MANILA, Philippines — Philippine Airlines unveiled last Friday a brand new menu curated by Chef Vallerie "Val" Castillo-Archer ahead of the company marking its 82nd anniversary this March.
The Ilocos Norte-born Chef Val was the executive chef of the famous Los Angeles restaurant Yamashiro — the first female and first Filipino-American — before she was invited by PAL to create the brand new menu.
Chef Val agreed as she wanted to thank all the Filipinos who helped make her career, this as she first started cooking professionally past the age of 40 and began as a pastry chef.
For the new PAL menu, Chef Val wanted to "capture and tap into everyone's emotions, put all heart into materials," and even coined the dishes as "appetizers to destinations."
The new menu will first be available on business class trips to North America and Australian destinations before other trips, and slowly, the economy food menus of other destinations both locally and internationally will see a gradual change.
One of the changes Chef Val made was giving passengers the option to have soup and a salad, as seen in the Tuna Tataki Salad and the Tiger Prawn Sinigang.
The latter dish was inspired by the chef's grandmother, and Chef Val even shared that while the Sinigang's ingredients are already prepared, the soup will be poured in front of the passengers for that "Instagrammable moment" and its enticing aroma can be smelt from the cabin.
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"PAL now has gourmet food!" is the kind of comment that Chef Val will see from passengers given the fine dining experience and patisserie that the new menu gives.
One of the new main dishes, the Miso Seabass that is marinated for 48 hours, was actually from Yamashiro which allowed Chef Val to include in the new PAL menu, again part of her way of giving back to Filipinos.
Other main dishes include Filet Mignon (with asaparagus, potato puree, topped with Tanduay rum sauce), Truffle Mac and Cheese, Ilocano Cauliflower Adobo in vegan sauce, Tapsilog, Bagel and Lox, Chicken Sausages and Ube Waffles, and Adlai Champorado.
A dish that Chef Val dare not touch was the Arroz Caldo, which she noted is an iconic PAL meal. Instead, another mid-flight refreshment was added in the guise of Corned Beef Hash Pan de Sal Sandwich.
The alcoholic beverage menu also saw a revamping with the inclusion of Louis De Sacy, Grand Cru champagne, two Chardonnays (Beringer and Sterling), two Cabernet Sauvignons (Rawson's Retreat and Sterling), and a number of liquors and beers like Heineken, Asahi, Tanduay Superior Rum, and more.
Cocktails are also available — Mimosa, Buck's Fizz, Screwdriver, Sweet Martini, Dry Martini, and Rob Roy — as well as non-alcoholic drinks in juices, coffee, hot chocolate, and assorted teas and soda.
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