KBL in bite size

A survey of what a tasting menu should be as Richmonde Hotel Iloilo executive chef Ariel Castañeda takes a bold step into it

On my way to a degustation in Iloilo, I had a little discussion with food journalist and entrepreneur Angelo Comsti and Iloilo culinary champion Tibong Jardeleza.

We were going to an old haunt, the Granary at Richmonde Hotel Iloilo, where collectively we have had a lifetime’s worth of buffet breakfasts, cocktail hour nibbles, and post-prandial coffees and ube ensaimadas, not to mention the usual lunches and dinners, but we were going to try something new.

Ariel Castañeda, a consistent winner in many culinary competitions, including the Tabu-an, an annual cooking competition initiated by Tibong, has at some point during the pandemic joined Richmonde as executive chef, and he, together with the hotel general manager Nat Lim, has been revolutionizing the kitchen, turning Richmonde Hotel Iloilo into a foodie destination.

The weekend we were there to witness the launch of Tibong’s cookbook, Flavors of Iloilo, a pet project of Iloilo City’s first lady Rosalie Sarabia-Treñas, and the 100-Day kickoff to Dinagyang 2022, as well as the 2022 Tabu-an Western Visayas Ilonggo Cooking Competition, Ariel invited us to a tasting menu at the Granary. It was on our way to this dinner surprise that we happened to talk about what a tasting menu was—or should be—now that more and more chefs  and restaurants around the Philippines are embarking on this gustatory adventure.

Angelo went by its very basic definition as a series of small plates served at a single meal. Tibong argued that it had to be more than that. It must elevate the food as well as the service. I said, more than anything, a degustation had to be an experience. Manila Bulletin Lifestyle assistant editor Jules Vivas observed we were all arguing on the same side. A tasting menu by its very definition, he said, is a series of small plates served at a single meal to elevate the food as well as the service into an experience.

Ariel’s degustation was rooted in place, themed “La Meza Ilonggo,” and, at first glance at the menu, I found it was very bold of him to serve such filling Ilonggo dishes as pancit molo, KBL (Kadyos, Baboy, Langka), and chicken inasal in bite-size portions in the style of a tasting menu. I, for one, usually cannot get enough of a whole bowl of pancit molo or KBL with extra helpings of steamed white rice. I was afraid I would come away from the table with cravings unsatisfied, but some of my dinner companions were particularly worried about how the Ilonggos themselves would find their beloved pancit molo turned into a miniscule dish.

A tasting menu by its very definition is a series of small plates served at a single meal to elevate the food as well as the service into an experience.

First on Ariel’s five-course menu degustacion was “Pancit Molo Xiao Long Bao,” paired with Chateau Los Boldos Chardonnay 2018. It was served in a container covered in edible paper you needed to burn to reveal a single leaf-wrapped dim sum filled with pancit molo gelee in housemade wonton skin. It was followed, as part of the first course, by “Baked Talaba Bomb,” fresh oyster with milk butter, white cheddar, and garlic confit.

The second course I loved—“KBL” in batuan consommé and kadyos (black-eyed beans)-langka (jackfruit) puree. I’m a fan of Ariel’s KBL, which I happened to try at another restaurant for which he did consultancy work in Iloilo before he joined Richmonde. What I tried then was the traditional KBL, a delightful memory against which I had to measure his degustation-style KBL. To my surprise, it did not disappoint. To one of the guests, Raintree corporate chef Kalel Chan, it was an unlikely surprise. He didn’t like KBL per se, he told Ariel, but he liked the degustation iteration.

Next was “Ilonggo Chicken Inasal,” another heavy dish in its traditional form, but restyled for the degustation with soy pearls, garlic rice tuile, inasal roulade, and pickled vegetables.

What followed was the palate cleanser, “The Ilonggo Lick It Up,” a mix of batuan jam, mango compote, and carabao cheese we were to lick to wipe our plate clean. I imagine some diners would find it fun, but to food writers, foodies, and chefs like Kalel and Linamnam visionary Don Baldosano, who comprised the bulk of our dinner engagement, it was a trick too familiar, a culinary prank Indian Michelin-starred chef Gaggan Anand has pulled too many times, “from Japan to Chile, from America to Australia,” as the rebel chef said in an interview, but well, Ariel can also say, “We’re pulling it too in Iloilo.”

The fourth course was “NY Strip Karne Frita,” paired with Hardy’s VR Shiraz and served with shallot confit, citrus-onion gravy, and sweet potato mash, and closing out the five-course meal was a double-dessert dish—Mango Batuan Cotton Candy and Batuan Pie a la Mode.

On the seventh floor poolside for celebratory, post-dinner drinks, I gave Ariel multiple toasts. I was glad that, for his initial venture into tasting menus, he took baby steps, just five courses, instead of the usual marathons of 12 to 16, sometimes up to 24 bite-sized dishes.

A degustation is an extra challenge no chef should saunter into casually. It’s always an uphill battle to introduce something new, especially if what you are introducing it to diners in a place like Iloilo where—correct me, if I’m wrong—a typical foodie can get as much pleasure from a fine dining-style “Baked Talaba Bomb” as from fresh oysters sold at La Paz Market for ₱70 per basin.

A degustation is a take-it-or-leave-it, all-or-nothing affair and a chef at the very least needs vision, craft, imagination, a harvest of fresh, seasonal, special ingredients, an arsenal of techniques, and a lot of time to impose it upon a diner.

A degustation at the Granary is boldly new, just as new as degustation was back in 2012 in the US, when restaurants, from New York and Chicago to California, had to confront such problems as repetition of ingredients, failed experiments, too many courses or too little portioning, too much gimmickry, and—as a result of any or all of these founderings—bored or hungry or disappointed diners.

All par for the course, for a chef like Ariel, who is hungry to explore the limits of his own cooking horizon. In my discussion with Tibong and Angelo, I said that a tasting menu is a showcase of something—a chef’s skill, some special ingredients, techniques modern or ancient, a narrative. It’s a show, each course shaping the experience, the entire menu a composition of different parts that come together like a symphony, or, as Angelo insisted, it’s simply a sampling of what a kitchen is capable of whipping up.

To Ariel, indeed, the tasting menu is a big, bold step in the right direction. “I consider this a success,” he told Jules. “I remember a customer saying, ‘Pwede pala ito (It can be done this way).’ That is the goal, to show Ilonggos that there is more to food.”

I applaud the chef for braving what could have been a slippery slope. If for nothing else, I’d go back for the KBL.