Chef Ed Quimson lives for glorious food

Ed Quimson must have taste buds embedded in his mind. "I dream of a new dish and I know exactly what it will taste like even before I determine the ingredients that will go into it," he says.

In this sense, he is not unlike a musician who carries notes in his head. More particularly, he is very much like a jazz musician who likes to improvise.

Quimson has always been known for his clever way of mixing ingredients to come up with unique dishes in unusual combinations. At Chef Ed’s, his newly-opened restaurant located along H.V. De la Costa St. in Salcedo Village, Makati City, has a unique menu written in elegant longhand with gold ink on the reverse side of illustration boards and is more than just a list of courses and house specialties – it is a seduction.

Consider these:

First course: Lamb caldereta samosas, grilled mushroom cappuccino, cream of monggo with triple tomatoes, tinapa, mozzarella and Laguna cheese pizza, and steak tartare, prepared table-side.

Second course: Fresh Norwegian salmon marinated tocino-style on a bed of vegetable sinigang, broiled boneless chicken marinated in Kahlua-pineapple juice, and lamb tenderloin marinated in guava jelly and coffee.

House specialties: Chef Ed’s paella, baked fish in rock salt with olive oil, deep-fried baked suckling pig, and kare-kare ("My lola’s recipe," he says).

It can happen that you can get lucky to have chef Ed whip up, on the spur of the moment, a dish not listed in the menu, like an improvised risotto using local grains, or maya-maya fillet in truffle oil.

If you are one of those whose meal is not complete without dessert, at Chef Ed’s, you will not be disappointed. Chocolate fondue, pandan mango with chocolate icing, vanilla-choco chiffon filled with chocolate ganache, strawberry soup infused with basil, or layered mango flan. You choose your sugar.

One cannot be too careless about putting a label on Chef Ed’s, although the tag on the sign outside the restaurant says "cosmopolitan cuisine." With his overactive imagination, Quimson can easily modify, add or even change his menu when the spirit moves him. Not yet a week after its formal opening, he was already talking about adding 50 new appetizers to the menu.

Chef Ed runs a tight ship. He exacts excellence not only from his staff, both in the kitchen and in the dining room, but also from his suppliers. The jumbo prawns, for example, should be a specific number of pieces per kilo. He will not hesitate to call the attention of an assistant should his voice be heard a decibel above the normal buzz, and intruding into the relaxed ambience of the dining room. The lights cannot be too bright, nor the air conditioning too cold. No detail escapes him.

He is as exacting on himself as well. Even after a quintuple heart bypass, he manages to pack his days, starting with early morning mass daily.

The restaurant is open for lunch and dinner. He is hands-on in the kitchen.

"If I delegate the cooking, then I cannot call my restaurant Chef Ed’s anymore," he says.

Of the many things his doctors have asked him to abstain from, perhaps he can only comply with them that he quit smoking. "How can I remove the salt, sugar (he is diabetic) and fat from my diet?" he laments. "That’s not living."

For chef Ed Quimson, his life is all about food.

"It is with deep gratitude and respect that I dedicate my career and restaurant to the four women in my life," he adds. He points to a plaque displayed in his restaurant: "Rosario Wolff, for exciting my taste buds at a very young age, Betty Gonzalez Quimson, for teaching me cooking styles and techniques, Consuelo Tuason de Casas, for showing me the world, and Doreen Fernandez, for sheer inspiration."

Rosario Wolff was the mother of his mother’s best friend. When he was a child, he would go to her house after school to watch her at work in the kitchen.

"Eddieboy," chef Ed remembers her saying, "today, we’re going to make huevos gulo-gulo." That’s scrambled eggs for you and me.

When he was about 10 years old, his mother, Betty Gonzalez Quimson, showed him how to chop without looking. "She’d be chopping and she’d be looking straight at me." He learned the trick and, one day, he blindfolded himself and showed his mom that he could chop onions without cutting his fingers.

When he was older, his lola, Consuelo Tuason de Casas, who was living in Madrid, sent him money so he could enroll in a culinary school. Instead, he toured and worked in the kitchens of Europe where his natural talent was honed.

When the late Doreen Fernandez, respected writer, food critic and gourmet, was in her sick bed, chef Ed brought her piping hot, homemade chicken soup. After taking the first sip, he relates, the gracious lady sighed, "Ang sarap!"

If we should believe what a wise man once said, that the discovery of a new dish does more for human happiness than the discovery of a new star, chef Ed Quimson, with his original and innovative culinary creations, must be credited for contributing a truly large chunk to human happiness on the face of this planet.