Off Menu debuts in Manila after its roaring success in Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Shanghai, and Taipei

No masks or bow ties or diamonds and white gold required, but it was the black and white ball of dining.

First launched in Hong Kong in 2019, where it was a roaring success, Off Menu was rudely interrupted in 2020.

You can’t stop success, however, so despite the pandemic’s unrelenting attempts to keep us away from crowded places, it rolled out in 2021 in other Asian cities like Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Shanghai, and Taipei. Over the weekend, it launched in Manila at the Shangri-La at the Fort’s grand ballroom.

And yes, it was like Truman Capote’s ever famous black and white ball at the Plaza Hotel in New York in 1966, which still comes up in conversations as the “Last Great American Party,” still the standard against which memorable parties are measured, although Off Menu is designed to be completely casual, strictly a foodie festival, except in Singapore, where it will hold its inaugural Luxe edition later this month at the Clifford Pier as a black tie, invite-only event, featuring among its roster of chef pairings Singapore-based Filipino chef Johanne Siy and Philippine-based Spanish chef Chele Gonzalez.

At the 1966 “Party of the Century,” the food did not quite command as much attention as the guest list, but there was the breakfast buffet with scrambled eggs with truffles, Capote’s favorite The Plaza dish chicken hash with sherry, and spaghetti Bolognese. The buffet was set up at 11:30 p.m. replacing the dessert spread of berry tarts, black-and-white cookies, and two impressive towers of croquembouche at the ballroom foyer, where it was laid out earlier, as early as 9 p.m., one hour before the doors opened, to welcome the guests arriving from 14 designated pre-ball dinner parties all over Manhattan, including Babe Paley’s 20-room St. Regis apartment, where Truman Capote himself and his guest of honor, the Washington Post’s Katharine Graham, along with Polish nobleman Prince Stanislas Radziwill and his then wife, Jackie Kennedy Onassis’ sister, Lee Radziwill, whiled away their time before the ball.

Still, what was on the menu at Capote’s ball  had been recreated many times, such as at Christie’s ball at the Rockefeller Center in New York in 2006 and, also in the same year, Ina Garten’s Black and White episode for the Barefoot Contessa, where she shared recipes for Basil Chicken Hash, Pain Perdu, and White Truffles.

But even Capote, who might have spent most of his energy editing his guest list, would not have thought of hiring 12 stellar chefs for a single affair to break records for his ball.

As did Tatler Dining Philippines—boldly, special mention to Tatler Philippines special projects chief Isabel Martel Francisco. It rolled out Off Menu over the weekend with the likes of Patxi and Sophia Elizalde, Shangri-La at the Fort’s Amit Oberoi, and HSBC’s Sandeep Uppal and his wife lining up at each of the six booths along with the Friday night crowd of foodies 300 strong. Tickets were hard to come by. When I tried to purchase an extra ticket a few days before, I was told the wait list was weeks deep.

Understandable. Handpicked for this Philippine inaugural was a cast of chefs as namedroppable in the current food scene as those in 1960s New York society whose names Capote scribbled in his black-and-white composition book for his initial guest list at the black and white ball. To up the game, Tatler Dining Philippines presented the 12 chefs in six chef pairings—Tom Bascon and Carlos Garcia, Margarita Forés and Don Baldosano, Nicco Santos and Josh Boutwood, Carlo Miguel and Joris Rycken, Patrick Go and JP Anglo, and Stephan Duhesme and Miko Calo. 

As its name suggests, Off Menu is a challenge to these chefs to create dishes they had never done before or dishes no one could find on the menu of their respective restaurants. The result, exclusive to Off Menu, was six gastronomic experiments crafted with their skills, years of experience, and culinary vision multiplied by two in each chef pairing.

Guests were each given a passport, duly marked before they could collect from each of the six food stations, and so it was technically a six-course menu whipped up by 12 chefs. No second servings allowed, to my discontent because I wanted more of the puyoy and the ochazuke.

A showcase of Manila’s culinary mastery, Off Menu was a night to remember. Capote would have approved, or he would have been jealous.

The team of Tom and Carlos came up with kansi chawanmushi with wagyu beef shank, watercress salad, and breaded bone marrow and batwan vinaigrette, with smoked Ibérico presa, morcilla black garlic mayo, and chorizo oil on crispy nori.

From the tandem of Don and Margarita was the puyoy I wanted more of, the Bago River and Capiz eels served in a skewer on the side of Bohol gamet, homesmoked etag, and coconut pulot.

Josh and Nicco’s collab was a single-bowl dish, the ochazuke made of grilled yuzu tare glazed beef short rib, scallop and shiitake takikomi gohan, nego tori paitan, and magaw pepper gun power.

From the duo of Carlo and Joris was the Ibérico shoulder loin with roasted cauliflower purée, edamame, and pili nut pesto.

Patrick and JP whipped up crispy lamb kaldereta flakes with slow-cooked lamb machang, smoked beef tenderloin, shaved Grana Padano, and anise-pickled carrots.

Stephan and Miko chose to do dessert—a choux pastry, more savory than sweet, which made it unique, with cacao craquelin, Gouda cream and fermented guava gel, and salted kamias caramel.

Although I doubt there were 450 bottles of bubbly popped for the evening as there had been at Capote’s black and white ball, where Taittinger champagne flowed “like the Mississipi, or the Nile,” as New York swan C.Z. Guest had put it, the libations at Off Menu seemed as never-ending, with infinite servings of M Reserva de la Familia, Brut Nature 2017 or Peppercorn Lane Shiraz, not to mention my favorite ginger whisky, with the 12-year-old The Singleton of Dufftown. There were many other cocktails, including Bombay Sapphire G&T, plus Engkanto beer and The Singleton single malt whisky-all-you-want neat or on the rocks until 10:30 p.m.

A showcase of Manila’s culinary mastery, Off Menu was a night to remember. Capote would have approved, or he would have been jealous.