Pinoy pride in Paris
It’s 1 a.m. on a Parisian spring Friday. I’m freezing, dressed un-Parisianly to the nines, with another best friend of mine, waiting in front of an understated exclusive club on the Left Bank. Everyone’s got messy hair, crumpled I-don’t-give-a-damn allure, smoking a cigarette. Where is Aaron? The two Manila princesses wouldn’t even bother to try to get into Le Montana without knowing some at the door. We didn’t have clothes that were wrinkly enough.
He bounds around the corner, jean slim, little black trendy jacket probably bought somewhere in the bobo area of Etienne Marcel, extremely young looking but full of confidence. Dressed with the same trendy yet I-don’t-give-a-damn Parisian style, who would’ve thought that he had been sweating it out the whole day in a Michelin-star kitchen. Hugs and air kisses plus a few mega-watt smiles at the extremely scrutinizing lady bouncer later, Aaron made his way through like a breeze, shaking hands and waving “hi” to people all the way to the bar. This young chef has made his mark in Paris and not just in overly snobby Parisian joints, but where it counts: on the Parisian palate.
Aaron Isip, apart from being one of my best friends continental side and sharing my birthday, is one of the most talented and passionate people I know in the culinary industry. This 28-year-old is determined to produce only perfection even if it means leaving a catastrophic pile of pots and pans in the midst of creation. (I loved and hated cooking with him because his genius food left such a mess in my tiny kitchen!) His natural talent coupled with sheer dedication and a childish charm has kept him rising fast in the overcrowded Michelin-star world where many get stuck peeling potatoes for 10 years.
After studying marketing management at De La Salle University, he moved to Paris to study the culinary arts. He graduated with the Diplome de Cuisine (Diploma of Cuisine) and Connaissance du Vin (Knowledge of Wine) from the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu and pursued further studies, gaining a Certificat de Perfectionnement Professionnel en Cuisine (Certificate of Professional Perfection in Cuisine.) He then worked in several top Parisian culinary establishments notably Apicius, Le Vernet de Eric Briffard, Drouant, Senderens and is known in Ze Kitchen Galerie. Get to know the up-and-coming young chef better, a true source of Pinoy pride in Paris!
Aaron Isip: Natural talent coupled with sheer dedication PHILIPPINE STAR: What are your best and worst experiences in the kitchen?
AARON ISIP: Best: When I created a modern version of pancit molo for the starter of the day and sold it like hot pancakes. Worst: When I was a stagiare (intern) at the two-star restaurant of Eric Briffard (now chef executif of Le V, Four Seasons George V Hotel). I had to prep about 30 to 40 live crabs every morning from start to finish for about a whole month — cooking them, taking out all the crab meat, crab fat, making the sauce with the crab fat, etc.
You’ve worked in some big establishments and have come pretty far. What qualities do you think you have that helped you? What drives you?
I think one of the most important things I have developed is my palate. Over the years, after countless tastings and meals in other gastronomic restaurants, my palate has become more keen to a myriad of flavor profiles, giving me the ability to create more flavor combinations, both classic and unique. The hours can be tough, but I have a blast in the kitchen and the ambience in our kitchen is great. I enjoy working with my colleagues.
What are the challenges of being a Filipino in a French kitchen? Or is it an advantage?
At Ze Kitchen Galerie (ZKG), the only French people in the kitchen are the chef and owner William Ledeuil, the chef de cuisine, and one apprentice. Our sous chef is Italian, there are three Koreans, four Japanese, a Colombian, Portuguese, and I’m the only Pinoy. It’s a pretty interesting mix, but it works. Being Pinoy at ZKG is quite an advantage for me not just in terms of language, but also with the fact that I’m the only one from Southeast Asia. I know how to work with Asian ingredients that we use, and I am familiar with the flavors.
What inspires your food? So far you’ve been cooking other people’s food.
Fresh and amazing produce does it for me. Working with a live blue lobster from Britanny, for example, gives me a certain excitement. I would then immediately have a rush of ideas on how to prepare it and what kind of sauce I would be making, how could I play with some different textures for the plate, and how would I finally plate it. My style of cuisine is not very far from that of ZKG, that is one of the reasons why I chose to work for this restaurant. But my personal style would be more concentrated on Filipino flavors using top local produce, wherever that will be. Cuisson Sous-Vide, for me, is a necessity. The textures and concentration of flavors you can achieve with sous-vide are just incomparable to classical techniques.
How has the Parisian food scene evolved? What do you envision your place to be here? Do you plan to open something here? Come back to Manila?
The Parisian food scene has become more and more open to new types of cuisine and international influences. A lot of Parisian chefs have become quite inventive. Some of them have a lot of guts to make unique combinations that you would never think of like arugula, beetroots (there’s a red beetroot ice cream at Le Chateaubriand, rated top 15 Best Restaurants of the World by San Pellegrino), endives, black pepper or broccoli for dessert! I had an amazing passion fruit with arugula dessert at Christophe Pelé’s La Bigarrade. We used to have a Cambodian Black Pepper Ice Cream at Ze Kitchen Galerie that I loved, and our white chocolate and wasabi ice cream is one of our best-sellers. Some of the new Parisian restaurants are hit and miss, but I applaud them for being brave enough to try out new combinations, sort of like a trial and error. By doing so, they come up with new unions of ingredients. If I would have the chance, I would love to do something here. I would like to introduce Filipino cuisine to the French, and try to do it little by little at Ze Kitchen Galerie when I can. So far, I have done modern versions of pancit molo, sinigang, lumpia, arroz caldo, atchara, kinilaw, adobo sauce, calamansi sauce, etc., but if I had my own restaurant here, I would use seasonal fresh local produce, and then work the Pinoy flavors on them. If I do go back to the Philippines, I would want to create a gastronomic Filipino restaurant, but strictly Filipino, all Pinoy ingredients/produce. None of that imported sea bass, or salmon, I would use bangus or lapu-lapu instead but the best ones that I can find, and feature those proteins with utmost respect. For me, our country is blessed with so much natural gifts. We should be proud of the produce we have and serve them in our restaurants. I don’t get why half of the restaurants in Manila all serve Chilean sea bass, and the like.
Chef Aaron Isip with Babette Aquino Benoit, Filpina grande dame of Paris who regularly promotes Filipino food among French high society Where do you see yourself in five years to 10 years?
Hopefully, running my own restaurant where I would be doing the food that I love to eat and work with.
What food do you miss back home? Earliest and fondest food memory?
There are so many, I don’t even know where to start — pancit luglog, sisig, batchoy, our yellow mangoes and other Pinoy fruits like lanzones, pinakbet, bangus, tapa, Vigan longanisa, lumpiang ubod, chicharon, and the list goes on. Some of the earliest and fondest food memories I have was when I first ate grilled horseshoe crabs on the beach as a kid. I absolutely loved it. Also, the first time I had Aji Tataki in a Japanese restaurant and crispy frog legs with my dad. Fondest recent food memories: the best rabbit leg confit in mustard sauce at The French Laundry; callos at Martin Berasategui’s restaurant in San Sebastian; grilled mackerel with a toasted wheat grain crust; aubergine cooked in miso at Astrance; frog legs and schniederspaetle at Le Beurehiesel, and the most delicious poached egg at Arzak.
What’s your fantasy dish or meal if you have access to everything (ingredients and equipment?
To prepare and cook fugu and not die afterwards.
Your fantasy dinner table? Who would you most like to cook for (living or dead) and why?
My mother. She passed away when I was about seven. She was an excellent cook and has introduced me to a lot of amazing Ilonggo dishes. I would love to show her my style of cooking and make her proud.
