By CJ Juntereal It’s been a great first quarter of 2018 for the food scene—lots of movement among chefs, new restaurants opening, lots of special wine and food launches—and a bit of a struggle for me to keep up with everything. My spirit is willing, but eventually, my stomach gives up. I did make it a point to meet two new chefs this past month though. The first is the new executive chef of the Raffles and Fairmont Makati, Anne-Cecile Degenne. In a local culinary industry dominated by men, she is the first female executive chef of the hotel, and also the first among the international five-star luxury properties in Metro Manila. I can’t think of a better way to welcome International Women’s Month this March. Degenne’s outward appearance (she is tall, slim, and charming) belies what must be a spine of steel and laser-focused determination to get her to where she is today. She is from Bordeaux, and began at the one-star Michelin restaurant Campagneet Gourmandises in Biarritz. Her career has led her to executive chef positions in luxury properties such as the Eden Rock Hotel in St. Barthelemy, the MGallery Hotel Des Arts in Vietnam, and the So Sofitel Singapore where she was also the country’s first female executive chef. In Vietnam, her work helped the Hotel Des Arts win a 2016 World Luxury Hotel Award in the Luxury Business Hotel for Asia category. We were introduced to Degenne at the Owner’s Lounge of the Raffles, at an exclusive Chef’s Table lunch that showed off her particular culinary style—elegant, with an emphasis on products and their flavor, and a talent for combining the local ingredients she come across with classic French techniques. It’s a style that perfectly suits the hotel’s calm and elegant luxury, and that airy, indulgent feeling that floats through the rooms. The five-course lunch started with Lobster Salad, with slices of mango, dabs of Thai green curry, and tiny basil leaves lending summer freshness to the poached lobster. The second course was simple and straightforward, as the chef let the ingredients speak for themselves. A slab of seared French foie gras that was perfect just as it was, until tart raspberries lent a counterpoint to keep my taste buds from being overwhelmed by all that lush fat, and crisp buckwheat crackers added texture. The dish was her homage to her childhood in France, where her mother would often cook buckwheat, and Bordeaux was just an hour or two away from the Perigord, home to the best foie gras. A fish and a meat course followed. Crisp skinned Emperor fish on top of creamed fennel, with a butter emulsion scented with truffles and clam juice. The meat, a fat marbled Australian Wagyu Striploin was served with tiny croutons that had been fried in wagyu fat, and demi-glace that had been finished with balsamic vinegar. It was a surprising addition, but Degenne reasoned that the balsamic vinegar cut through the fat marbled within the steak. Degenne says that her favorite local ingredient is buko, and I look forward to seeing how she would use it, but in the meantime her Calamansi Meringue Tart served with Calamansi Ice Cream is something I would recommend to anyone who loves citrus. The chef is already working with Mireio’s new French chef de cuisine to redo the restaurant’s menu. The restaurant will remain an upscale brasserie serving Mediterranean and French Provençal food. Her plans for Spectrum include a much-needed update—Indian and Chinese stations, and more live interaction stations such as risotto and Caesar Salad prepared on the spot. Over at City of Dreams in the meantime, the luxury Crown Towers has been rebranded as Nüwa, and after being closed for a year, the old Tasting Room has a new location and a new French chef de cuisine. Chef Frederic Thevenet looks like a rock star with his hair slicked back into a ponytail, and an all black chefs outfit. He brings with him a rather impressive culinary background that includes work in some pretty fine Michelin-starred restaurants in France and the United Kingdom. These include Pierre Gagnaire in Paris, Restaurant Bruno in Provence, and The Waterside Inn in London. Thevenet’s last posting was at Pierre Gagnaire’s La Maison 1888 at the DaNang Sun Peninsula Resort in Vietnam. I think it’s safe to bet that bringing in a team composed of a chef with Michelin-starred experience, and restaurant manager Stephen Moroney who worked with him in DaNang, is City of Dreams’ way of letting people know that they are seriously targeting a Michelin star for The Tasting Room. Moroney matches Thevenet’s experience, having played an