Sustainability spices up this collab dinner

Chefs Chele Gonzalez and Deepanker Khosla have a lot in common. Both have made it to Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list—Gonzalez with Gallery by Chele and Khosla with his Michelin-starred restaurant Haōma in Bangkok; both have created their own styles of neo cuisine by modernizing the heritage flavors of their home countries (Spain and India, respectively) with the latest techniques and global influences; and both are champions of sustainability, nurturing gardens that supply organic greens right in the heart of their urban restaurants—Khosla even has a fishery at Haōma and won a Michelin green star for his efforts.

With so much in common, even memorable nicknames, Chele and DK (as Khosla is fondly known) wanted to collaborate as far back as 2019, but finally did so last year when Chele went to Bangkok and did a successful four-hands dinner with DK at Haōma.

On Aug. 26 and 27 DK returned the favor by coming to the Philippines and doing a collaboration dinner at Gallery by Chele.

“Chef Chele and I cooked together before at Haōma,” said DK. “I have a very strong affection for Spanish chefs and food because the Indians and the Spanish—they love their mothers and they love their food.”

After our welcome drink of salted lemonade with cognac we tucked into four kinds of amuse-bouche. Bites like Chele’s Tomato Sinigang (a cherry tomato filled with sinigang broth) and DK’s Scallop and Tamarind Tart presented a stark contrast between the sour-savoriness of Asian/Pinoy flavors and the punchy spice of Indian cuisine, which set the tone for the rest of the meal.

Our amuse-bouche bites were served with a Nicolas Maillart Platine Premier Cru—light and refreshing.

Then the gustatory journey started. For carnivores, there was corned beef served in a curry espuma, wagyu tartare, topped with coriander seeds. This was served with a Piesporter Selbach Riesling who was lovely and inquisitive.

Chele prepared an Oyster Kinilaw tableside, explaining that this was his fusion of local ingredients with Spanish cuisine. He sprayed chunks of oyster, red snapper, and mangosteen with leche de tigre, finishing it with fresh cilantro. A fan of ceviche, Therese loved this dish, as she did the following vegetable course, Cumin Peas, featuring bright green pearls that were so fresh they tasted as if they’d just been plucked from the garden (and they probably were).

A trio of stellar courses followed that showed the two chefs’ facility with seafood: sole Meuniere with green caviar and local lemon; Grouper with curry pil pil, calamansi, and parsley gel; and Patapulpo, octopus on a bed of callos with chorizo shavings. (Therese even got crab with foam to add variety to her fish dishes.) 

A 2019 Blanc de Chasse-Spleen from Bordeaux had a crisp body that fared well with the sole and the Indian spices that drove the grouper dish, while the Patapulpo was paired with an organic Metamorphika Sumoll from Catalonia, aged in ancient amphorae and served in a balloon glass that released its strong tannins and flavor.

The two chefs emerged from the kitchen for Around the Table, a collaboration dish for which both DK and Chele pulled out all the stops. For the meat eaters this involved delicious milk-fed lamb, “something we tried at Haōma, which chef Chele has been having since he was young,” explains DK. “Here it’s cooked with Indian spices, then we use the neck and hooves to create a sauce: it's like a korma, a royal Indian stew curry.”

Chele noted that the baby lamb was roasted Spanish-style, while for the pescatarians he presented a glazed tuna belly with chicken jus that imbued it with rich, complementary umami. “Instead of chicken skin we have crispy kale, then around it is beetroot and black garlic that goes well with your fish,” Chele said.

DK added that we wouldn't be able to digest this dish well without naan bread, so he contributed compressed naans, plus a history lesson: “We've come a little bit too far from the tandoori oven, because it’s not really Indian, it’s Afghan,” he informed us. “The Persian traders brought the tandoor to India. Before the Persians came in, we were cooking a similar kind of bread in India called ‘kulcha.’ And it was cooked in a pit rather than in a tandoor, so that's what we have made for you guys: a compressed kulcha.”

These cylindrical kulchas were heaven: soft, crusty, buttery, and ideal for mopping up the sauces on the plate. They didn’t forget rice lovers either, with small, individual plates of basmati rice with assorted mushrooms.

We enjoyed it all with a 2010 Tinto Arzuaga Gran Reserva, which was perfect for highlighting the juiciness of the lamb and spices.

The meal wrapped up with another generous trio of sweets: a passion fruit/coconut panna cotta, chocolate mousse with cardamom, and Chele’s Tradition, his bibingka cheesecakes that are as light and airy as soufflés.