The ‘oooh’ in food
Carlo is a combination of Mr. Clean and Cate Blanchett. Here he addresses the guests. He also did the flower arrangements.
Our friend Carlo the pastry chef, who has been very scarce in the last two or three years, invited us to the graduation dinner of the Heny Sison Culinary School, where he teaches the art and science of pastry. “If he thinks he can make up for a year’s non-appearance by treating us to dinner,” we scoffed, “He’s absolutely right.” For we know that Carlo is so snooty discriminating about food preparation, the dinner would certainly be fantastic.
True, when we saw the menu card, we had questions. “Only four courses?” we wondered. “Are we on a diet?” After that we were not inclined to ask any questions at all: the cheese buffet shut us up.
Literally, too, because it is not easy to complain about the austerity of the meal when you are having truffled cheeses and Camembert with honey and figs while the waiter constantly tops up your glass of wine. And the meal had not even officially begun.
First there were Caprese skewers—crouton with tomatoes, farmer’s cheese and basil—and a refreshing Calamansi sgroppino, essentially a citrus spritzer.
Then came the Salade Nicoise, a.k.a. the dish most likely to elicit a mis-correction from a smarmy waiter if you pronounce it correctly. (Tell him here is an ‘e’ at the end so it is Nis-waz.) Very satisfying; the anchovy and seared tuna made it a meal.
Followed by Mushroom and Black Truffle Ravioli. The portion looks small, but the flavors are so intense that any more would be a sin. Speaking of sin, isn’t it irritating when you go to a dinner that aspires to fabulousness—it is prepared by graduating student chefs for their favorite people after all—and you hear people bemoaning the richness of the food and its caloric content? If you want to be virtuous, go and sit on top of a column in the desert where your ration of bread and water has to be hoisted up to you on a pulley (See Buñuel’s Simon of the Desert).
And then a superb Bouillabaisse—seafood stew in fennel-saffron broth and rouille. By this time our stomachs were content, but we had not even had our main course, or as it is commonly known, Dessert.
Dessert was not one, two, or three items, but a buffet. The macadamia tarts and Rocky Road bars with chewy marshmallows were sublime. Did you know that marshmallows are made of confectioner’s sugar, egg white and gelatin? Being completely ignorant of culinary matters, we thought they grew on trees.
The evening was punctuated with chocolate and coffee. As of this writing, we are plotting to crash every single graduation dinner at the cooking school.
The Heny Sison Culinary School is at 33 Bonnie Serrano Avenue corner Sunrise Drive, Crame, Quezon City, tel. 0918-371-5478. For general inquiries and information on the next class series, email info@henysison.com or visit their website.