MANILA, Philippines - In an exclusive village somewhere in Makati, I imagine an expat is enjoying a dish of freshly cooked lumpiang hubad, which his house cook so lovingly prepared. I say I imagine because I really don’t know for sure. What I’m sure about is what I overheard at the live cooking demonstration of Philippine STAR’s EAT Dining Festival — held recently at Bonifacio High Street at the Bonifacio Global City — the last stop in its tour of the Ayala Malls. A cook was telling her companion that her boss loves vegetable dishes, and he would surely like this. So there she was, listening intently to chef Claude Tayag as he explained and demonstrated how to prepare that favorite Filipino dish, fresh lumpia, four ways.
“I want to show the flexibility of the dish,” Claude explained. “It is healthy, economical, and you can easily do it at home. You can use whatever vegetables you want.” Naturally, present are the usual suspects: Baguio beans, cabbage, carrots, and bean sprouts. You can add garbanzos and strips of tokwa or bean curd.
Chef Claude’s advice is to fry the tokwa lightly so it does not crumble when mixed with the vegetables. Some vegetables cook longer than others, he points out, so cook first those that take longer and add last those that can be eaten raw, like carrots. He himself adds the bean sprouts after the heat has been turned off.
Assisted by student-chefs from the Magsaysay Center for Hospitality and Culinary Arts, Claude demonstrated how to plate the lumpiang hubad. Place some lettuce leaves in a salad bowl. Put in a ladleful of the lumpia mix. Pour some sauce over it and top with ground peanuts and cilantro leaves. He likes to use the spicy hot peanuts sold in foil packs to give the dish an extra kick.
For the lumpiang sariwa, you can use store-bought lumpia wrapper made of flour, or the crepe-like wrapper made with eggs. The crepe wrapper recipe can be found in the Kulinarya coffee-table cookbook, which chef Claude co-authored.
When preparing the fried lumpia or spring rolls, the roll should be tight, he says. Use gawgaw, or starch, to seal. “This can be a home-based business,” Claude suggests. The uncooked spring rolls can be stored in the freezer for weeks. It will not spoil, but the flavor may diminish.
Chef Claude’s deconstructed fresh lumpia was named STAR Lumpia Tower for Philippine STAR’s EAT Dining Festival to celebrate the country’s leading newspaper’s 25th anniversary. “You will not find this in any cookbook,” Claude says. Start by individually frying some square wonton wrappers. Place on paper towels and set aside until needed. Arrange some lettuce leaves to form a circle and ladle in some lumpia mix. Top with a wonton crisp. Repeat to make another layer. Place another wonton crisp on top and a cooked shrimp. Sprinkle with crushed peanuts, and garnish with a cilantro sprig. “You can serve the sauce on the side so the veggies don’t wilt,” he adds.
For his second dish, Tayag shared his original recipe for Claude’s Dream, the popular buko-pandan salad using buko juice boiled with pandan leaf instead of plain water in the preparation of the gulaman. You can also add condensed milk or all-purpose cream, and serve with macapuno ice cream for a truly rich and delicious Filipino dessert.
For chef Claude, “cooking is just like child’s play.” He is in his element when he is cooking, he says.
Food is special. It reminds me of family,” says chef Tristan Encarnacion, son of the famous celebrity hairdresser, Jun Encarnacion. “Meals bring us together. It is a tradition.”
Chef Tristan’s first dish on the second day of the EAT Dining Festival live cooking demonstrations at Bonifacio High Street was an appetizer. For the Asian infused tuna, the chef used fresh sashimi-grade tuna. The ingredients, which include avocado, lime, siling labuyo, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, gata or coconut cream, cilantro, sesame oil and sesame seeds, combine to give the dish its distinct Asian flavor. Serve on toasted bread.
For his second dish, chef Tristan explored another part of the glob
Tristan likes interacting with his audience during his cooking demos. The EAT Dining Festival’s live cooking demonstrations, which were held every weekend from July to September in the Ayala Malls nationwide, gave him the opportunity to do just that. “People learn a lot from events like this,” he says. He thinks it would be nice if it could be held yearly.
Filipino audiences are the most engaging; they ask questions,” says chef Bruce Lim, who gives cooking demonstrations not only here but also in other Southeast Asian countries. “Cooking demos give the audience a peek into how the brain of a chef works. Different chefs have different mindsets.”
Chef Bruce, who was born and raised in the US, studied at Le Cordon Bleu in London. He came to the Philippines “to trace his roots and get inspiration from native Filipino cuisine.” His number-one influence, he says, is his grandmother, who hails from Dau, Pampanga. In his TV show, Tablescapes, which airs on the Asian Food Channel, he tours different regions in the country, from whence he draws inspiration for his new dishes.
For his cooking demonstration on the last day of the three-day weekend event at Bonifacio High Street, Lim shared three original recipes: prawn mango salad with tinapa vinaigrette, calamansi tuyo spaghetti, and Ilocano Table on a Plate.
“Tinapa is a common breakfast item that Filipinos like to eat with fried rice,” he observes. For his prawn mango salad recipe, tinapa flakes are mixed in the vinaigrette. Bruce likes to use all-Filipino ingredients while applying French and other Western cooking techniques.
“You will not find any Western herbs in my pantry,” he says. “Modern Filipino” is what he calls his cuisine.
The calamansi tuyo spaghetti recipe was inspired by his 11-year-old nephew Dooey, who lives in California. “He loves the bottled tuyo, which I bring for him whenever I visit,” chef Bruce relates. He uses the tuyo oil right out of the bottle, as well as tuyo flakes for the sauce. The recipe also calls for the use of calamansi juice and rind.
“My brother has a lemon tree growing right in his backyard in California,” Lim shares. He uses the juice from freshly picked lemon to cut through the strong tuyo flavor.
His “Ilocano Table on a Plate” recipe is a tribute to his grandfather, who is Ilocano. To demonstrate how to prepare his innovative version of the familiar monggo bean soup, chef Bruce uses a Cuisinart soup maker. The versatile tabletop appliance, which looks like your ordinary blender, can sauté, boil, simmer, and blend your favorite soups, as well as whip up homemade cocktails and smoothies.
“It is very convenient,” Bruce says.
The mung bean puree serves as a bed for the pan-seared lapu-lapu fillet topped with blanched kamote and kangkong tops drizzled with a vinaigrette made of Balayan bagoong, sukang tuba, roasted tomato oil and cracked pepper. This is the type of unexpected Filipino dish you will find at Chef’s Table, the restaurant created by Lim located at The Infinity Tower in Bonifacio Global City. Another original creation by the amiable chef is the Chill-a-Fino, steamed Señora lapu-lapu on a bed of savory ube mash with roasted garlic.
“It is every chef’s dream to have his own restaurant,” says chef Bruce. Chef’s Table just turned one year old. Every day, he thinks up something new to create. It might turn out to be “a masterpiece or a piece of crap.” He never stops learning, he says. He enjoys what he’s doing. Doesn’t that also sound like a recipe for a life well-lived?