Here, at the onset of 2006—after another year of tedious eating, cooking, research, analysis, writing, photography, publication and planning… and with trying to know and inform everything about food to the Philippine gourmet readership—TASTE of the Manila Bulletin realizes one thing that will, perhaps keep us going… we come to the conjectures of truthful service and satisfaction of good appetite on newsprint. We are blessed with food and cuisine, no matter how complicatedly expensive it may be (from soups a la celestines, steaks of filet d’ boeuf a la perigueux, countless entremets, entrees as grilled sea bass a Italienne, Chicken a la Maquignon to as simple as a crispy fried tilapia with steamed rice from Nueva Ecija, served with hiniwang hinog na kamatis with fish sauce or mashed itlog na maalat.)
On TASTE, we respect both what’s invented out of poverty (as the mousses of classical France, meringues in all its exquisite simplicity, farmer’s country fries, even the Swiss Cheese Fondue,) and what’s served to kings and presidential dinners as Regent Dishes with princely values—like turtle Madeira soups, Salmon in Champagne, Capons with béchamel, and orange fromage bavarois—without neglect on the other.
Our judgment on good cuisine roots from the basics of how a human being should respect food—
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TASTE EDITOR CHEF GENE GONZALEZ
AND SON CHEF GINO | | that we should not eat to simply survive—not eat to live but also live to eat—the way how masters, kings, chefs, grandmothers, rich, poor, royalties, servants, and gourmands fancy the life of food… food of life.
We do adhere with the sciences of the culinary arts—of Vatel, Savarin, Careme, Lady Morgan—through master gastronome Chef Gene Gonzalez of the Center for Asian Culinary Studies, and the responsibility of gourmet literature with a sense of journalistic balance for the readers through our gourmand boss, Emilio Yap III (Manila Bulletin Vice President for Advertising.) Both of them stress that we should not just respect an amazingly cooked dish, but also the one who cooked it.
Every Wednesday (like today,) with our best resources, we try to publish what’s happening here and around about the Philippine food scene: gastronomique anthropology; food styles; cooking techniques; restaurant trends; old and new cookeries; traditional and modern viands; ingredient sources; and recipes.
We give high tribute to the cooking of Careme de Paris, as how he changed everything about haute cuisine, but we do not neglect the efforts of Ma Mon Luk when he invented the Tai Pao and the Mami as how they changed and continue to change the Philippine eating life, to simply marry the woman he loved. Yet, we also pay a little bit of thanks to our conqueror’s—through the culinary demographics of Pinoy histography—when emperors commissioned Pacific voyages to acquire spices for their banquets, grand soirees, and imperial coronations. It was not religion. It was not gold… but spices to flavor Royal dishes of the West.
Diana Galang of the National
Historical Institute notes: "to determine the vastness of a kingdom is to taste the exotic spices of the East in a regal dish… the more colonies, the more flavorful the cookery of a royal banquet."
Much so, we are who we are because of what our ancestors ate.
Before, when the Cordon Bleus of France where at the verge of extinction after the execution of Queen Marie Antoinette after she had Vermicelli Soup and Bouillon D’ Escargots et de Grenouilles, a revolution took place that changed France forever. A big part of this revolution was shaped by food and the people’s rights on food. Back then when gastronomy was a cult, and when buffet was passé due to the now famous service a la russe, respect on what was put on the table was given. No matter how simple or extravagant.
Now, here in the Philippines, TASTE of the Manila Bulletin recognizes a silent cultural revolution—stirred by the inevitable force of poverty and government extravagance—it is the revolution of the Pinoy chef and the revolution of Philippine cuisine as envisioned by cookeries of Chef Gene Gonzalez (TASTE Editor) as early as 1984.
Whether we like or not, this revolution exists and we are all part of it.
2005 is happily gourmet-ish—telenovelas are about chefs and food, events and corporate promos soar with cooking and cuisine, everybody wants to be a chef—but the point of saturation will be noticeable only on 2006. (As a personal assessment) the coming year will be bursting with gastronomy, restaurants will boom and die, dishes will be reinvented, panacotta will grace back our restaurant tables, cheesecake will be common, meringues will be regarded again as a sweet house staple that even children will create, rotisserie will be a hit, buffets will be so famous it’ll be passé, the oriental hot pot will boom, culinary schools will mushroom everywhere—but, 2006 will also be the turning point when the probable Philippine F&B and restaurateuring (and the trateurs) will begin their steady decline.
The restaurants and chefs who will survive 2006, will survive it far, for good.
The dishes that will popularize this coming year will be indicatory of what the modern Philippine cuisine will be.
TASTE of the Manila Bulletin—with the gastronomique anthropologies of Diana Galang’s Culturefront, Iris Sasing’s Cebu Food Coverages, Ann Kuys Restaurant Reviews, My Basic Gourmet and Gastrologue of Jeremy C. Malcampo, Chef Gene Gonzalez’s Master Class column, JunJun De Guzman and Adoree Uy’s Baking 101, Chef Gino Gonzalez’s Salvage Page and product analysis, and Chinese culinary contributions of Joseph Tanchee—recognizes this revolution…
That’s why, today…
WE UNITE.
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