More collaborations in the works, plus a certain star is twinkling in Chef Carmignani’s eye

THE Peninsula Manila’s new Executive Chef, Remy Carmignani, has only been in his position for six months, but he already has a few tricks and big plans up his sleeve.

On Jan. 23, he hosted a two-night four-hands dinner at The Pen’s Old Manila with his former colleague in Paris, Anne-Sophie Nicolas, now chef de cuisine at Gaddi’s, the historic French restaurant at The Peninsula Hong Kong. Standing since 1953, Gaddi’s is one of the first restaurants in Hong Kong to serve haute French cuisine.

Combined, the pair has decades of culinary experience between them. Ms. Nicolas’ resume includes locations such as Le Meurice Paris, L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon Étoile, Restaurant Guy Savoy, and Ritz Paris, polishing her craft over 15 years. As for Mr. Carmignani, he can say that he’s worked with Philippe Groult (Assistant Culinary Arts Director and Head of the Cuisine Department at Le Cordon Bleu institute in Paris), Guy Savoy (Gordon Ramsay’s mentor), and Daniel Boulud (a celebrity chef with fame in New York’s Upper East Side) on his resume, with around 23 years of experience under his belt.

For the amuses-bouche, Mr. Carmignani came out with a tarama (a roe dip) stuffed in a cannoli with caviar, while Ms. Nicolas made salmon with a bavarois of Jerusalem artichoke. These were paired with a Barons de Rothschild Concordia Brut Champagne NV. The tarama was robust and earthy for a fish dish, and almost bitter in its powerful smokiness; the Champagne gave it some levity. The salmon was divine, and served as a counterpoint for Mr. Carmignani’s dish: as light as Monsieur’s was dark and heavy. The salmon was stretched over the paste of artichokes, and it felt like biting on a cloud. The salmon snapped with a bite like the skin on a drum, while the Champagne only highlighted the dish’s lightness.

Next came her Le King Crabe, a navette tart of king crab and caviar and lobster jelly. This was paired with a Grand Bateau Bordeaux Blanc Sec 2023 (the joke that the wine’s name means “big boat” paired with a little boat-tart wasn’t lost on us). The flavors of the seafood were very much alive, but otherwise elegantly restrained and not jumping out of the plate. The pairing, softly fruity, enhanced the dish’s elegance.

His Les Fagottini d’Agneau (that’s not a slur; it’s a filled pasta resembling a dumpling) was stuffed with lamb made a la Marocain (Moroccan-style), lightly simmered in a bath of lamb consommé, with winter truffles and splashed with coriander oil. It summarized all of the flavor of a tender lamb in a spoonful, and gave meaning to “tender” if it pertained to taste and not texture. The wine, a Chateau Branas Grand Poujeaux “Les Eclats de Branas” Moulis-en-Medoc Bordeaux 2017, rich with the scent of wood and incense and tasting heavily of spice, was a bit too strong for the dish; pairing it with the Grand Bateau gave the dish some hints of cream and butter.

Next came another of his dishes, Le Turbot, with the fish arriving poached with seasonal mushrooms, celeriac textures, cockles, and the Binchotan-grilled fish barbels. The fish was divine; the flesh creamy in taste and texture. This was paired with a juicy Domaine de Vernus Regnie Cru de Beaujolais 2022, amplifying the fish’s creaminess.

Her main dish was Le Pigeon, a roasted pigeon breast, a confit of the bird’s leg, and a red wine sauce made with the bird’s liver and heart. Very indulgent, and the bird tasting strongly (pleasantly) of innards, it had a very robust flavor. This was paired with a Troplong Mondot Saint Emilion Bordeaux 2021, also a bit too strong for our taste, but the wine paired with the lamb tempered the more forward qualities of the pigeon.

Due to all this indulgence, we contented ourselves with moving around the dessert, Ricotta di pecora gelato, Sicilian pistachio Chantilly, meringue drops, and lemon gel around our plate. The few spoonfuls we had were paired with a Pizzolato Moscato Dolce Muse Veneto NV (far too rich and sweet to go together, in our opinion), but it paired beautifully with the initial Champagne.

DISCUSSING PLANS FOR THE PEN
After dinner, we talked with Ms. Nicolas about her experiences working at Gaddi’s, one of Hong Kong’s most-storied restaurants. “You get a little pressure, and a push to do better,” she said. “I try to keep the style as French as possible.”

French women are said to have “je ne sais quoi”: a quality hard to pinpoint that completes them. What she brings to the kitchen might be able to answer what is there to “sais” (know). “When I create a dish, I use my memory to find the inspiration,” she said.

As for Mr. Carmignani, he told us about his plans for the hotel: he’s tweaking the menus for Old Manila, Spices, The Lobby, and completely revamping the menu at the Pen Boutique. His big plans include improving the in-room dining selections. “All of the outlets available in in-room dining,” he said, with challenges such as logistics — some dishes just don’t travel well.

He’s looking forward to more collaborations: “I’m always learning something new,” he said in a group interview. “If you don’t learn, especially in the kitchen, you can’t go that far.”

More collaborations planned this year, as part of a series, are with chefs from Peninsula properties around the region: forthcoming are collaborations with chefs from Tokyo and Bangkok.

