, and wood sorrel.”

Ukoy has always been more of a casual comfort snack for me but Gaita has elevated it to Michelin-star heights — lightly crisp and incredibly good, with surprising hits of flavor. I could snack on this all day.

Capping the trio was host chef Miko Calo’s Escargot, snail with vermicelli soaked in laksa broth and topped with ikura roe and coriander flowers.  The laksa was such a heavenly counterpoint to the escargot’s earthy flavors that I slurped it from the shell.  What a new and clever way to laksa.

As a pescatarian I didn’t partake of the sweetbread, pigeon, lamb and lengua courses that night but didn’t get FOMO at all because of the numerous seafood dishes like Crab, chef Johanne’s signature dish made from three kinds of crab: snow crab from Japan, blue crab and aligue paste topped with a paprika-tomato foam. This was a total stunner. I needed a spoon to scoop all the goodness of the big chunks of crab, braised cabbage and couscous pearls in one bite, which yielded amazing smoke, spice, and the clean tanginess of kaffir lime.

Siy’s Huat Ah followed — an auspicious dish to celebrate Chinese New Year because its abalone resembled gold ingots.  One of Metronome’s owners, Elbert Cuenca, served us the mushroom broth accompanying it — intensely flavored with eight kinds of mushroom.

Grace Park’s river prawns have always been a favorite of mine, so I really enjoyed Gaita’s Ulang, Bulacan river prawn basted with butter. “The orange cream is the cream from the head of the prawn, but we also added the head cream from the gambero rosso in the tartar, because those red shrimps have really, really good head cream,” Forés said. “The yellow meal is actually corn and rice tinigib from Negros. So it’s like our version of polenta and I infused it with two Italian cheeses: Piave and Taleggio.”

A red paste on the meat eaters’ plates that looked like sambal was made of etag, meat they smoke with guava wood or mango wood in Sagada to flavor their vegetables. “At least now we have a lot of sources to get it down to Manila,” Gaita said.

Then came the highlight of the night for the pescatarians at the table (which included our very own Cheryl Tiu): a cod dish collaborated on by all three chefs.  “We only collabed this dish tonight,” Gaita admitted. “It’s the sauce of Johanne, the fish of Miko and my pavé. So Miko was very proud because this is the only collab dish.”

Each element of this salt-baked cod with gremolata, sauce Espagnol, onion and herb salad, root-crop pavé and Sakurab pickles was perfectly executed and worked in harmony to produce an exquisite dish that I was truly grateful to the three chefs for creating.

Desserts were Miko’s Roselle, a bowl of pink roselle-raspberry granita, vanilla-coconut espuma and lychee gulaman that tasted as refreshing and beautiful as it looked; and Gaita’s Hojaldres, a confection of pili crust, local figs, smoked kesong puti and candied tomato that transcends its rustic origins to become a fine-dining masterpiece.

While the three Filipinas’ personal dishes showcased their individual brilliance, the fish dish they collaborated on hinted at even greater creations when they put their heads, hearts and six hands together.  I would definitely look forward to that.

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Metronome French Restaurant is located at G/F, The Grand Midori Makati, Bolanos St., Legazpi Village, Makati, tel. 283-5706.  For updates and reservations visit www.restaurantmetronome.com or email info@restaurantmetronome.com.

Grace Park is located at Rockwell Center, Rockwell Drive, Makati, tel. 8843-7275.

Lusso is located at Greenbelt 5, Ayala Center, Makati, tel. 7756-5893.

Cibo is located at Greenbelt 5, Glorietta 4 and Power Plant Mall, Rockwell.

Lolla is located at 22 Ann Siang Rd., Singapore, tel. (65) 6423-1228, or visit www.lolla.com.sg.