Bay Area Pinoy chefs cook up a benefit dinner
Emmanuel George Santos knew what to do when he was asked to create a menu for Bistro Luneta, a venture by Jon and Janet Guanzon to serve upscale Filipino cuisine in San Mateo, California. Today, the two-year-old Bistro Luneta is a landmark in the Bay Area for those looking for a sophisticated Filipino dining experience.
The culinary map of San Francisco and the Peninsula was already dotted with the stars of Filipino executive chefs like Kelly Degala of Pres a Vi, Jennie Lorenzo of Fifth Floor, Tim Luym of Poleng Lounge, and Santos of Bistro Luneta. Jeffrey San Diego, owner of Red Lantern, also volunteered to help out in the event. Red Lantern’s executive chef, Daniel Sudar, though Indonesian by birth, has mastered the complex and layered flavors of Filipino cuisine.
“At first we were not sure if we could really gather all these five incredibly talented and extremely busy Filipino chefs in one place and make them work together to come up with a dining event to remember,” said Maria Banatao, AF USA special events chair.
The top Filipino chefs all agreed to take part in benefit dinner for AF USA, a recognized 501c3 tax-exempt organization that acts as a channel of funds from overseas Filipinos and other US-based donors for social development programs in the Philippines.
The event, held at the residence of AFUSA chairman Diosdado Banatao in Atherton California, was dubbed “Filipino Bytes: Celebrating the Pleasures of Filipino-Inspired Cuisine.” The name was derived from a play of the words that referred to one of AF USA’s banner programs, GILAS (Gearing Up Internet Literacy and Access for Students), which aims to connect all public high schools in the Philippines to the Internet.
The chefs turned old Pinoy favorites into inventive culinary masterpieces such as grilled homemade tocino and longanisa glazed with annatto-cilantro oil; fresh oyster shooters with gazpacho; maki made from milkfish, tomatoes and salted duck egg; and pinakbet made from baby Filipino eggplant, okra, bitter melon, summer squash, spicy bagoong, crispy tamarind pork belly, and prawn salt. Guests chose from a variety of delectable desserts such as ube tapioca with a touch of mango-infused basil seeds; crème caramel custard with coconut tuille; and almond-olive cake with yuzu crème.
Lorenzo, Luym, and Santos were born in Manila; Degala was born and raised in Hawaii; while Sudar was born and raised in Central Java, Indonesia. The chefs share a global perspective on cooking. Degala cooked with Tom Douglas and has received four-star reviews for menus that reflect Pan-Asian influences. Twenty-nine-year-old Luym received his French training at Charles Nob Hill under Melissa Perello and was named a Rising Star Chef by the San Francisco Chronicle in 2007.
Lorenzo worked at Chicago’s Blackbird Restaurant then at London’s Mirabelle. She was part of Gordon Ramsay’s team when he received his first three-star Michelin rating and she worked at the Michelin two-star Ryugin in Tokyo before returning to Fifth Floor as executive chef. San Diego, a graduate of the California Culinary Academy, was sous chef at Viognier, executive chef at Aramark, and catered at Hollywood sets. Red Lantern is his first restaurant and, with Sudar, brings homestyle Southeast Asian cuisine to Redwood City’s community. Santos, a graduate of hotel and restaurant management from the University of Sto. Tomas, did his externship in Zurich, Switzerland.
The event raised more than $50,000, part of which will fund the operations of AF USA. Around 120 guests attended the event, including prominent members of the Filipino-American community such as the Philippine consul-general from San Francisco Marciano Paynor, Jr., Lyn Hess, Offie Maristela, Michael Balaoing, Joe Lumarda, Greg Macabenta, and Denny Roja. Ayala president and chief operating officer Fernando Zobel de Ayala and AF USA Victoria Garchitorena were also present.
