To market, to market with chef Ducasse
On the second day of French chef Alain Ducasse’s recent lightning visit to Manila, I met up with a handful of food magazine editors at the Makati Shangri-La Hotel to accompany him to an ocular visit of Farmer’s Market in Cubao. With Ducasse being a firm believer in the importance of quality in ingredients, this visit to the market was aimed at helping him better understand and appreciate our country’s produce and terroir, or characteristics of the land. Though it was not yet the appointed time of 7:30 a.m., he skipped breakfast at Circles, knowing he’d be made to try out some food at the market.
As we got to the hotel’s ramp, three BMWs were waiting for us. A police escort led the convoy to Cubao in a breeze. But once we got to Farmer’s Market, it took a while for us to alight as a milling crowd was blocking the entrance. A fairly large group of photographers, both from print and TV, had their cameras aimed at the first car. It took some time before security was able to clear the way.
On hand to meet us were chefs Margarita Fores and See Cheong Yan of Enderun Colleges. They led chef Ducasse and his assistant Thomas Nommer around the market as we literally followed in their footsteps. Ducasse was impressed with the freshness and variety of the fresh produce and seafood. He tried kesong puti and a newly cooked bibingka by Baluyot Bibingkahan at the dampa section, had a cup of freshly brewed barako coffee at JV’s Coffee Store and chomped on a Negros- style lumpiang ubod from chef Margarita’s aunt Aurora Soler, nodding approvingly as he munched on it.
A Filipino lunch followed at Enderun. Since this was to be Ducasse’s first meal of Filipino cuisine, all eyes were on him to see how he’d find the sumptuous meal prepared by chefs See Cheong Yan and Suzette Montinola (of Cocina de Tita Moning fame). The menu read: “Starters – kilawin, sisig with quail egg, dinuguan with puto, green mango salad; Soup – chicken binacol; Main courses: lechon, bagnet, pinais na alimasag, pinakbet, puso ng saging with coconut milk, fried tilapia; Desserts: guinomis shots, sapin-sapin; leche flan, fried tikoy roll, tsokolate batirol and tanglad tea.
Back in the kitchen, chef Suzette explained how the lunch was planned: “I actually put together the menu for Ducasse. Chef See made his recommendations and alterations. He also had the bagnet, fresh vegetables, and vinegar brought in from Ilocos. The lechon was chef See’s idea and was flown in from Bacolod from Mang Enting (Lobaton) that morning and cooked just outside our receiving area by chef Cyril Ermita. We wanted to work off the idea of terroir as much as possible and source the best local ingredients. We also wanted to do no fusion at all but serve our food the way it is really cooked, the way we enjoy eating them. The recipes were simple, the challenge was more presentation, sourcing, and portioning.
“I teach the lecture portion of an Asian cuisine class at Enderun, and we actually dedicated one session with the students just experimenting on Filipino dishes, which we never had really cooked before just so we were sure to get it right,” continues cchef See. “The preparation itself was done by me, the restaurant staff headed by chef Vanessa Conanan, and the culinary students that had time in between the preparations they were assigned to do for the Ducasse dinner the night before. The service on the day itself was done by the culinary students, Vanessa Conanan, chef See and the restaurant staff.”
Ducasse’s two-day visit solidified his partnership with Enderun Colleges, a state-of-the-art hotel and restaurant school in McKinley Hills and his group, Alain Ducasse Formation (ADF), which focuses on educational projects and partnerships (like that with Enderun) to bring the techniques of global gastronomy to classrooms and kitchens around the world. ADF even determines the curriculum, which means that being an Enderun student is much like studying with Alain Ducasse himself. “What better place than Manila, a city at the crossroads of various influences, to dialog with Southeast Asian cultures that are so rich and so diverse?” Ducasse said about choosing to partner with Enderun, at present his first and only school in Asia.
