Toyo Eatery leads collab dinners to promote sustainability
The Asian food and beverage industry is still in its infancy when it comes to sustainability. Only a few actually religiously abide by it. And those who do are actively campaigning for others to join the notable crusade by way of awareness and inspiration through talks and one-off dining events, much like the one held by the Singapore Tourism Board and this writer last Sept. 17.
To prove that sustainability isn’t just a trend or a buzzword and that it’s something we should start normalizing in preparation for the future, we organized a multicourse dinner participated in by key players in the Asian industry, hoping that our collective effort can provide the drive or motivation, no matter how small or big it may be, to contribute to the conservation of food and the environment for generations to come.
“If the public doesn’t know that you don’t want to go in that direction, then everyone will stick to nonrenewables,” says Jordy Navarra of Toyo Eatery. “Without the question, the push and the awareness, we wouldn’t even be considering finding a solution. To create large movements, you need a small ripple.”
Joining him and his formidable team in this advocacy are Li Guang Han of Labyrinth, which was given the Sustainable Restaurant recognition by Asia’s 50 Best in 2021 (the same award was given to Toyo this year), Stephan Duhesme of Metiz and Vijay Mudaliar of Native Bar. Each of their establishments is exhausting efforts to rally the cause, from composting and promoting locavorism, to eliminating plastic and placing utmost importance on staff welfare.
Serving sustainability
“Almost everything we used in our dishes was locally grown in the Philippines,” says Han. “And the great thing about working with Jordy when doing procurement is that I am 100 percent sure that the produce he sourced for the event was sustainably and ethically farmed, given his own commitment to sustainability.”
He was referring to the mud and blue crabs from Cebu, four types of tomatoes and crab fat used for his version of a Singaporean favorite. His chili crab came as a meaty claw in a pool of red sauce dressed with mustard sprouts and served with fried mantou. Tinawon rice steamed with a flavorful broth and served with spring onions, mushrooms and poached local chicken made up his chicken rice.
Native topped a betel leaf with homemade pineapple shoyu, the byproduct of a cocktail they served. They also did a cold somen with leeks, charred peppers, shiso and a granita made with tomato water as well as the liquid from white kimchi. What is usually discarded, they turned into a dish component.
Both Metiz and Toyo produced plates that made delicious stunners out of vegetables—from a crispy torta crowned with squash, monggo, kangkong and onion, to a grilled banana heart with caramelized cashew glaze and puffed black rice.
The desserts flexed their muscles on creativity and showcased their collaborative efforts. Duhesme and Mudaliar worked on an amazake ice cream with mango compressed in orange juice and dikay leaf granita, while Han and Navarra came up with a roasted rice ice cream with bakwa, raspberry and shaved ice.The outstanding dinner proved that delicious meals can play a huge role in saving the world.
Team up with Taiwan
Just a few days before the sustainable dinner, Toyo Eatery also had the privilege of hosting another collaboration in their newly renovated Karrivin space, this time with a notable restaurant from Taipei.
A former chef at Kawate’s Florilège in Tokyo, chef Ryogo Tahara, packed his bags and moved to Taiwan from Japan two years ago to run Logy. It didn’t take long before the restaurant took off, got noticed and was rewarded. It got its first Michelin star in five months, and bagged two in 2020. Last Sept. 13, the Hokkaido native was in Manila to cook alongside the Toyo team for the very first time.
The menu proved to be an impressive showcase of flavor combinations, textural contrasts and finesse in techniques in presenting seafood and vegetable numbers. There was a carrot peel taco, in which nestled thinly sliced carrots, sour cream cheese, perilla and sesame leaves; a few variations of kinilaw including mackerel with pickled ginger, red onion and gooseberries from the Mountain Province; amberjack from Japan, pomelo and dalandan cradled in a seaweed chip from Ilocos; and Hokkaido scallops slightly torched with baby corn from Tarlac, fermented chili, lemon balm and kombu oil.
Most notable were the gabi root and pounded shrimp from Batangas that were wrapped in rosella leaf from Abra, then steamed with kabayawa; freshwater eel from South Cotobato steamed with sake, caramelized with brown sugar then grilled and served with chocolate and cheese sauce; and flan ice cream that took three days to make, accompanied by buckwheat foam from Hokkaido, local fig from Quezon province, and asin duldul from Guimaras.
Much like the varying components and origins in their plates, Navarra and Tahara were in delicious unison.
Toyo Eatery is located at The Alley at Karrivin, 2316 Pasong Tamo Extension, Makati. Email may@toyoeatery.com. Follow the author @fooddudeph.
Chef Li Guang Han of Labyrinth (SG), chef Jordy Navarra of Toyo Eatery (PH), area director of Singapore Tourism Board Philippines Fang Xun Ong, Vijay Mudaliar, head bartender and coowner of Native (SG) and chef Stephen Duhesme of Metiz (PH) —CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS
Angelo Comsti writes the Inquirer Lifestyle column Tall Order. He was editor of F&B Report magazine.
