Chef Robby Goco elevates the olive
Tagaytay remains the destination of choice for a quick change of scene for us here in Manila. But its popularity, due to its picturesque views, cool weather and wealth of dining options, can lead to traffic that crawls along the ridge.
That’s why chef Robby Goco, famed for his Greek restaurants Cyma and Souv, put up his latest Greek outpost in Silang, Cavite. You get the same cool weather and countryside surroundings but minus the stress and the traffic. You’ll turn into the road leading to Silang before reaching the ridge, so it’s just as relaxing and chill, with the bonus of some really hearty, Greek-style home cooking.
The land on which the restaurant stands belongs to chef Robby’s sister-in-law’s family, and during the pandemic they would camp out there. It made perfect sense to put up a restaurant close to the farms that supply all their produce.
Elaia, which means “olive” in Greek, is situated along a peaceful road and its al fresco design lets in the breezes of Tagaytay. The food here is not the same as what you’ll find in chef Robby’s other places, focusing instead on dishes that need long, slow cooking—Greek comfort food. That’s just what you need after a stressful week as you relax in the green surroundings of Silang.
But why Greek to begin with?
“Back in the year 2000, there were Spanish restaurants and French restaurants here in Manila, but Greek was not represented,” chef Robby explains. “So I went to Greece, stayed there for three months, studying the culture and the people. I opened Cyma, and after that, I opened Souv, which is like Cyma’s younger sister who traveled abroad and brought back worldly ingredients like quinoa and couscous. Souv caters to a younger crowd whose diet is mostly proteins and vegetables. With Elaia, it’s as if you have a Greek grandmother in the kitchen, so it’s lutong probinsiya in the Greek style. It’s low and slow, vegetable-centered, and cooked in extra virgin olive oil. It’s a longevity cuisine.”
The olive oil is sourced from Greece.
“No seed oil,” declares chef Robby. “Even the deep frying is done in extra virgin olive oil.
"We make our breads in the morning, the filo is made from scratch.” That’s no idle boast when you consider that filo needs to be stretched out till it is paper-thin. It’s quite a feat.
“With Greek food, you have to rely on really good ingredients,” says chef Robby. “You can’t make a Greek salad without good tomatoes, good cucumbers, and extra virgin olive oil. You need to go to the source and get these plump tomatoes that are ripened on the vine. We also opened this restaurant so we could get all the vegetables from Tagaytay and bring them to Manila, to service all our other restaurants.”
Helping out is young chef Enzo Samson, whom chef Robby calls his gatekeeper—someone he runs his ideas through. After getting a call even at 1 a.m., when new ideas pop into chef Robby’s head, chef Enzo will then see if the recipes are feasible and checks the costs. Trained with Le Cordon Bleu, he works with chef Robby’s other businesses that include Rob’s, a bar and grill at Newport. Chef Enzo’s job includes research and development, looking at all the supplies, and coming up with new concepts for Rob’s like soft-shell crab sandwiches.
We started with substantial canapes on Elaia’s lanai, which is done in violets and greens to reflect the colors of olives. Those included the spinach and filo triangles known as spanokopita, vegetable skewers and breads slathered with a creamy dip. Then we began our lunch in earnest with starters that included Greek panzanella, or dakos. This is a salad based on bread and it was voted the best salad in the world by Taste Atlas, which is a website, “a world atlas of traditional dishes, local ingredients, and authentic restaurants.”
Then came a basket of delicious breads served with a sampler of dips, including tzatziki (cucumber), tirokafteri (red peppers), melitzanosalata (eggplant) and hummus (chickpeas). The mushroom pie or manitaropita had a savory mix of button, oyster and enoki mushrooms in that housemade filo pastry. Another pie that was served, kreatopita was filled with beef braised in red wine and combined with white cheese.
If you are thinking that these starters can already make a full meal, you’re right! But there were three more starters to go before the mains, including garides saganaki, a dish of roasted shrimp, tomatoes and feta. There was beef kalamaki, rib fingers on skewers with a parsley salad on the side, then a refreshing Tagaytay green salad of mixed greens, lime segments, muscat grapes, cucumber pears, dill and sorrel in a yuzu vinaigrette. A roasted grape salad with walnuts, goat cheese, red onion, and sweet potato was almost a savory dish.
For the mains, a Seafood Elaia was a pasta dish of aglio olio, or garlic and oil, with clams, mussels, shrimp and squid. The seafood was fresh and light but we managed only a taste because next on the table was an octopus stew, which featured this mollusk braised in red wine and tomatoes and served over a rice pilaf. Octopus can be tough if not cooked correctly but the Greeks have this down to an art because they love this tasty creature. Another seafood dish featured grilled whole pompano served with grilled lemons and crisp garlic on top.
Although Elaia is vegetable centered, the carnivores will be very happy with the beef stifado, braised brisket with carrots, whole shallots, grape molasses, served with Elaia’ signature mashed potatoes. Chef Robby has been recognized by the Australian government for his promotion of Australian lamb, and at Elaia, I don’t know what I enjoyed more, the lamb chops al ajillo that were marinated in herbs or the arni sto fourno, lamb shoulder that had been roasted for eight hours.
“I’m the lambassador,” chef Robby tells us. “Be sure you get young lamb. I opened Cyma because there are lots of steak houses but not so many serve lamb.” His personal favorite is lamb ribs.
Pork lovers will surely love the grilled pork belly, served with Greek fries and those who prefer chicken can opt for the souvlaki plate which features an Aegean slaw, pita bread, tomatoes, onions and fries.
A vegetarian can even have a full meal here, because apart from the mostly vegetable-based canapes, we were served ladera, a category of Greek dishes featuring vegetables cooked in olive oil. Our ladera included green beans or fasolakia, spinach rice or spanakorizo, oven-roasted veggies or briam and Greek baked beans or gigantes plaki.
Greek cuisine is that perfect kind of Mediterranean food that can help you live a healthier life (“heartier” is how chef Robby likes to put it.) Chingky Goco, chef Robby’s slim wife, says her husband cooks her creative dishes like cauliflower rice, and makes substitutions like sweet potatoes instead of potatoes. Salad is a staple in their house and even their 14-year-old (they have two daughters) eats salad.
For dessert, we had a cherry Bordeaux frozen yogurt; ehmek or a Greek tiramisu with kataifi pastry, semolina custard and whipped cream; plus sokolatopita, a moist chocolate cake with brown butter buttercream and salted caramel.
To cap off the event, chef Robby demonstrated how quick and easy it is to make that classic Greek salad, cutting up the fresh Silang produce and making a simple dressing of extra virgin olive oil, wine vinegar, oregano, salt and pepper.
