A Passion statement
MILLIE: A new restaurant has just opened at BGC and it’s already making a buzz and a Passion statement!
My eating buddy Karla is off to New York for a six-month culinary adventure so together with my BFF Verne and her better half Hector, we ventured off to sample Passion, the newest boulangerie and patisserie in town by Gerard Dubois.
As I walked in, I was reminded of Fauchon in Paris. It’s a mini version. It had an assortment of freshly baked crusty artisan breads, an impressive salad selection, hearty meals, generous sandwiches, yummy pastas, oven-baked pizzas, luscious cakes and pastries, velvety ice cream, and even chocolates that I have yet to try! It was nice and awesome and it just felt like I found a new place to hang.
KARLA: Chef Gerard Dubois is a Swiss pastry chef known for his top-quality products. He opened Passion in Hong Kong in 2012 and it is now in the Philippines.
A French cafe experience, chef Dubois’ Passion boasts crusty sour dough bread and baguette made exclusively with imported French flour. His sandwiches are made with artisan bread baked in-house. On display are trendy French pastries and other all-time favorite classics.
MILLIE: Since I came from Alabang and Friday traffic was quite heavy, I came late and almost everything I had wanted to order was no longer available. I settled for curry chicken sandwich, which was served like a grilled panini with chunky bits of curried chicken filling. I ate Hector’s left over creamy chicken salad with broccoli and julienne carrots with a bottle of Badoit, French water with a light fizz. Verne bought a lemony butter pound cake, which the three of us consumed.
I was amused with the ice cream selection and couldn’t help but order a scoop of caramel ice cream served on a chapeau shaped cone that I thoroughly ate and didn’t mind that Hector kept digging into my caramel ice cream to confirm it was yummilicious. I sent Karla a Viber message that evening that I really have to go back! It’s so like Fauchon!
The next day, Verne and I came at dusk so we could get good seating. The health buff that she is, she ordered a palette with roasted veggies like zucchini and tomatoes. Secretly, I wished she had ordered the Brie cheese palette instead.
She also ordered a salad called the Bounty of Eden. I ordered a casserole with lamb stew composed of lean chunks of lamb and slow cooked vegetables like cabbage, carrots and potatoes and it reminded me of Sunday lunches at home when my parents were still alive. There were other casserole dishes like Coq au vin and pork ribs with chick peas that I was dying to try!
When Hector joined us, he ordered spaghetti bolognese but sprinkled some sugar as he found it a bit too sour. I pretended to buy a cup of coffee but actually wanted to get some dessert and, somehow, could not make up my mind once I was at the counter. I decided on the apple crumble which was perfect and not too sweet.
Karla’s blogger friend Spanky Enriquez of the KTG (Kain Tulog Gang) arranged for an interview with the bubbly Pamela Flores, the GM and local partner of Gerard Dubois.
Believe it or not, I was back at Passion a third time in less than a week! I wanted a light lunch and ordered a turkey and brie sandwich served with a crusty bread and some caesar salad with smoked salmon on the side, which Pamela shared with me. For dessert, Pamela pampered me with Passion’s world-renowned chocolat chaud or hot chocolate with my favorite tarte au citron plus a bonus dessert of Earl Grey & pear, which was a delicious velvety mousse! I had just a bite of both and took them home.
KARLA: Some of Passion’s specialty breads available and baked in a traditional stone oven are baguette, brioche toast, herbs foccaccia and pain au levain. Available too are delicious flaky French butter croissants, Danish pastries, pain au chocolat, Chaussons aux pommes, roasted almond croissant, French pastries, muffins, loaves and, of course, multi-flavored macarons.
Most popular items are the artisan sourdough pizzas with smoked salmon, speck ham, salami and three cheeses and pastas with portobello pesto linguine, creamy mushroom penne pasta, beef lasagna and healthy roasted vegetable lasagna.
A must-try are the mocktails of different flavors like raspberry lemonade, blackcurrant mint breeze and cherry colada and the Passion glaces or ice cream!
Passion has shops in Hong Kong and Macau, and in the Philippines they have an atelier (commissary) in Clark, and exports to 42 countries.
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Passion is located at Shop C2 of the NetPark, 5th Ave., E-Square, Crescent Park West Bonifacio Global City, 0917-511-0119.
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