dining at Gallery by Chele

A few months ago, I wanted to eat at Gallery Vask, only to find out that it was closed for renovation. Little did I know that Chele was actually revamping the Gallery dining experience. And as my days in Manila were winding down, I really wanted to eat there before I left. It was kind of him to arrange a table for me and my friends on opening night; in this particular dining experience, my group included Matty, Man, and Neil (all foodies with different perspectives on food appreciation).

Chele now calls the restaurant Gallery by Chele. And with the change in name came a change in concept. He now wants his clients to experience modern cuisine made with local ingredients. It sounds like a passion project done right. 

This new restaurant is more cozy and casual, perfect for relaxing dinners with friends. There's more wood and stone installations and the lighting allowed us to see the best angles of our food. Aside from this, we were told that some of the furniture were made by designer Kenneth Cobonpue. I couldn't afford a piece but I could sit on one here at Gallery! What a treat!

The price points for the degustation menus were also very affordable (a welcome surprise to us because we felt like we won a Vickrey second-price experimental auction!). Plus, Chele now has a bar with a mixologist creating signature cocktails; so no more balcony drinks for now.

Chele started us off with four types of amuse bouche, which he called "bites": breakfast (quail egg, longganisa, and pickles in a bed of popped rice), tomato mochi (glutinous rice cake balls with tomato and basil), meringue de sal (a mousse containing chicken and soy sandwiched by two meringues), and black blinis (blood puto with salmon roe and sour cream). 

As soon as our palates were whetted, he started intensifying the play of flavours with tiger's milk, an oyster ceviche whose delicate balance of flavours I particularly enjoyed. The textures of the oysters and of the cashews also created a contrast that blended really well.

Because of my seafood allergy, my meal took a vegetarian turn. I had La Guava rather than the soup containing prawns. Now, my soup was interesting because it contained tomato, ginger, and tofu in a guava soup. Again, Chele was playing on his mastery of controlled flavours here. There was such a good balance that I had a hard time describing what I was slurping down.

And then, there's Climate 30º, a salad that I liked because the herby flavours of the green salad contrasted the tartness and the sourness of the pomelo... and yet the flavours were not too strong.

Chele did a great job making us want more food: he whetted our appetites but he didn't overwhelm our palates. It showed me the beauty in understatements and got me ready for the main course, the Holy Mole. It's a dish inspired by the Mexican mole poblano, a reddish brown sauce containing chili peppers and chocolate. Paired with the sauce was chicken cooked to perfection, laid on a bed of sorghum and avocado. A chicken skin crackling on the side helped reduce the umay factor because its taste and texture are so different from the rest of the components of this dish.

I thought that our dinner was already winding down because we already worked through our main course. However, Chele decided to wow us even further with sour ribs, his take on the Filipino classic, bistek Tagalog. He cooked the Snake River Farm wagyu beef until it was so tender and he paired it with onions and leaves from the talinum (Philippine spinach) plant. The flavours were bold enough such that the soy sauce did not come across as too strong.

What a powerful way to end a meal! All the dishes were so yummy; I just know that on my next visit to Manila, I'd eat at Gallery by Chele.

But wait, there's more!

Chele wasn't finished with this tasty adventure. Dessert (coco-nuts) was composed of pomelo, coconut, and jackfruit ice cream. Kaffir lime is somewhere in there as well, perhaps in the coconut cream.

To formally end dinner, Chele served pastillas and jackfruit mochi balls covered in cacao nibs. I likened it to cooling down after a gym session, actually. The petit four cleansed my palate better than tea would have.

We were so blown away by dinner that when Chele dropped by our table, we broke out in applause! The secret to his degustation menus has always been passion for cooking and for learning about local ingredients. He and the team explore the possibilities of stretching the uses of these local ingredients, leading to the outstanding dishes we just experienced in the current reiteration of Studio Lab, which reminds me of the Nordic Food Lab in Copenhagen. Here, Chele's team of chefs are able to get a handle of the different techniques in gastronomy and to research and to innovate new dishes.

The actual Studio Lab is still being constructed so I guess they use the restaurant's main kitchen as the research kitchen in the meantime. Once we stepped inside the facility, my jaw dropped. I just saw the most beautiful dinner set up! Chele is really in a wood and weave stage when it comes to furniture and his earthenware are just superb... I felt like I was eating on artwork!

The restaurant's pegs and inspirations were in full display here. For a few minutes, I thought that I saw Chele's vision for Gallery. 

As always, Chele aimed to wow and he succeeded! I'm so happy that I got a chance to eat there on opening night and that I was able to share the experience with friends who could appreciate it as well.
I'm already looking forward to eating there again!