Diamond Hotel’s Corniche: A favorite meating place

MANILA, Philippines - These days, passionate meat lovers in the metro have a favorite meating place — Corniche at Diamond Hotel, where the all-American feast US Food and Wine Festival is cooking from August 22 to 29. It’s certified all-American food — think big fat burgers and sliders (mini burgers); chunky, juicy pot roast; humongous turkey; barbecue ribs; apple pie and strawberry cheesecake — as only an all-American chef can cook up.

Yup, international chef Christopher Gallaga, a second-generation American-Italian-Mexican, arrived at the height of typhoon Maring to, well, cook up a storm at Corniche. “I can’t compliment the Diamond kitchen team enough for their excellent job despite the flooding, the cancelled flights, etc.,” gushes chef Christopher, probably the most bubbly, friendly, and chatty chef I’ve ever met.

With chef Christopher flashing his magic culinary wand, Corniche has been transformed into a meat lovers’ haven for this all-American food and wine fest. Prominent among these meat delights is the good old, big fat turkey (as the Americans would say, the bigger the better) or what is called “turducken,” deboned turkey stuffed into deboned duck stuffed into deboned  chicken — awesome! “It’s an evolved food, made originally for Napoleon Bonaparte,” says Christopher, who likes to delve into food history. “For Napoleon, they made 18 birds and it was called roast without parallel — one bird stuffed into another.”

American is inarguably the meat capital of the world. “We have the biggest grazing lands,” says Christopher with a hint of pride. “And I grew up in Chicago which is a meat packing hub.  Two things have happened to American meat. First, the US government created USDA, a third-party, meat-grading agency. It’s not like in Australia, where the meat is graded by the breeders. Second, it’s become popular to age meat. US has been aging meat for 200 years now. Aging makes meat a lot more flavorful, a lot more tender.”

At this festival, you’ll also get to meat, up close and personal now, such American iconic table staples such as roast US prime cut steaks, Chicago burgers, Oysters Rockefeller, country cured ham (actually a French Basque dish brought to Southern US, but they use American sugar and local ingredients to enhance the flavor), Southern Fried Chicken, and Maryland Crab Cakes.

Chef Christopher and his all-Filipino team are also cooking his Italian and Mexican specialties. “America has so many cultures and cuisines. At home, we’re a very mixed family. We have Italian, Greek, Irish, French food.”

Christopher adds that he comes from a blue-collar family, nobody is spared from washing the dishes. Because they’re Catholics, they abstain from meat and eat only fish or mac and cheese on Fridays. When he was young and he told his father that he wanted a car, his father told him to work for it.

He thought he’d be a movie star or a rock and roll star. Well, though his childhood dreams did not materialize, he’s now the star of the kitchen and his cooking surely rocks.

It all started with Fat Angelo’s, which Christopher put up with some partners in 1998. We ask him, “Who’s Fat Angelo?” He replies, “It’s just a name we came up with when we were opening our restaurant in Hong Kong. We wanted a name that would sound casual and friendly but Italian. Even  a week before we opened, we didn’t have a name. I was in the kitchen preparing and cooking, and our shareholders asked, ‘Are you really going to call it Fat Angelo’s?’ I couldn’t think of a better name than Fat Angelo’s for family-style, Italian-American food.”

Mention Italian food and pizza comes to mind. “Italians came to America and started making pizza and opening pizza parlors, but Italian pizza was unheard of until America made it famous,” Christopher shares a dash of food history. “And by the 1980s, pizza was probably the most famous meal in the world. And then Naples started saying, ‘Hey, that’s our original food.’ Before, pizza was just street food, not an important cultural thing.”

As for the Mexican immigrants, they brought to America their fajitas and nachos.

Of course, we left plenty of room for the apple and raisin pie, truly fruity, crunchy, and crumbly — not gelatin-y and saucy as most apple pies.  You’re also bound to ask for more of the S’mores graham biscuit, which chef Christopher says was a favorite campfire food when he was a kid.

Certainly, this all-American feast will leave you all stuffed and craving for more.

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Celebrate America’s culinary heritage and enjoy all the classic American dishes for only P1,780 net per person.  Add P495 net and savor your lunch or dinner buffet with a free flow of Beringer wines.

To spice up the celebration, guests dining at Corniche will also get to see the latest Harley Davidson bikes displayed at the hotel’s upper lobby (nope, nobody gets to bring them home).

This food festival is held in cooperation with the US Meat Export Federation, USA Poultry and Egg Export Council, California Raisins, Beringer Wines, and Happy Living Fine Wine.

For reservations at Corniche, call 528-3000 local 1121.