For Mother’s Day, the Sofitel Philippine Plaza Manila asked popular cooks and chefs to share family recipes, which were then interpreted by the kitchen staff at Spiral, the hotel’s all-day dining restaurant.

 

Chef Mia Manuel of the defunct Lolo Dad’s in Manila chose savory and sweet dishes like Pork Pâté, Duck Liver Mousse, and Gravlax and Cream Cheese Cake, as well as a Butter Cupcake with Lemon Cream Frosting, Canonigo with Custard Sauce, and White Chocolate Pots de Crème.

 

These were inspired by family vacations spent in France and are dishes from her mother, Dr. Maria Lim-Ayuyao, the youngest daughter of World War II hero Gen. Vicente Lim. Two of the items, the Gravlax and Cream Cheese Cake and the White Chocolate Pots de Crème, are favorites of Manuel’s son Justin.

 

Spanish fare

 

Fans of the decadent Spanish fare at La Cocina de Tita Moning can look forward to Chef Suzette Montinola’s dishes like the bread and butter pudding concocted by Montinola’s grandmother Tita Moning.

Back then, she used fresh—not stale—sliced American bread, salted butter and candied pili nuts. For the press preview last week, Montinola served another version of the pudding that was laced with chocolate syrup.

 

Other recipes she willingly shared with the Spiral chefs include Whole Baked Lapu-Lapu served three ways (with butter, with olive oil and

garlic, or made richer with white wine, olives, parsley and garlic), Tita Moning’s beef Osso Buco Gremolata, and Roast Pork a la Tita Moning.

 

There was also a pan of Montinola’s meltingly soft Lengua (beef tongue) that was wiped out almost immediately.

 

Nina Daza-Puyat, the editor in chief of Appetite magazine, describes herself as “a typical homemaker who loves to cook and eat.” She is also the daughter of the late veteran chef and cookbook author Nora Daza. Her list of shared dishes includes a deceptively simple recipe for French Onion Tartlets.

 

The tiny tasty morsels are actually a combination of the onion tart on puff pastry that she tried at Lutèce in New York and her mom’s French onion soup gratinée, a specialty at the Dazas’ French restaurant, Au Bon Vivant.

 

Daza-Puyat’s other savories include Portobello Mushroom Fries Served with Garlic Mayo, Fried Mixed Seafood Crepe (lumpiang lamang dagat) with Tartar Sauce, and Chicken Relleno with Giblet Gravy. The solitary sweet is Alfajores, shortbread cookies that are “so delicate, they melt in your mouth,” as she described it.

 

Three types of chocolate

 

Actress and foodie Judy Ann “Juday” Santos shared dishes that her family likes to eat, such as beef kaldereta, lumpiang Shanghai, chicken curry, ginataang mais and triple chocolate champorado. For the last dish, she used three types of chocolate: cocoa powder, milk chocolate and dark chocolate. It’s her go-to comfort food and the most requested dish of visiting friends.

 

Guests who join the brunch at Spiral this Sunday (May 10) will have the chance to meet the featured cooks and chefs. Their dishes, however, will be available for lunch and dinner from May 8 to 10 with the restaurant’s other continental and Asian selections.

 

Call Spiral at 5515555 loc. 6988 or e-mail [email protected].