In awe of Meta’s Sun Kim
“I have been to Manila four times, mostly for collaborations with restaurants. On my recent trip, I was invited to cook for Solaire’s 12th anniversary. It feels very special for me to cook alongside top chefs from Japan and Italy in one of the best hotels in the Philippines.”
This was what chef Sun Kim of two-Michelin-starred restaurant Meta told me weeks ago when I had the privilege of dining at Waterside, where he served a special tasting menu for lunch and dinner for a couple of days.
For the third year in a row, Solaire Resort Entertainment City has flown in a handful of Michelin-starred chefs from all over the world to cook in their signature restaurants. And like the previous years, 2025’s roster was just as impressive and exciting.
At Yakumi, chef Jun Yukimura of three-Michelin-starred restaurant Azabi Yukimura rolled out his notable take on Kyoto cuisine with a bespoke nine-course kaiseki that showcased his philosophy and style. There was cold soba noodles seasoned with bottarga powder, steamed Japanese pike conger, grilled surf and turf composed of snow crab and Australian lamb chop, a Wagyu beef shabu-shabu, and for dessert, a refreshing pineapple sorbet.
Meanwhile, over at Finestra, highly celebrated three-Michelin-starred chef Heinz Beck delighted guests with his amiable presence and techniques that validated his status as a master in gastronomy. His Italian menu included shrimps with sweet peppers and green gazpacho, marinated amberjack with oxidized chocolate and celeriac in seawater, pumpkin risotto with balsamic vinegar and black truffle, and pistachio-crusted veal with dried fruits.
Korean heritage
For his take, Kim tipped his hat to his Korean heritage with the use of French and Japanese culinary know-how, much like what he does in his multi-awarded restaurant in Singapore.
“I wanted to give diners the Meta experience so I brought my own ingredients and cooked dishes from the recent menu that we serve in the restaurant. There was one item that I wanted to cook using a local produce, which was sweet corn,” he said. It came out as a decadent dessert complemented with caramel and popcorn.
Kim’s six-course menu started with a sashimi of tuna and cuttlefish. It looked delicate, a subtle tease for the palate. But a single bite was all it took to prove me wrong as the yuzu and myoga provided a surprising flavor punch.
It was followed by a Hokkaido scallop that was cut into slivers and seasoned with aged soy sauce. It sat on a mound of parsley rice crowned with caviar. This dish proved Sun’s capacity to balance flavors, with the roe delivering the right amount of saltiness to highlight the sweetness of the butter-tender mollusk.
Then came the chawanmushi, which hid under a pool of rice, spanner crab and seafood broth tinted with chili oil, as well as my favorite dish that night, the Jeju abalone porridge with lily bulb and kamtae, the taste of which was harmonized by the addition of chicken hearts, lending that subtly sweet and meaty flavor profile the exquisite number needed. At this point, I was reminded just how clever the chef is and how fortunate I was to have snagged a seat for his sold-out dinner.
The savory courses crescendoed with two bites of grilled Miyazaki wagyu. The ensemble included celtuce, onion purée, and mushroom ragout. The dish looked basic, but the simple presentation was a foil to the complex taste it delivered. The meal was nothing short of outstanding, more so as every plate came with tea as curated by master brewer He Jia.
There is still a year to go before Solaire hosts another celebration of such caliber, but my mouth is already watering in anticipation.
Solaire Resort is located at Entertainment City, 1 Aseana Ave, Parañaque. For more information, log on to www.solairerestort.com.
Follow the author at @fooddudeph on Instagram.
