Flame will light your fire
MANILA, Philippines – The special tasting dinner hosted by Cheryl Tiu and Discovery Primea at its newly opened restaurant, Flame, was not only a treat for the taste buds, but also a feast for the eyes.
The first course, Quezo de Bola and Hamon, was elegantly presented on a narrow gray slab that cradled the golden appetizer.
“We have five presentations of queso de bola and two presentations of ham in that one dish,” says Primea general manager David Pardo de Ayala. “You get all these textures from the cheese. You have the cream, the crisp, the air bubble and foam, and a little bit of cheesecake at the bottom.
“We asked ourselves, what is the best mate of queso de bola? Christmas ham. But how do we deliver the flavor of Christmas ham in a not-so-usual manner? The amber-colored cubes is gelatin made from the essence of ham, so that when you put it in your mouth, you get the flavor of Christmas ham. Then you have the diced ham itself, torched with a little bit of sugar.”
Such detailed and meticulous planning went into the development of every dish on the menu. “It’s a creative process,” says Ayala, himself a former executive chef. “The dishes go through an evolution. It took us two to three months of working every day on these dishes. We are still perfecting and fine-tuning. A dish is seldom completely done. You can always tweak it a little bit and find new ways to do it. That’s something that keeps the kitchen interested, and the guests as well. I taste and approve every single dish that goes in the menu.”
Well, you can get the chef out of the kitchen, but not the kitchen out of the chef.
“I would describe Flame’s menu as ‘modern European cuisine with a touch of Asian,’” says Flame executive chef Luis Chikiamco. “The pan-seared foie gras, for example, is Japanese-inspired, served with teriyaki eggplant, pickled pears with Japanese rice wine, and a piece of nori tempura crunch. For our Asian beef carpaccio, while the Italians would use olive oil, we do ours with Sriracha dressing, which makes it a bit spicy.”
Chikiamco says they want to give their clients a different dining experience in terms of flavor, and a combination of flavors that’s out of the ordinary, “but it’s also not overwhelming or intimidating. It’s more of comfort flavors, not out of this world. Once you taste it, you get familiar flavors, familiar tastes.”
Unexpected but not totally unfamiliar — this could also be said about the presentation of certain dishes. Take the Lobster Fried Rice, for example. It was something, quite literally, out of the box. The lobster and jasmine fried rice seemed to just have spilled out of a typical Chinese takeout box.
“It’s very appetizing visually for me, and I think a lot of people have the same thinking also,” Chikiamco remarks. “There’s a lot of memory to it.”
He recalls his visits to the US when he was younger, and those familiar Chinese takeout meals he used to have with his relatives.
For our main course, we had the Pan-Roasted Duck Breast with spiced honey glaze, which was served together with the Pan-Seared Foie Gras. The regular menu also offers a selection of grilled meats from the Josper charcoal oven such as the US Black Angus ribeye steak, as well as Josper prawns. Other items on the menu include Scottish
Salmon Fillet, Seared Chilean Sea Bass, Pan-Seared US Scallops, and Braised US Short Ribs.
There’s a little surprise tucked in a number of dishes. “The air bubbles and foam is another element we wanted to have,” Chikiamco says. “For example, in Flame’s tiramisu, sometimes, people think the coffee foam is very light, but actually, the taste is so strong that people do get surprised by it. The air bubble in the Quezo de Bola appetizer is derived from the cheese rind for a hint of that sharp, salty taste. ”
“The air bubble is an extra touch, but a valid touch,” Ayala explains. “It is not simply placed there for no reason at all. It’s not only for appearance. All those foams play an important and relevant flavor role.”
He cites the Bavarian Goat Cheese with Red Beet Air as an example: “The combination of goat cheese and sugar beets is a classic. It’s 200 years old. Using the contemporary cooking technique of producing the beet flavor in the air bubble is a way of delivering the same flavor association with the goat cheese but in a much lighter manner. The flavor is there but it’s not heavy. The texture is ethereal.”
The last course, the dessert Flame’s Tiramisu, is a work of art on a plate. “There’s a certain movement, like peaks and valleys — the coffee toast, the espresso foam — it has flow,” Ayala explains. “It guides your eyes and makes it move, like in a painting. It’s not just a flat, boring surface.”
Flame was conceived to deformalize fine dining, according to Chikiamco. “At Flame, you can expect an elevated dining experience that is, at the same time, pleasantly familiar.”