At the same time, he’s busy planning for The Pen’s 50^th anniversary this year (he’s keeping it under wraps, but old names might make a comeback).

That should help in his goal for this year: earning a Michelin star for Old Manila. “We want to get the star,” he said, but that shouldn’t arrive at the expense of the real job at hand. “The most important part is for the guests to come back. If our guests come back, for us, it’s a big win — meaning, we have done the job well.”

Still, “I think it’s the right moment in the Philippines to come and express yourself.” — Joseph L. Garcia

The menu at Solaire Resort North’s Finestra gets revamped

WE LOVE a chef who is in touch with his roots: and from a chef born in what was once a Phoenician settlement, those roots run deep.

Finestra at Solaire Resort North invited us over for dinner on Jan. 26 to introduce its chef de cuisine, Joel Manchia, who hails from Olbia in Sardinia, and seems to love his family a lot judging from his food.

The antipasti at the newly revamped bar area included a Mortadella open-faced sandwich, with excellent homemade bread, the cheese blending into the bread as if they had always been one, the union interrupted by the richly porky mortadella. We made bites out of Portuguese sardines, which he served with capered butter and pickled onions. We also had great fun with his octopus, breaded and served with an aioli: just the right texture. This he uncovered last: cottony soft meatballs in a cheesy tomato sauce — a recipe from his very own mother.

We washed all of this down with sparkly Bellinis, and their version of a Negroni: the Pecoroni. It’s made with Bulldog Gin, Pancetta-fatwashed Bianco Vermouth, campari, and Pecorino foam: all this combined made us think we were drinking a multicourse dinner.

They had to extract us from the bar for more treats: there was an amuse-bouche of Wagyu Carpaccio on a potato millefeuille fried in Wagyu fat: it had a very intense taste, and little of it from the relatively mild Carpaccio. Next came platters of antipasti: there was a slow-braised Wagyu ragu poured on top of a Roman risotto suppli — the ragu was almost fully liquid after a braise of 12 hours, lending all those hours of flavor to the rice. He takes a little bit from his adventures outside the hotel, channeling the sour vinegar from Pinoy street food calamari with a tart lemon-parsley sauce and sharp pickled onions, complementing that with a black garlic aioli further blackened with squid ink.

While he served several pastas — there was a filling and creamy orecchiette with king prawn and broccoli, and handmade tortelli stuffed with Parma ham and balsamic — the star no doubt was his version of Pomodoro, arguably the baseline for all Italian pasta dishes. He made this by cooking the pasta in tomato water, making a tomato salsa to rest at the bottom, and a tomato coulis on top: then sprinkling it with powdered tomato skin. It had a very intense tomato taste and captured the essence of a tomato, slowly turning ripe and juicy on a vine. Uniformly, the pasta dishes are heavily textured but have a light taste and touch.

For the mains, he brought out a very tender roasted lamb with pumpkin cooked in the lamb’s fat, an Australian Wagyu Carrara M9 Ribeye (surprisingly light for a steak; its chimichurri accompaniment gave it a nice lively grassiness). While we liked all of the mains, we couldn’t stop thinking about the Yellowfin Tuna, lightly charred and served with pickled lemons. The fish itself was very aggressive, but paired with the pickles, it was almost like eating something that cleansed the palate.

As for the desserts, Mr. Manchia channeled his own grandmother with My Nonna Hanni’s Brown Sugar Tart, wonderfully creamy and rich, served with coffee gelato. The Chocolate Pudding, very rich and warming, was served in a little cast-iron pot, and was made with the wagyu’s tallow (ensuring no waste).

SAME NAME, DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS
While the Finestra restaurants in Solaire Resort North and Solaire Resort Entertainment City down south share a name, Mr. Manchia is taking his northern base in a different direction.

Finestra down south is known for its fine-dining, degustacion-portioned opulence. As one can see from the selections above, opulence and excellence still take precedence, but up north “We want to give the kind of celebration that we used to have in my hometown, or with my family,” he said. “If I come with my family at the restaurant, nobody will order one dish each. We’ll all have a feast in the middle.” So up north, the dishes and serving sizes are geared more towards sharing (and what a difference it makes!).

As for his hometown in Olbia — when the Romans came there, it was already bustling with Greeks, taking off from what the Phoenicians left behind — he said that the flavors there come from both the land and sea: hence the prominence of seafood in the menu. However, he pointed to the roast lamb, one of the most important dishes in Olbia. “We eat a lot of sheep. If you think about it, there are one million people in Sardinia — and two and a half million sheep,” he said with laughter (we like him, he’s funny).

As for sharing his family recipes, he talked about his mother’s meatballs: “She wasn’t really a good cook. She made two things, and they were really nice.” As for his Nonna, that heroine of all Italian tables, he said that she had passed 10 years ago. “Sometimes, there are little treats of things, and I get the memory of her,” which is why he served up her tart for dessert.

“They deserve a place here, because, well, they made me,” he said, again with laughter. “Everything is thanks to them.”

For reservations and inquiries, visit sn.solaireresort.com/dining/finestra, call 8888-8888, or e-mail snrestaurantevents@solaireresort.com. — Joseph L. Garcia