Last October 3, Gallery by Chele welcomed Matthew Sartori to Manila special four-hands dinner with Chef Chele Gonzalez.
These limited engagement chef collaborations in the metro have blossomed into not just a exciting dining experiences for guests with curiouser palates, wanting more and wanting different from the usual Manila dining scene. They have also been a wonderful culinary and cultural exchange among chefs of different countries, cuisines, philosophies, their bearing different ingredients endemic to their homebase. In Chef Matthew's case, he shares his Western Australian ingredients and the cooking philosophy of Wildflower, his restaurant in Perth that presents a farm-and-forager menu celebrating seasonal local produce, and uniquely basing their offerings on the aboriginal Noongar calendar that revolves on six seasons, when certain wildflowers are in full bloom.
“The most exciting challenge of working with native ingredients is respecting their delicate seasonality, but the rewards are endless, allowing you to forge your own techniques without boundaries,” shares Sartori.
Here's a look at the creations the two chefs showcased on the one night only, 8-course culinary engagement:
Prologue
(A refreshing digestif of one element, different stages)
Journey
red snapper, calamansi, thyme, fresh upo seeds, pickled upo meat, cashew nut milk, lemon ginger, kaffir, moringa
crab meat, avocado, roe, fermented broth of whey, jicama, and pear juice
Yogurt, native Australian thyme, and pepperberries, served with chicken sauce
yellowfin tuna belly, Spanish-style escabeche with sherry wine and sherry vinegar, native Australian lemon myrtle, nutty rattan chips
pan-seared Boracay prawns, brown butter emulsion, Australian sandalwood nut and oil, head of prawn jus
pan roasted Iberico pork, sweet potato, Bukidnon carrots, demiglace infused with Australian herbs and spices (Davidson plum, strawberry gum, Australian thyme)
coconut sorbet frozen thin and sliced, topped with salted mangoes (crushed calamansi, salt, sugar), rice cooked in coconut water, cream, and sugar; coconut chip
eclair of glutinous rice mixed with parmesan cheese, jackfruit mousse filling; mungbean paste, latik, latik ice cream
Epilogue
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Gallery by Chele is located at 5/F Clipp Center, 11th Ave corner 39th Street, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig. For reservations or inquiries, visit gallerybychele.com, call 63.917.546.1673; follow Gallery by Chele on Facebook and Instagram (@gallerybychele) .
