Manila’s coming of age

It’s a genre that I have always enjoyed both in film and literature, that coming-of-age story set during those tumultuous and deliciously confusing years of a person’s life when one is no longer a child yet not quite an adult. Where emotions take center stage, the happy days are deliriously joyful and the sad ones feel like it’s the end of the world.

It’s all about self-discovery. Learning to accept that perhaps your old games and toys are no longer of interest, even your longtime friends are not on the same page and embracing change and growth is a daunting task. The discovery of young love, the awkward moments and delightful faux pas. That first kiss that opens doors and grows wings. The feeling of being invincible one moment and completely uncertain the next. Not knowing how to tread forward bogged down by existentialist questions such as “Should I break the mold? Or go with the flow?”

This is where I feel my hometown lies. Manila is coming of age. The momentum has started but things have not yet fully blossomed into maturity. I recently had a long lunch with colleague and fellow foodie Alicia Sy, discussing the trends and dynamics of the local food scene that eventually branched out into other areas of contemporary culture and society like the design and art scene.

We cannot ignore the fact that there is growth. In the past year dozens of restaurants have popped up around the metro and in the past month alone famous chefs like Eric Kayser, Alain Ducasse, Iron Chef Geoffrey Zakarian, David Thompson and Todd English have been visiting our corner of the world like it’s the next best thing. And I’m confident that it will be as we are headed in the right direction but we are not quite there yet. I acknowledge that there is growth, but I personally feel it is in a horizontal direction. There is more variety, more options, slowly more and more unique concepts rather than the usual large chains. But the vertical growth, although burgeoning, is limited. Those who are brave enough not to play it safe, those who are bold and creative, who aren’t afraid to fail, who value true quality over quantity, those capable of really putting Manila on the map.

As with everything in the industry, how does one balance passion and creativity with business and sales? It is a difficult question, one worthy of Hamlet.

During an intimate birthday dinner for chef J Gamboa, I was luckily seated next to the charming chef Geoffrey Zakarian and we got to talking about the industry. I loved his refreshingly frank approach to the restaurant business. “A longtime Jewish friend of mine gave me the best advice ever. He said, ‘Geoffrey, business is not about the money. It’s only about the money.’ And he meant it not in a greedy sense, but that the reality of it all is you need something that generates income so that you may then finance your passions.”

It is true. Take, for example, Colin Mackay, who for me is one of the most successful chef-restaurateurs on the local scene. People’s Palace is the prime example of a true, worthy cash cow. Not only does it generate sales, it does so by upholding the quality and consistency of an excellent product, not by cutting costs and selling cheap. This then allows him to have his playground of luxury fine dining at Sala, where the food is always spectacular and the ingredients are topnotch. It is a balance that is difficult to achieve and it is not without hard work and personal dedication.

Back to my discussion with Alicia, the original question was the role of the media in the food industry. The power of social media and the prevalence of the amateur food blogger means that establishments have so little time to, well, establish themselves. They have to move fast, get things perfect from the start, one small mistake could go viral and unless they have deep pockets, the window of opportunity to make or break it is shockingly tiny. People are fast-paced, always moving on to the next best thing, trying the newest joints quickly giving up and forgetting the others. I have to admit I have been so overwhelmed with all the openings and the flooding of comments and criticisms of new places that I have simply been sticking to my oldies but goodies.

Just recently someone was talking about a fine dining resto that just opened barely six months ago when you couldn’t get a table, and then how empty it was last week. Not because the food was bad, nothing seemed to be the restaurant’s fault; it was just that the crowd had moved on to a new place.

What I can deduce from this is that the problem is not with the industry but with the consumer. There just aren’t enough people for that upscale fine-dining market to go around. It’s the city itself that is hampering its growth and slowly, as we become a more cosmopolitan city, looking to visitors and tourists as an expanded market such as places like Bangkok and Singapore — only then will our local F&B industry be fed with the energy and momentum needed to achieve full maturity.

Which is why I find the concept of the recently opened Todd English Food Hall rather interesting and apt. Rather than bringing in a celebrity chef to do fancy food, local owners, father-and-son team Rikki and Eric Dee have chosen to bring in a concept that can easily cross over markets. A very chicly designed store that can accommodate our favorite type of seating arrangement in this country — giant families of 20 — and caters to our indecisive, all-inclusive nature offering different kinds of fare, from tacos to sushi to noodles and handmade pastas — it’s like our favorite buffet but ordered from a menu and served tableside. It is a smart move, one that fits the current market. It answers our hunger for something more sophisticated yet caters to our cultural communal eating habits.

What does all this mean for Manila? To be honest, I am no Nostradamus. I suppose it can only be hopeful, that in a few years we will get our footing, that the city will experience its growth spurt, and that awkward stage will be long gone. And while I still have a lot of constructive criticism to give and feel that there is still a long way to go, when people ask me if, given the opportunity would I go back to live in Paris, I proudly say no. While I love being there on holiday, this town — my town — is an exciting place to be right now. And when it comes of age, I want to be right in the middle of it.