Cultural heritage

For starters, there was terrine of foie gras with toasted brioche and pomelo salad, with the suha from Davao of course.

For the main seafood course, butter-roasted local seabass or apahap with cream of cauliflower, the fish sprinkled with powdered tinapa blended with lime from Mindanao.

And for carnivores, Wagyu beef from Bukidnon, served with truffled potato puree.

Obviously, the menu was a fusion of French and Filipino, which was the idea as French Ambassador Nicolas Galey and his wife Camelia hosted a special dinner the other night at the French residence in Makati for a small group to celebrate Gout de France or Good France.

Similar dinners were hosted on the same day by French embassies in some 150 countries, as they have done since the annual event was launched in 2015 by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and renowned French chef Alain Ducasse.

Dubbed the largest dinner in the world, the event celebrates the gastronomic meal of the French, the only one of its kind to be inscribed, in 2010, in UNESCO’s list of “intangible cultural heritage of humanity.”

Gout de France, according to Ducasse, “is where two passions meet: the passion of those who cook and the passion of those who love great cuisine.”

Passion in her work was evident in the night’s chef, Butuan native Miko Calo, who moved to Paris in 2009 for professional training in French cuisine at Ecole Gregoire-Ferrandi and then worked for celebrated French chef Joel Robuchon. Calo was working on the pre-opening of Robuchon’s restaurant in Singapore when she decided to move to Manila where she intends to set up her own restaurant.

Its concept will be the same as the six-course degustation dinner that she served us – combining the technique and discipline of French cuisine with local ingredients and flavors of the Philippines.

Gout de France also involves the participation of restaurants – this year, 3,000 in 150 countries – featuring French cuisine.

From just six restaurants in the Philippines when the event was launched here three years ago, 18 are now participating, including the Eiffel Kubo in scenic Malaybalay, Bukidnon.

Ambassador Galey said the participating restaurants aim to show “that French food is not necessarily complicated or elitist, and inevitably costly. In fact, daily French food can be easy to make, simple, light, affordable but tasty, varied and surprising.”

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The menu at our dinner was not everyday French fare, and the portions were for tasting, not scarfing, the size being (as another guest joked) inversely proportional to the price. But the dinner was excellent, and it’s always a delight to see the continuing efforts of Filipinos to make Pinoy cuisine earn its own distinctive place in the world.

Food is one of the biggest tourism draws of France. The same goes for Spain, Italy, and closer to home, China and Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

Restaurants and travel destinations aren’t the only beneficiaries. Using ingredients produced locally is not only good for ensuring freshness and promoting healthy eating, but also boosts agricultural production and stimulates the local economy.

It’s interesting that chef Miko sourced her beef for our tender carbonnade de boeuf, stewed in San Miguel beer, from Kitayama Farms in Bukidnon, which crossed Wagyu (literally, Japanese cow) and Kobe beef imported from Japan with Pinoy cattle to produce Wagyu beef for the Philippine market at a more affordable price.

Japanese capital Tokyo has beaten Paris as the world’s gastronomic capital for the seventh consecutive year, with a whopping 234 Michelin-starred restaurants, 12 of them with the highest rating of three stars, in the 2018 guide.

During my recent visit to Japan’s northernmost island prefecture of Hokkaido, producers of milk, cheese and other dairy products told me that their emphasis on freshness and local sourcing of ingredients ensured the high quality of their goods, from fresh milk to cheese, LeTao cheesecake and Royce chocolates.

The dairy products, aside from ski slopes and lavender fields during spring-summer, draw large numbers of tourists to Hokkaido, keep farms viable and the local economy strong.

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Our country has produced food items with premium quality, among them fine Malagos chocolate from Davao, Carmen’s Best ice cream and the richest milk (better than Hokkaido’s!) from our native carabao. Genuine sukang Iloko or Ilocos vinegar, which could compete with top-quality balsamic vinegar, should be registered for origin.

I think we have the best mangoes in Guimaras and Zambales and the best garlic, also in Ilocos. Bicol’s pili nut tastes better than almond and deserves better marketing locally and overseas. Cebu lechon, Pampanga tamales, purple rice, ube or purple yam and rice-based desserts, all our fresh seafood plus the preserved items such as tinapa and bagoong or shrimp paste – we have more than enough specialties to earn our place in global gastronomy.

For the sweet ending to our dinner – a rum baba or yeasted cake – chef Mico used Don Papa rum, developed from Negros sugarcane by a former executive of French giant Remy Cointreau.

It’s true that the way to a person’s heart is through the stomach, and a good meal is always a good way to promote friendships.

As Ambassador Galey put it, quoting from French bishop and diplomat Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand, “there is no good diplomacy without a good cuisine.”

Bon appétit.