integral role in the pre-opening success of the three Michelin-starred restaurant Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester in London. Aside from ensuring top-notch service and quality, he is responsible for curating the restaurant’s selection of over 200 wines, and doing the Wine Pairing. Thevenet’s approach to French haut cuisine infuses Asian ingredients and uses the best seasonal produce from the Philippines and abroad. His standards for consistency and quality are exacting, and he searched for two months before finding the quality of beef that he wanted to serve in the restaurant. Aside from importing 30 percent of his ingredients from France, Thevenet makes it a point to use local flavors. “I am learning every day about local produce,” he explained. “I made research before coming here, and saw the diversity of your produce.” He has also eaten his way through quite a lot of Filipino dishes, pointing out that he likes the Filipino food that moms cook better than what he eats in restaurants. Some of the Filipino ingredients he has eaten have already made their way into his menu, including local banana ketchup that he turned into a palate cleanser for the restaurant’s Valentine’s Day menu. The pale pink ice cream, sprinkled with pink peppercorns, was at once savory and sweet-sour—the signature flavor profile of banana ketchup. Served with sweet pineapple ice cream, it was a study of contrasting flavors, an element that he brings into most of his dishes. Because The Tasting Room is still on soft opening, there is no a la carte menu. Instead, Thevenet offers a choice of a four-course (P4,588++ plus additional P2,000++ for Wine Pairing) or a six-course menu (P5,088++ plus additional P2,800++ for Wine Pairing). It is a menu quite unlike any other that one would find in the city. That’s because Thevenet likes to serve several components as part of each course—the main plate, plus one or two side plates that complement the main plate, as well as clean the palate in between bites. “I like bringing flavor and contrast to the main dish,” he said. “It can be bitterness or acidity, something to wake up the palate. Acidity always makes your palate cleaner. A main dish without acidity is flat.” His culinary approach means dishes like a plate of six-hour cured Sea Bass Carpaccio with paper-thin slices of radish, and cool cubes of cucumber jelly. On the side, a small bowl of pickled veal tongue, and another of mustardy celeriac remoulade and strands of banana blossom. We were instructed to take alternate bites of each when we ate. True enough, the bracing acidity and flavor contrasts made each bite taste new. Another dish paired earthy porcini mushroom ravioli with chunks of King Prawns, a curl of bitter endive, and the spicy herbal flavors of green curry sauce with coconut cream. In the third dish, the very Asian flavors of ginger, guava, sweet mango, and green mango became a “bisque” with chunks of lobster tail. And on the side, a tiny aromatic dish of lobsterr illetes, cauliflower, green beans, and shisho leaf. A dish of Alaskan Pollock perched on choucroute and topped with salty smoked bacon acted almost as a palate-cleansing prelude to the meat course. The sharply acidic choucroute, and a tangy sauce of butter, cream, and white wine, kept our salivary glands watering, while a simple piece of grilled tofu and the bacon balanced out the sourness. The meat course of Wagyu Beef Tenderloin seemed almost too simple by comparison, until we tasted the “beetroot ketchup” that accompanied it. Savoring Thevenet’s indulgent degustation becomes an elevated experience because it is accompanied by all the pomp and circumstance of true fine dining. Starched white napkins bound by a black ribbon are replaced every time one stands up and leaves the table; each course arrives and is served with precise timing and a flourish as cloches are lifted simultaneously, the service is discreet and attentive; after the meal, a cart filled with pots of fresh herbs is wheeled over and leaves are snipped into a tea cup of hot water for a tisane to help with digestion. In a few weeks time, a small a la carte menu will be launched, and soon special food promotions with French seasonal produced. Thevenet plans to change his menus frequently, and continue to discover local produce. I look forward to tasting what he comes up with next.   The Raffles Makati. For inquiries and reservations call (02) 7950777. The Tasting Room at Nüwa, City of Dreams Manila. For inquiries and reservations call(02) 8008080 or email guestreservations@cod- manila.com