Hilton Manila embraces Pinoy food, local ingredients

MANILA – When a new hotel opens, there’s going to be at least two new restaurants added to the local food industry.

This means two things: more competition for other restaurants, and new clients for food suppliers like farmers, importers, and specialty products producers. It may seem bad news for the former, but definitely good news for the latter.

Keeping it local is part of the food philosophy of Hilton Hotels. According to Chef Dennis Leslie, supporting local producers is something the hotel has always been known for.

This was practiced when he was working as executive chef of Hilton Adelaide. And now, he is hoping to replicate that here in the Philippines as the executive chef of the newly opened Hilton Manila.

“We really go out of our way to get sustainability a focus on or food and have this good relationship with farmers and growers and really use low food miles and low carbon miles in our food... With such great produce here in Manila, I hope we can replicate that, too,” he said during the preview of the hotel’s dining outlets.

Located at the Newport City complex in Pasay City, Hilton Manila is the latest addition to the growing number of luxury hotels in the country.

It has 357 rooms, a lagoon pool, three restaurants, and two bars.

Chef Leslie, who is Filipino-Australian, is bringing his food philosophy and more than two decades of culinary experience to Hilton Manila. He has worked with Michelin-starred chefs such as Christophe Gravois in Ireland and Raymond Blanc in England.

Before joining Hilton Manila, he was the executive chef and food and beverage manager of Adelaide Oval stadium, a complex that has more than 20 food outlets, including a fine dining restaurant.

Back in Australia, he was already passionate about Filipino food.

“The food that I was doing back in Australia was predominantly Filipino flavors, trying to introduce Filipino flavors to Australians using local ingredients. The philosophy here’s much the same. We want to use local ingredients and introduce new ways of cooking, new ways of presenting food, and also using local ingredients with a Filipino twist in all our dishes. This is something I am passionate about and it’s something South Australia is known for, locally produced food,” he explained.

FILIPINO TAKES CENTER STAGE

One of Hilton Manila’s dining outlets embraces local cuisine.

Named after the Filipino word for kitchen, Kusina is the hotel’s all-day buffet restaurant. It mainly offers Filipino food, but also serves international fare.

Entering the dining space, guests are greeted by a Samalamig bar where diners can try traditional Filipino street drinks or coolers.

The interior takes inspiration from Filipino design like the wooden balusters, wall accents, traditional textile-inspired furniture upholstery, and the sungka serving dish for condiments and pre-meal munchies like peanuts and dilis.

Kusina also follows dampa-style dining during dinner service where guests can pick their seafood of choice and ask the staff to prepare it for them according their preference.

“In Kusina, you’ll feel that Filipino atmosphere when you enter the room. It has a big open kitchen. In the evening, a lot of the food can be prepared dampa-style. You can choose your ingredients and choose the way it’s cooked,” shared Hilton Manila general manager Simon McGrath.

During the preview, Chef Leslie personally demonstrated the preparation of the restaurant’s own version of kilawin made from kingfish with avocado puree, calamansi juice, chevre (goat cheese), orange wedges, and coriander oil.

They also served pork sisig on a gold plate, a beef and vegetables kare-kare in a palayok, heirloom garlic rice, and stuffed chicken wings.

Chef Leslie also explained what ingredients they would source locally like chicken, pork, eggs, seafood, vegetables, and fruits. They will, however, still import products not available in the country.

“The vegetables, about 90% is local and there are some stuff that we cannot get locally so there’s some Chinese stuff they have to get imported. For beef, we can get for kare-kare is local beef but for our grilled beef and steak, it’s going to be from Australia, 90 days grass-fed and finished off with grain. The brand is called Cape Grim from Tasmania. We get sustainable seafood, from local waters,” he said.

CHINESE, CAFE, AND BAR CHOW

On the other hand, the hotel’s Chinese restaurant is Hua Ting: Brasserie Chinoise, specializing in Shanghai cuisine. The hotel hired two Chinese chefs from Shanghai to create authentic Shanghainese food.

Located on the second floor, the interiors are posh modern Chinese, following a black, white, and green motif. The elegant space is spruced up by plush leather furniture, marble tables, celadon dinnerware, and golden cutlery.

Hua Ting serves several dumplings including three types of xiao long bao—Shanghai, crab meat, and mushroom. There’s also the special fried pork bun and the rice cake with dried scallops, a staple street food in Shanghai.

Other must-try dishes include the sweet and sour pork ribs with three kinds of vinegar, spicy braised eggplant, fried garoupa with tomato sauce, and hong shao rou or Shanghai-style braised pork belly.

On the ground floor is the Madison Lounge and Bar, an outlet inspired by New York City. It’s a café during the day, and a bar at night.

“Madison during the day is an upscale cafe with a beautiful array of pastries, and everything is prepared in the premises. We have two blends provided by Toby’s Estate that are specific to Madison. In the evening, Madison morphs into a sophisticated lounge bar, we actually refer to it as our third restaurant because it has a substantial menu,” McGrath explained.

The cafe serves various pastries like flavored croissants (lemon meringue, blueberry, chocolate, etc.), cheesecake, muffins, cookies, and a lot more.

The savory menu dishes are perfectly paired with signature cocktails like Manilacolada (piña colada with fresh coconut juice and coconut meat). Some must-try items include the mushroom croquettes, smoked salmon macaron, twice-cooked baby back ribs, grilled corned beef with mornay sauce, and crispy school prawns with sour cream dip.

And there’s the Big Apple dessert, an apple-shaped pastry made with white chocolate mousse with an apple pie filling and streusel crumble.