The most successful persons, whether in business or in the arts, are those who are truly committed to their craft.
That is the case with Gallery Vask Chef Chele Gonzalez.
He is Basque. Blonde. And has a thick accent.
But I think he now knows more about Filipino ingredients than most Filipino chefs.
Last year, he launched a Kulinarya menu at Gallery Vask.
He introduced beer sea urchin, tripped out guests with GenSan tuna, promoted Philippine Wagyu, shared our love for alugbati and played with various Filipino candies in a sungka.
This year, he upped his game even more.
“When we opened Gallery Vask, I became truly fascinated with Philippine ingredients,” he shared at a four-hands (two chefs collaborating on one menu) dinner with pastry chef Miko Aspiras.
In 2014, he immersed himself in the indigenous communities in Bulacan, explored varieties of Philippine rice, and improved his supplier list, to create a memorable menu at Gallery Vask.
Mindanao-inspired
This year, he explored another dimension of Philippine flavors after immersing himself in Mindanao.
“When I went to Mindanao—to Iligan and Cagayan de Oro—(I noticed that) the Muslim food was full of spices and so different from what I had become used to as Filipino food,” he shared.
So Gonzalez decided to explore the flavors of Muslim Mindanao even more, to “give me more dimensions to my (own) food.”
With Enderun’s Chef See, the man on a mission went to Malaysia to have a taste of the various spices evident in Malaysian food.
“These are Malay flavors but they are also connected with the food of the Philippines,” he argued.
With that explanation, he served a very refined and refreshing Mindanao-inspired appetizer: a bowl of crab with aligue, whose fat was thoughtfully separated so the flavors are elegantly subdued yet still very much present; ornamented with fermented coconut and accented with sprinkles of upo seeds; and for a taste of Mindanao, a sauce made with curry leaves. It was light yet with a bite. Not at all a Filipino dish in any sense of the term yet using all-Filipino ingredients.
Another Mindanao-inspired dish was the one with peas. “This is a very Spanish dish: peas with jamon iberico and egg,” Gonzalez explained. “But the sauce’s ingredients are very Filipino, using malunggay and green Baguio beans.”
And for the Mindanao inspiration, he added sassafras.
Sassafras, as Gonzalez discovered, is a spice in the family of anise.
More importantly, it is a native cinnamon of the Philippines which, Gonzalez noted, you cannot find anywhere else in the world.
Master of deception
In the spirit of Basque culinary ingenuity, almost everything on the menu piqued the guests’ curiosity.
The first item presented, for instance, was a starter plate with two sticks of banana, inspired by the humble banana cue. But bite into it and something oozes out … foie gras mousse.
The collaboration dish was another curious affair.
I thought at first it was champorado because of the brown color of the rice in a bowl. Wrong! It is glutinous black rice, hence the color even if it is not chocolatey-sweet.
In fact, the rice wasn’t sweet at all, even if we associate glutinous rice with sweet Filipino desserts like suman and other kakanin.
Instead, it was savory, made even more so by the bits of Iberico mixed in it.
Atop the black arroz caldo was an egg … that was botched—in a good way.
“We removed some of the yolk and replaced with latik that we made here,” Aspiras explained. A coconut-sweet egg yolk? You better believe it. Another eye trick … you will literally have to crack the egg yolk because its surface was caramelized by Aspiras.
Even the pea dish was deceptive. What you believe to be regular gnocchi made of potatoes is actually an experiment with egg.
Jamming
Aspiras has been inspired by his travels as well. His Jam Plate reflects this. But don’t expect a spoonful of jam distributed around the plate like a painter’s palette. He just has several dots, each a different flavor like passion fruit, mangosteen or guava. This is to be eaten with corn mousse.
Aspiras also gives an ode to the iconic Sorbetero, but with more unique flavors such as Queso Real. But in the spirit of making guests ooh, he offers diners cones blackened using squid ink.
Madrid Fusion
Gonzalez will be giving a talk this Tuesday on Philippine ingredients at Madrid Fusion in Spain.
It will be a proud moment to see him up there, alongside veteran culinary gurus such as Joan Roca, of this year’s World’s Best Restaurant El Celler de Can Roca, making them learn about Philippine ingredients.
The padawan of Arzak and Mugaritz is now a culinary Jedi himself, and his former mentors will be the ones learning from him this time around, as he shares with them the culinary treasures he has found in his new home, the Philippines.
His commitment to his craft is certainly bearing much good fruit.
Gallery Vask. 5th Floor Clipp Center, 11th Ave. cor. 39th Street, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig. 0917-5461673. Open daily for dinner except Mondays. Wheelchair accessible. Major credit cards accepted. Reservations required. Walk-ins may head over to Vask Modern Tapas Bar next door.
Madrid Fusion from Jan. 25-27 will be covered by Inquirer Sunday Biz. Chef Chele Gonzalez will give a talk on Philippine ingredients on Jan. 26. The Philippine Tourism Department will have a booth to promote Madrid Fusion Manila, to be held in cooperation with the Spanish Chamber of Commerce on April 7-9, 2016 in Manila. Updates at the Madrid Fusion page in margauxlicious.com and @margauxsalcedo on Instagram and Twitter.