Everything is brand new!

The International Culinary Arts Academy Cebu (Don Gervacio Quejada St.,Guadalupe,phone 63.32.4125241, 256-0461, www.icaac.net) that is located in a brand new building. ICAAC had a Culminating Dinner for its graduating students and certainly, a brand new menu was designed for this memorable feast. Your favourite food columnist has been present, excuse me, in all these culminating dinners and I have never encountered the same dish served twice. It is also an event never missed by a true gourmet since this institution is constantly reinventing food appearances, flavours and textures.

Theme for 2010 is “An Evening of Asian Influences” where classic cooking techniques are paired with a modern kitchen and applied to Asian ingredients to unveil their wonderful flavours.

The first course was the Asian Style Vegetable Salad with Compressed Watermelon and Honey Mustard Dressing (served with the Prosecco Mirage Brut, Montagner VSAQ Italia). Fresh watermelon contains too much water and compressing means reducing its volume and reshaping to make the fruit more usable. Served with a radish, it was a very refreshing start. 

Hamachi Tartare with Ossietra Caviar & Grilled Pork Buns came next, served with a Prosecco Mirage Brut, Montagner VSAQ Italia. Tartare is the preparation of finely chopped meat or fish (hamachi) and accented with Caviar. Pork buns are definitely Chinese but with a twist, because ordinary siopao completely covers the ingredients while the bun was like an open face sandwich topped with a delicious pork roast.

Third course was the Pan-Fried Divers Scallop with Grated Frozen Foie Gras and Miso Glazed Sweet Corn paired with the Mueller Thurgau del Trentino DOC 2008 Italia. I have never tried frozen foie gras but I have seen the preparation in a video from El Bulli restaurant (best restaurant in the world, 2009), served as a soup. The combination of the scallops with the sweet corn was very tasty indeed.

Soup served was the Pork”Ramen” Consommé. Japanese noodles is usually served in a broth (meat or fish) flavored with miso or soy sauce. In the ICAAC version, consommé was used which gave the soup its very rich taste, though a bit more flavored than usual.

The next dish was very intriguing, Coconut and Black Mushroom Sorbet. Shitakes have an intense earthy aroma and combining it with coconuts to produce a sorbet, very complicated gyud the taste. And indeed, it was; however it was too sweet for its function as a sorbet.

Two dishes quickly followed, the Pan Fried Filet of Hamachi with Saffron & Tropical Fruit Relish (Mueller Thurgau del Trentino DOC 2008 Italia) and the Peking Duck Confit & Roulade of Magret de Canard with Scallion Salad and Hoisin Sauce (served with Lorancy Anjou, AAC France). Confit is a western method of meat preservation by cooking meat with seasonings and submerging it in its own rendered fat. Hoisin sauce is Chinese and gives an interesting flavor to the duck while the scallion salad cuts any gamey residue. This, for me, was the best dish in this marvellous dinner.

The main course was the US Beef Short Ribs “Adobo” Sous Vide with Sweet Potato Gnocchi accompanied by the Dievolino Chianti, DOCG 2007 Italia. This was followed by the Dragon Fruit and Sake Sorbet and finally, whew (10:30 P.M.), the Anis and Pernod Parfait served with Pumpkin Sauce, Purple Yam Chocolate Cone and Hot Cassava Cardamom Turn Over. Very overworked na my taste buds and very complicated pa gyud was this dessert; three-in-one dish plus two fruits, so many taste sensations to dissect and encode. Closing remarks was the Durian Chocolate Truffle & Fresh Wasabi flavoured Sylvanas (accompanying photo, I included the fresh wasabi root).

I could only wish that my beloved readers could accompany me in this culinary journey and if such food was created by these student chefs, I tremble in anticipation on what they can cook when they are Executive Chefs.