Deconstructing Filipino food the Laudico way

Almost two decades in and they’re still at it.

Celebrated culinary husband and wife team of Chef Rolando Laudico and pastry Chef Jacqueline Juarez Laudico have just released Chef Laudico Flips Out, a cookbook that documents the delightful ways they have reinvented classic Filipino recipes.

This 132-page cookbook includes some 40 time-tested recipes of well-loved dishes and dessert offerings culled from their numerous restaurant projects and private dining engagements.

A true believer in the potential and possibilities of Filipino cuisine since the start, Chef Lau has been one of the driving forces behind its phenomenal growth. Along with Chef Jackie who focuses on desserts, the couple started this lifelong mission with their catering business and later on with the introduction of Bistro Filipino in 2006 at the BGC.

Back then, this move prompted a lot “of raised eyebrows” as “it was the first fine dining Filipino restaurant,” says Chef Lau. It’s the first Filipino restaurant in the country where the average check ran to a thousand bucks or more.

In Bistro Filipino (now defunct) and in subsequent ventures later, the focus has always been the many ways in which Filipino cuisine can be elevated, as it were. Customers were treated to Filipino food decked out in their finest, reimagined and presented in a fresh, modern manner, visually appealing and tasty at the same time.

“I really wanna inspire more kids, young professionals, amateurs, or even professionals to take on Filipino food. And make their own version of our Filipino dishes,” Chef Lau said at a press launch for the book held at their buffet restaurant, Guevarra’s in Addition Hills, San Juan.  

“I encourage them to flip out themselves but at the same time not forgetting the traditional flavors, the roots and what makes it Filipino to begin with. I hope this book actually inspires them to do that. “

“Most of the recipes are already kitchen-tested. The ones that we’ve been doing for years and years,” added Chef Jackie.

One of the standouts is Chef Lau’s Palabok Bites, the pansit dish reframed as a Vietnamese spring roll.  The inspiration for this is quite simple: to get all the yumminess in one bite.

“The reasons why I made it like everything in one bite kasi whenever I eat palabok, gusto ko meron lahat eh (I want to have everything in it): there’s shrimp, there’s pusit, there’s chicharon, then the sauce so in one bite mo kuha mo lahat yun (you get everything),” he explains.

There are the dishes (3 of them), which riff on sinigang, that very Pinoy dish. Up first is crispy kangkong made more special (in the book it’s called Sinigang Bites): the addition of tamarind in its batter yields a sour appetizer. The Crispy Pata Sinigang is basically done the traditional way except that the pork legs are boiled in broth heavily infused with tamarind.  And if you ever find yourself with some leftover gabi after a dinner of pork sinigang, you may try the making them into croquette-like balls.

For panghimagas, you can do no wrong with Chocolate Oh, Chef Jackie’s nod to the guest-differentiating Spanish chocolate drink made with tablea. This innovation asks for additional 4 pieces of egg yolks to form a custard-like consistency and topped with peanut butter mousse.

 

The Laudicos are proud of what they have accomplished in their kitchen as far as pushing the boundaries of what Philippine cuisine can achieve. But even as they gamely deconstruct and reconstruct beloved dishes, they have stuck to one rule: “When we conceptualized or modernize certain dish, we play around with texture, temperatures, cooking methods but we try to stay as near as possible to the inherent flavors,” according to Chef Jackie.

 

Remember, what sets Filipino cuisine apart from the rest is its fundamental flavors. Part of Chef Lau’s introduction to the book reads: “…regardless of how we did a dish like how it was presented, how it was cooked, how it was eaten, adding or substituting ingredients, we did not veer away from its traditional flavors, and we kept the integrity of what makes that dish fantastic to begin with.”

This framework is manifested in the book itself. Each Filipino dish they referenced is described, as it is prepared traditionally. Then when you flip the book upside down, you get to Chef Lau (Savory) or Chef Jackie’s (Sweet) exciting take. It’s a fun device but it can get a bit tiring after some time what with all the flipping around.

But then, I guess, it’s quite fitting as it gives you a certain feel of how their brains operate. Another way of looking at it is to consider one orientation the ‘encyclopedia’ part while the flip pages are the ‘contemporary recipe’ pages.

A long time dream project, Chef Laudico Flips Out! is a worthy addition to any kitchen library. Like brand new parents, its authors are tickled pink to finally share their new baby to the rest of the world.

“This is a fantastic opportunity to inspire more people to take on Filipino food. To know how delicious it is, what makes it delicious, and what you can do with it yourself to make it even more delicious,“ says Chef Lau. – Rappler.com