Bangkok has become such a foodie destination, not just for Thai but also other cuisines in the world. 

I was privileged to have had a table reserved for me and my friend Pepper Teehankee at “A Night of Culinary Craftsmanship,” a two-night dinner engagement held recently at Yawaragi at Hotel Okura Manila, featuring guest chef Gerard Villaret Horcajo, who leads the culinary team at Elements, Inspired by Ciel Bleu at the Okura Prestige Bangkok. 

The Bangkok restaurant has won a coveted Michelin star this year, thanks to the leadership and vision of Gerard as its chef de cuisine. He was previously with the two Michelin-starred Ciel Bleu on the 23rd floor of the Hotel Okura Amsterdam, where he worked closely with Arjan Speelman, the restaurant’s highly decorated executive chef and manager. 

The Michelin Guide describes Ciel Bleu in Amsterdam as “an ideal spot for a date,” which boasts of “impressive city views…and chic décor, with an open kitchen, oversized industrial light fittings and charcoal walls.” The guide also cited among the hallmarks of its excellence the restaurant’s approach toward French fine dining infused with Japanese influences, a menu highlight of which is the Akita Wagyu, “with succulent marbled Japanese beef that’s grilled to perfection.”

Yawaragi is only on the fifth-floor atrium lobby of Hotel Okura Manila, but with a ceiling sky-high and décor reminiscent of a Zen garden or a quaint Japanese village. I’d say it’s also impressive, an ideal spot for an intimate dinner. And with Gerard whipping up a special menu and leading the kitchen for the two-night affair, but with Hotel Okura Manila executive chef Sebastiaan Hoogewerf, Yamazato Japanese executive chef Keiichiro Fujino, and pastry chef Vi Serrano right by his side, the Michelin star he carried on his sleeve burst into a constellation on the palate. More than a degustation, it was also a sake pairing, with Philippine Wine Merchants curating the beverage list to further elevate the experience, alongside Whyte & Mackay, which provided the aperitifs. 

Gerard was born and raised in Barcelona, where gastronomy is culture, where producing, preparing, and consuming food are an art form, but he further enriched himself by working at Michelin-starred restaurants like Vendôme in Bensberg in Germany, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal in London, and De Librije at Zwolle in Amsterdam. 

To Gerard, cooking is a passion more than a profession and food is art, as it is also for the other chefs in the team—Sebastiaan, Keiichiro, and Vi—in whom he found kindred spirits. Together, they came up with a delectable seven-course dinner that, in my memory, seemed so meditative as well as moving.

Keiichiro prepped three unforgettable dishes—the first two dishes, the Zuwai Kani Salad, a delightful concoction of snow crab, maitake mushroom, chrysanthemum, caviar, crab vinegar, and a citrus fruit called sudachi, which seemed to be a Japanese version of our calamansi, and what the menu called “Blessings from the Sea,” with bluefin tuna otoro, striped jack, spiny lobster, and red lapu lapu. He was also responsible for the sixth course, the Yamazato Chirashi Sushi and Dobin Mushi, with tender Saga beef, sea urchin, salmon and salmon roe, pike conger, and matsutake mushrooms. 

For his part, Gerard presented three dishes in succession as the third, fourth, and fifth dishes. The Smoked Dutch Eel with watercress, crème fraiche, Oscietra caviar, and champagne ice cream was followed by Hirame or mussels and artichoke in vadouvan sauce, a French approach to curry, and then by a winning dish of morel mushrooms made with brown butter, miso béchamel, and freshly shaved black truffles. 

The seventh course was dessert, a sleight of Vi’s award-winning hand, a sculptural, artful concoction she called “Autumn Flame,” with sweet potato, chestnuts, mochi, and cotton candy. A petit-fours of genmaicha or Japanese brown rice and green tea, raspberry, yuzu, and chocolate came with our coffee or tea.

I know I’ve had a good meal when the combination of flavors or an imagined version thereof lingers on my lips long after I’ve drunk the last drop of after-meal coffee. But I also know it when the meal takes me elsewhere or brings visions, sensations, ideas, and inspirations to me from somewhere else, as does art, as does going to Bangkok or Amsterdam or places other than here, places away from my ordinary life.

I think I’m going to try and book myself a meal at Yawaragi when I’m feeling stuck.