Both chefs are superstars in global cuisines, but also staunch sustainability advocates, who work closely with farmers to explore and elevate food possibilities beyond cooking and eating, but also food production and the welfare of farmers.

Happening tonight, Aug. 26, at chef Chele Gonzalez’s fine dining restaurant Gallery by Chele at BGC in Taguig is the first of a two-night dinner affair he and Michelin-starred chef Deepanker Khosla, more fondly known as Chef DK, of Michelin-starred Bangkok sensation Haōma BBK are collaborating on.

This comes at the heels of a successful collaboration between the two chefs in Bangkok.

More than a dinner, what’s to happen tonight and tomorrow is the joining of forces for good. Both chefs are superstars in global cuisines, but also staunch sustainability advocates, who work closely with farmers to explore and elevate food possibilities beyond cooking and eating, but also food production and the welfare and the future of farmers.

What’s to happen tonight, which other top caliber chefs of Manila have been looking forward to since Chele, putting on his DJ hat (he was a DJ by profession before he became a cook), threw a club party over the weekend at Dr. Wine at BGC as a grand welcome gesture for Chef DK, is an eight-course culinary journey through the diversity of Indian and Asian flavors with a focus on sustainability and responsible cooking.

Chef Chele, who hails from Torrelavega, Cantabria in Spain, scours the four corners of the Philippines, his adoptive home, where he has settled with his wife Teri Echevarri Gonzalez and his daughter, in search of local flavors and ingredients, on which his innovative take has catapulted his restaurant into Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list and himself as Chef of the Year in 2023 for Tatler Dining Philippines on top of many other accolades and recognitions. It is the Philippines he represents at major gastronomic events across the world, including Madrid Fusion and the Mediterránea Gastrónoma slated this November in Valencia, Spain.

Chele is particularly stoked about this week’s collaboration, the spirit of which reflects the values that are at the very the core of his signature restaurant Gallery by Chele—responsible cooking and sustainability.

“Over the years, these have been part of our core values traveling around the country, meeting indigenous communities, and working very closely with farmers,” says Chele. “In fact, one of our most ambitious projects has been our urban garden, where we use our own compost and focus on native and endemic herbs from the Philippines.”

Chef DK has set up a similar urban garden set-up in the middle of Bangkok. “Haōma enjoys the approval of Asia’s most respected critics having earned them a Michelin star and a Michelin green star for outstanding work on sustainability,” says Chele.

Haōma is 90th on the current list of Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants, which also gave it the the Sustainable Restaurant Award this year.

Their shared passion for sustainable philosophies and practices in modern eating and cooking, which highlights also the refreshing differences between Chele’s Spanish, Catalan specialties and Chef DK’s neo-Indian, pan-Indo-European cuisine, is what makes the two-night, eight-course collaborative dinner tonight and tomorrow night, Aug, 27, groundbreaking.

“We have a similar appreciation for good ingredients, local products, and fine cooking, which is what I hope to bring to Gallery,” chef DK explains. “After cooking with him last time, I now understand his style and we were able to merge our cuisines into a tasting menu, which was incredibly well-received by our diners in Bangkok. I wish to replicate that in Manila, to bring our expertise in fine cuisine using ingredients from the Philippines.”