What Annabel Wisniewski learned from Paul Bocuse and Mario Batali

My family loves to eat. And it doesn’t have to be expensive food. I remember some of Daddy’s favorite hangouts would be “hole in the wall” kind of places. My sons’ favorite banh mi place in Vietnam was along the street.

The other day I dined in an eatery just across the Foundation, called One Half Kainan, where many of the employees eat. You can get a good meal for P48. I was impressed with how clean it was. I ordered the langka with gata and thought it was really good!?

My tour guide in Vietnam said the best banh mi ever is the one cooked by his wife. So yes, it’s not the expense that makes the food tasty, it is the dedication one puts into making the food. ?In the same way, some upscale places can also hit a nerve — or the belly — leading one to exclaim, “Yes! This is good.” ?

When I was in Baler, my sons liked the food in Costa Pacifica, in particular the steak. I enjoyed the service so I decided to look up the management company of the hotel, hoping they might be willing to help me with my ecotourism ventures in the islands. That’s how I met Annabel Wisniewski, a Filipina married to a Polish-American. I was surprised to learn she knew my father and actually many members of my family. She graduated from the Hotel Management Program at Cornell University in New York, and that’s where she met her Polish husband, Tom, who laughingly says their children are “Polipino.”?

I was so surprised to see someone so young-looking, given that Raintree has a string of restaurants and very good ones. Annabel has been in the restaurant business for a long, long time. As a young girl, she grew up with her mother’s restaurant, The Bungalow in Ermita. She had a restaurant named after her in San Francisco that was one of the Top 100 go-to places and was featured as the place to go in Gourmet magazine. ?The lady has class. Her restaurants are proof: M Cafe, which my son says is one of the best, and he can’t wait to order the dinuguan again at Kabila, the Filipino attachment beside it. I was surprised to find out that even Chelsea belongs to her. My kids and I love Chelsea Grand Cafe at Serendra. Three weeks ago, they opened Chelsea Kitchen at the Megamall Fashion Hall, which is geared more towards the young.

As of this article I have eaten at Stella in Bonifacio High Street Central, a wood-fired-oven kind of place with great pizza. My son, Benj, had the bone marrow. Roberto had the gindara. I liked their mushroom truffle soup. If you want to be “sinful,” then their Wood-Fired Chocolate Almond Cookie Dough is par excellence. Right beside Stella is Rocket Room, which is more for the young. On Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays the place features DJ music.

Pepperoni pizza, salt-baked gindara, and bone marrow — all available at Stella and Rocket Room

Raintree has a string of about nine restaurants. I must have gone to about half of them. They have a Japanese one, Saboten, which is their only franchise. While eating, Roberto, my eldest, wanted to know Annabel’s favorite restaurant that she doesn’t own. ?She talked effusively about Paul Bocuse. His restaurants are hard to get into because he is a well-known celebrity chef. Through a connection she was able to go to his restaurant outside Lyon, France, in 1998. She said that had to be one of the most incredible meals she ever had. There was the sense that even the string beans were selectively chosen. She humorously related that she heard a bark and was surprised to see a dog sitting on a white Persian carpet eating Paul Bocuse’s food. It is worth noting that even if chef Paul Bocuse wasn’t there, the food was exceptional. Annabel told me the meal cost about $240, which at that time was a considerable amount. ?

Her favorite chef is Mario Batali, an Italian-American living in New York. His restaurants are Babbo, Otto and Eataly. Her statement about him reflects my inclinations about life itself. She said she likes him because his food has soul, and heart — even the casual food has a sense of passion ingrained in it. With every morsel you can feel the love in the food. And that’s every restaurant of his that she has visited. I guess that tells you something about the gentleman.

It was really interesting talking to her. I got insights into how the restaurant business works. It takes about three months for them to come up with a menu. Then there is the arduous task of costing and pricing. She likes to “create” dishes — there is the issue of cost. Her creative spirit has learned to be grounded in market segmentation and the usual elements that come with setting up a business. But, creative spirit that she is, sometimes profit is sacrificed just to be able to come up with something special. Cost is balanced with other items on the menu. ?In all their restaurants they are careful not to be all over the place. Yes, creative — but keeping within the theme of the place. ?

At Stella I met their executive chef Kalel Chan, a product of St. Benilde, homegrown, and very creative. ?It is interesting to hear her reflections on the restaurant business because she has owned restaurants in both the US and Asia. Annabel says Filipino workers are much more loyal than their American counterparts. If the Americans were offered a few dollars more, they would shift. Here they regard their employers as family so the offer would have to be significantly better for them to move.?The chefs in the States can be prima donnas. They cook well but, like most artists, can be temperamental and sensitive.?

Let me end the article with a quote from Annabel on her relationship with food: “I like food, but I like more the creation of food, the artistry of food, how it appears.”

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For information, call, 752-5678 to 80 or visit www.raintreerestaurants.com.

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 I can be reached at regina_lopez@abs-cbn.com.