3 unforgettable collabs, 1 delicious month
The letter X doesn’t necessarily mean a bad thing. In fact, in the culinary scene, it can mean something very exciting, as it most probably means that chefs are working together. X can be a shorthand for collaborations. For chefs, it’s an exchange of ideas, and Manila has long been a venue for such occasions. In May alone, three took place, each providing a unique dining experience.
Tom x Hino
M Dining and Bar, headlined by Tippi Tambunting and Tom Bascon, rarely does collaborations, but whenever they do, they make it worthwhile. Japanese chef Hino Yusuke is a dear friend of the Tambuntings. Theirs is a friendship that started the moment Tippi and her family dined in his old restaurant Kobikicho. Later this year, he is expected to open a new concept, a more high-end restaurant. But before that, M Dining wanted to showcase his skills in anticipation of his new venture.
“The theme for the three-night dinner was Japanese cuisine with a Western touch,” says Tambunting. “The main focus of the dinner was to highlight both seafood and meat offerings. Both of them came together to conceptualize the dishes, to make a menu that worked cohesively.”
The six-course meal, paired with either wine or sake, duly proved their refined talents, fueled by Bascon’s vast experience in Japanese kitchens and Hino’s exposure to Western cuisine from his father’s restaurant in Osaka.
The chefs alternated courses, with Hino kickstarting the dinner with a duo of palate-tingling tartares—ebi on brioche and Wagyu on crostini. It was followed by Tom’s golden-hued scallop number with ikura, tenkasu rice, and aji amarillo cream. Then came seared foie gras topped with grilled unagi that delivered in indulgence.
Bascon’s uni ravioli with guanciale and nori-Parmesan tuile continued the row of richness, which culminated with a Wagyu sirloin sukiyaki. The meal ended with an exclamation point in the form of a banana-shiso harumaki with black sesame ice cream.
“We love the opportunity to showcase a different side of M whenever we have the chance to, so for us this was a no-brainer,” says Tambunting. “Being able to showcase to our patrons the ability to pivot and highlight different taste profiles and flavors is one of our favorite things to do. Yes, you can expect another collab dinner at some point in the near future. We can’t quite share any of the details yet, but we have an inkling that some people will be excited to attend if in fact it does push through.”
Chele x JP
The Tatler Dining Kitchen, which premiered in 2024 with Miko Calo and Stephan Duhesme taking over the Balmori Suites, unrolled its second installment this year with another two-night pop-up, this time at Gallery by Chele in BGC.
“Tatler Dining Kitchen is a Tatler Asia project designed to deliver coveted, limited-edition foodie adventures to discerning foodies, that are not readily available and won’t be available again,” says Tatler dining editor Isabel Francisco. For this year, they paired two Tatler Dining top chef awardees with a common love for the country, its cuisine and its flavors.
Their seven-course menu put the spotlight on seasonal ingredients around the world, and given how their game played out, lucky diners could tell that the event did not just involve talent, but also whimsy in the chefs working together.
Five small bites started the progression in high gear. There was an abalone tartlet made pretty and inviting with the vibrant green crown of malunggay sabayon; a pinakbet croquette seasoned with bagoong isda then capped with jamon and grated French cheese; a light-as-air puff made with wood ear mushrooms and the ears of local black pigs from Batangas, made creamy with the addition of pig’s brain; a lightly smoked Pacific oyster marinated in soy, garlic, ginger, and chili served on the shell with coconut vinegar jelly, and a one-bite roasted duck bao flavored with hoisin and five spice, then topped with thin slices of cured duck.
A series of stunning seafood numbers followed—a kinilaw of yellowtail from Japan doused in homemade cashew vinegar with habanero and lime; seared scallop swimming in a rich pool of pork pata and taupe broth; butterflied carabinero made glossy by soy-garlic butter; and grilled Atlantic black cod made umami by two condiments composed of angel wing clams from Negros and burnt onions.
The savories ended with two meats—an Iberico presa barbecue with papaya and kailan, and, served family-style, lamb lechon roasted Cebu-style, served with salad made with goat’s cheese from Davao and mixed fresh greens, batwan soup, and short grain rice with duman from Pampanga.
Kato-san x Kuramochi-san x Aoyama-san
This much awaited collaboration was a long time coming, and Ryan Cruz, president of Nippon Hasha Inc., confesses to it, too.
“I agree that it took way too long! It’s mainly because we’ve been so busy focusing on developing our core brands and ensuring their consistency that we didn’t want to get distracted by something like this, but we felt that this is something that our guests would love that would capitalize on what we already had,” he says.
For the first time, their restaurant group will champion the strengths of each of their chefs and feature dishes diners wouldn’t normally get to enjoy in a regular menu due to the required accuracy and even complexity of a number of the dishes.
“Since this is going to be the first and most likely the last time that we’ll be doing a collab like this, we wanted to share with everyone some of the dishes that we have tried internally but couldn’t put out, either because of cost or the intricacy of execution. We had to identify a number of things: First is, what were they truly good at? Second, which were the dishes that were normally risky to execute and would usually require an extremely high level of skill? Third is to choose from the dishes what would work well with each other, to further heighten the entire experience as compared to just enjoying them on their own.” Cruz adds.
There were two formats the guests could avail themselves of—one composed of two appetizers, two mains and a dessert, and another with a sashimi course, an extra ramen plus more yakitori.
Both started with small savory bites, one each from Kuramochi and Kato-san before heading into the ramen + yakitori pairings led by Aoyama-san.
Three noodle bowls were served on the two nights (with two seatings)—konbu sui tsukemen, kani ramen, and an oyster ramen. Guests also had the option to pair their meal with beverages.
It may have taken long for such a dream collaboration to happen, but the wait was so well worth it.
Follow the author at @foodddueph in Instagram.
