The culinary world and beyond has been singing Chef Jesse Sincioco’s praises for over 20 years, usually amid a mouthful of her dishes, which are always exquisite, elegant and very refined. In these days of edgy chefs with sleeve tats, Chef Jesse, in her immaculate chef whites embroidered with “I love Pope Francis” (inarguably the most celebrated person she has ever cooked for and her personal favorite), along with the Sacred Heart of Jesus as her phone wallpaper, has remained a true radical. This is a role that isn’t new to her, I imagine, being a trailblazer in her younger years, occupying a place still mostly dominated by men.
As the guest chef of Manila Hotel for the KaBAYANihan food festival in honor of National Heroes’ Day on August 27, Chef Jesse’s meals are inspired by what our national heroes ate. It is, of course, a more refined version because that is the hallmark of Chef Jesse, and authentic recipes of yore pretty much just called for the broth to be poured over dried chicken blood, pork and rice.
We started with Alugbati Salad in bagoong vinaigrette with salted egg and crispy dulong. The greens also had pansit-pansitan as well, which often grows wild. I am well acquainted with alugbati because my mother’s monggo recipe always includes copious amounts of it, or we eat it simply steamed. I was surprised that it works just as well as raw, with the mucilaginous quality a little suppressed, and it has quite the crunch, resembling pako. Celebrity Chef Sharwin Tee also mentioned that the sturdiness of the alugbati stands up well to a strong vinaigrette. The alugbati served is organically grown and sourced from Chef Jesse’s farm. Her sister plants the alugbati, and they are such champions of this native green that they have converted some of the rice plots into an alugbati plantation.
Melchora Aquino’s Tinolang Manok na Tagalog is the quintessential tinola with all the elements present: tender pieces of chicken, sili, papaya in broth. “I did the soup the way I knew my mother and my lola would cook it,” said Chef Jesse, who also shared that tinola is her favorite comfort food. While the secret to that dish is a lot of chicken bones when making the broth, we had it “the way royalty is served their soup,” which is minus all the bones. While native chicken was used in Melchora Aquino’s time, Chef Jesse chose to use a free-range chicken because native chicken has tough meat.
Dr. Jose Rizal’s bistek with caramelized onion, garlic rice and homemade achara is another simple dish that Chef Jesse elevates. The bistek is made from Angus tenderloin and is so tender and perfectly seasoned. The garlic rice is also a sublime version of sinangag. History books say that Rizal ate this dish with “gravy,” which we’re almost sure is just another word for the bistek’s sarsa, and not the gloopy one we associate with fried chicken.
Budin, which is a play on the word “pudding,” is on hand for dessert. The budin is topped with mango rose and mint leaf and is absolutely divine. This custard is considered a pudding because the toasted sponge cake incorporated into this mixture is crushed or shredded, but it’s so smooth you wouldn’t know it’s there, but it adds to the heft. It’s been a while since I ate dessert that is both rich and subtle at the same time, with jeweled surprises of macapuno nuggets to boot. Chef Jesse always manages to distill the essence and flavor of what makes these dishes so iconic, and then elevates them with her signature refinement.
This is just a sample of what is available in Café Ilang-Ilang at The Manila Hotel for the festival which will run from August 20 to September 2. Other dishes Chef Jesse will introduce include Sinigang na Isda sa Mangga; Pinakbet with Bagnet, Diego Silang’s preferred dish; and Lechon Manok stuffed with tamarind leaves, which was a favorite of Gabriela Silang. There will be a degustacion by Chef Jesse Sincioco on September 22 and 29 at the hotel’s Champagne Room. “Our food can compete with the world and our taste is the best,” said Chef Jesse. “If we know how to combine we can come up with something interesting.”