GMA Brandtalk
Tracking
Archives
Pop-up dining: An avenue for young chefs and good causes
Since pop-up dining has quietly simmered into a trend in New York and other cosmopolitan cities, we have to ask the inevitable question. Is the Philippines catching up and, like dessert, do we have room for these fleeting dining experiences? Yes. We are almost there, foodies.
The beauty of a pop-up, after all, is its impermanence and unpredictability. It can range from the experimental (such as dining in pitch blackness) to a simple event where a chef takes over another restaurant for dinner.
“It’s a most welcome addition to the thriving and exciting dining scene in the metro, an avenue for chefs to play around with ingredients and even unfamiliar cuisines, and serve them in a manner different from what they used to,” said Angelo Comsti, editor-in-chief of Food and Beverage magazine.
It’s a trend that popped up with the rise of social media and the clamor of foodies who want something more than the usual dinner reservation.
Pop-up dining events also make great avenues to showcase the creativity of chefs and to advocate the causes they care about. For young and up-and-coming chefs, it’s a way to launch and market themselves in a competitive food industry.
Chinese meets South American
There are no rules when it comes to pop-ups, your limit is your imagination. This was what drew Sharwin Tee, chef, TV host and cookbook author, to organizing pop-up dining events.
“I started pop-ups because I can do what I am passionate about without the time commitment of a restaurant. Putting up restaurants takes a lot of planning, capital and business studies, so pop-ups are a great way for chefs with no capital to put up a restaurant, albeit a temporary one, to see if a concept or menu works,” said Sharwin.
After a successful collaboration with The Filipino Kitchen in the US that led to a pop-up called “Isang Araw,” Sharwin followed through here in the Philippines to help non-profit organization AHON (Acts of Hope for the Nation) build public school libraries.
In a recent pop-up event, Sharwin collaborated with Cynthia Patos, a pastry chef who co-owns Naxional South-American Diner in Bonifacio Global City.
Sharwin, who is known for his Asian and Filipino fusion cooking, added South American flavors to his menu. The result is an interesting and exciting mash-up of deliciousness.
First course is a nod to Naxional’s bestselling appetizer, Mexican grilled corn. Adding pork floss and century egg to the dish, which he called Binondo Elote, Sharwin added umami flavors to Naxional Elote’s salty, sweet and spicy flavor profiles.
O-kiam Tostadas are Latin tacos with Chinese o-kiam (fermented tofu). Their strong taste is balanced with sesame slaw and sineguelas achara.
The third course, “Toppings,” came from Naxional’s existing dish, lechon asado, which reminded Sharwin of lechon macau. He retained the structure of the dish and added things he loved as a teenager: Haw flakes barbecue sauce and salted besugo fried rice.
The fourth course was Cynthia’s mango sago cheesecake, an ode to the well-loved Chinese dessert.
Discovering young talents
Meanwhile, the Disciples of Escoffier are going around the world to discover fresh culinary talents to compete in the Young Talents Escoffier 2017. The organization is currently holding epicurean nights to raise funds for the Philippine delegates.
Young Talents 2017 involves eight chefs, 24 years or younger, from China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Macau, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines and Vietnam, who will compete in Hong Kong in September for the semi-finals and the global final in France.
“Epicurean collaboration dinners connects restaurant owners and young talents to learn from each other—the skills, the networks, dishes, and most importantly the transfer of knowledge, which is the main vision of our organization,” said Donatella Chua, secretary general of Disciples de Escoffier's Philippine delegation.
One young chef vying for a slot is Mavis Soliven, who showcased her talent during an epicurean night last month in Grind Bistro. Mavis graduated from Enderun College, interned in a Michelin-starred restaurant in France, and is currently Chef de Partie at Grind Bistro.
In her debut as a chef, presenting to guests from the media and other culinary influencers, Mavis took the opportunity to tell her story.
“The dishes are about my journey, growing up in Zamboanga, to my experiences in France, to the lessons I learned here in Grind Bistro,” she said.
A Zamboangeña, Mavis infuses her dishes with the region's flavors using French culinary techniques. She gave a medium-rare rump steak a Filipino twist by using ube instead of mashed potatoes. The result is a playful plate that was easy on the eyes and delightful in the mouth.
Another of her main dishes was a salmon complemented with curacha bisque inspired by the popular Zamboanga home-cooked dish curacha with alavar sauce. The salmon is coated with coconut ash inspired by a burnt coconut Tausug delicacy called tiyula itum.
Her cheese platter is an ode to Filipino and French seasons, like the Davao blue cheese from Malagos, garnished with langka, mango and pepper corns that represented the Philippine tropical season; and the Spanish goat cheese served with caramelized apple and peppercorns to depict the French winter.
Though young, at only 24 years old, Mavis is determined to push local Filipino ingredients in the international limelight.
“We have all the wonderful local ingredients that we can showcase to the world, and we have amazing talent. I hope someday the Philippines will have our own Michelin stars,” she said.
Besides promoting causes, discovering young culinary talents, what else is in store for the epicurean night or pop-up dining trend? Its “millennial” name says it all: it will just pop up and you, diner, will just have to know where to look. — BM, GMA News
