Crashing in Coron with the island chefs

Chefs Patrick Dimapilis and Oliver Isidro are living the life that most Metro Manila-weary employees can only dream of: living on a beautiful island, having a lovely view of a glorious sunset daily, hying off to the beach just a few strides away, and with paychecks at that!

Besides, when it comes to culinary inspirations, you can never go wrong with Coron, practically a paradise located at the northern stretch of Palawan, blessed with a rich marine life, flora and fauna, azure seas, and a magnificent landscape. 

 

“I love the fact that in here, there’s no traffic. It’s quiet and stress-free and I’m loving it,” Chef Oliver shared in an interview recently at Two Seasons’ Sulo Restaurant.

 

Like Chef Oliver, Chef Patrick has only been on the island for three months, in time for the opening of Two Seasons Island Resort in Malaroyroy, Bulalacao Island. Just a mere 40-minute speedboat ride away from Coron town proper, Two Seasons formally opened to the public last January 25. 

 

Working as chefs in an island might seem like a grand vacation for most people, but both chefs attested that the pressure in the kitchen is just like any other. 

 

These seasoned island chefs share their culinary journey and of course, what they’ve got on their plate as the newly appointed chefs of an upscale island resort.  

 

A Kapampangan lineage

 

Chef Patrick was in high school when his mom noticed the boy preferred hanging out in the kitchen instead of the living room, where most kids his age live out the couch potato lifestyle, channel-surfing the whole day.

A Kapampangan, Patrick’s mother was his culinary hero, their family’s executive chef who whips up the most sumptuous dishes day after day. 

 

“Biggest influence ko ang Mom ko. As a teenager, I’d imitate the dishes that she makes. And after a while, nakuha ko na 'yung tamang timpla and 'yung tamang lasa.”

 

Chef Patrick shared the dish he was most fond of when he was a kid: a very humble and simple vegetable dish.

 

“Oyster sauce lang na pechay na maraming garlic. Pero sarap na sarap ako.”

 

After high school, Patrick knocked on the doors of every restaurant in Manila, hoping to work as an assistant to the chefs. But no one would hire an inexperienced 18-year-old. 

 

So he worked as a waiter at a well-known American food restaurant, where he tried to learn about cooking with every peek in the kitchen. 

 

In 2003, Patrick enrolled at the Center for Asian Culinary Studies owned by Café Ysabel’s Chef Gene Gonzales, who eventually became his mentor.

 

After stints in various restaurants in Manila, Patrick received a call and a job offer from Chef Gene who is the culinary consultant of Two Seasons. From being a sous chef, Chef Patrick was promoted to executive chef of the Boracay resort, known for its modern cuisine.

 

By the time he got assigned in Coron, Chef Patrick was already used to the island life. 

 

“Sanay na ako kasi I’ve been in Boracay for five years already. I do get homesick sometimes, but I have friends na din naman in Boracay.” 

 

Western-Japanese cuisine 

 

While Two Seasons in Boracay serves eclectic fusion dishes like truffle pizza and oyster sisig, Two Seasons Coron is offering a Western-Japanese menu. 

 

“The restaurant owner wanted this kind of cuisine since market niya ang Japanese tourists,” Chef Patrick said. 

 

There’s the kani salada, which is rice noodles with wasabi dressing mixed with crab sticks and nori strips, placed in a cocktail cup for a lovely presentation.

The mushroom soup uses three kinds of mushroom cooked three different ways: pan-seared button mushrooms, fried shiitake, and poached straw mushrooms swimming in a lather of frothy corn foam.

 

And as far as the perfect marriage of Western and Japanese goes, the lamb loin wrapped in nori with foie gras in red wine and teriyaki sauce is definitely a shoo-in.

 

Lately, Chef Patrick has been studying molecular gastronomy and promises to infuse the culinary physics' techniques to the menu.

 

And not only for savory food, but with desserts as well. 

 

“An example is the baked cheesecake I turned into ice cream. The jelly is made of roasted bell pepper so I put gelatin. And 'yung isa naman is peach and orange,” Chef Patrick added. 

 

The chef with the wanderlust 

 

Like Chef Patrick, Chef Oliver realized he wanted to become a chef as early as his teens.

“Talagang hilig ko na magluto ever since I was a kid. My aunt owned a bakeshop, as in panaderia lang, and I would spend all my free time and even my Holy Week there,” Chef Olie, as what his colleagues fondly call him, shared. 

 

The busy, sleep-deprived “panaderos” would shoo him away, asking Olie to go home or finish his homework, but transfixed, Olie would continue to stare at the rising dough in the oven.

 

After high school, Chef Olie started his string of culinary adventures, beginning with studying pastry arts at the New York Restaurant School for two and a half years. 

 

“I was 17 years old, living alone and working nights in the Zoe Restaurant in Soho. It was difficult pero ‘yun ang ginusto ko.”

 

After going back to the Philippines for a while to take care of a family restaurant that has since closed down, Olie caught the wanderlust bug and decided to travel around the world and learn as much as he could. 

 

He became sous chef at the Savoy Hotel in London, training under the famous Chef Gordon Ramsay himself. 

 

Asked if he ever was at the receiving end of Ramsay’s infamously short temper, Chef Olie answered, “Yes, nasigawan niya ako over a mistake. But it was nothing, he was just being professional.”

 

After his stint at Savoy, he worked on a United Kingdom island called Tresco for three years, went back to the Philippines, and then traveled again for two years. 

 

He finally went back home when he was offered the pastry chef position at Two Seasons Coron.  

 

Chef Olie said, “No matter how far I’ve gone, there is still no place like home.”

 

Sweet tooth

 

The cuisine at Two Seasons may be predominantly Western-Japanese, but as far as desserts go, Chef Olie has a free hand. 

 

“Since this is an island, more on tropical and cold desserts, because you don’t want to eat hot food. Something light as well.”

 

This included a display of dainty and colorful macarons de Paris, chocolate truffle cakes, mango and ube cakes and chocolate chip cookies. 

 

And as if a whole table full of desserts in not sinful enough, each room in Two Seasons is provided with a plate of chocolates and cookies to satisfy midnight or midday sweet tooth cravings.

For his trio of ice cream concoction, Chef Olie incorporates a local ingredient, Coron cashew, with the salted caramel ice cream. The diner is treated to two more kinds of ice cream: wasabi ice cream with umami dust, and brown butter bacon ice cream with a real strip of crunchy bacon, plated in a very organic and creative way—where else but on a frozen, beautifully irregular rock?

 

Chef Olie is also set to serve more sweet creations at Two Seasons like frozen chocolate moose balls covered in tempered chocolate, red velvet Kahlua cakes, and handmade chocolates flavored with siling labuyo, green tea, and Coron cashew crunch. 

 

“Desserts have to be a feast to the eyes,” Chef Olie said, sharing what makes creating desserts challenging every day. 

 

And like any pastry chef I meet, Chef Olie loves to make desserts, but would pass on the sweets on any given day. 

 

“Every day that’s what I see na eh. So I prefer salty food.”

 

But if ever he does get stranded on an island and if ever God allowed only one dessert to be sent near the shore, what dessert would he want?

 

“Simple lang. I will be happy with an ice cream drumstick.” —KG, GMA News