Michelin-starred chef is ?palengke king? for a day
THIS WAS NO WAY TO GO TO MARKET, at least in my experience?riding on brand new BMW cars, easing our way through morning traffic with a police escort and then being mobbed by TV crews and news photographers.

But then it was no ordinary man who was going to market. Alain Ducasse, essentially a French chef who attained culinary superstar status because his restaurants in Paris, Monaco and London have been awarded so many Michelin stars, wanted to see the local produce.

That was part of his avowed mission?to know the local ingredients. And in Manila, Farmer?s Market in Cubao, Quezon City was where his visit happened.

It was chef See Cheong Yan who guided Ducasse through the stalls, explaining the produce. See is the corporate culinary head of Enderun Colleges, which has partnered with the Alain Ducasse Formation, the French chef?s culinary school.

Members of the party, which I was lucky to be part of, could hardly stand close to Ducasse because of the cameras crowding him. We could only observe as he was given fruits to taste (mango, kaimito or star apple, macopa). The group passed quickly through the fish section where a live maya-maya (red snapper) suddenly jumped from the stall as if paying homage to this chef who campaigns against farmed fishing and is for sustainable eating.

I?m guessing that he might have looked amazed at the huge milkfish or bangus because I was. If I had some say in his market itinerary, I would have led him to vendors who process the milkfish for free according to the dish, whether for paksiw, inihaw, daing or relleno, all done so fast and expertly.

At the meat section, Ducasse saw how we cut our meats including pig?s head already deboned with the ears hanging on hooks. We passed through the section where goats? meats are sold, a unique feature of Farmer?s.

At the vegetable section you could see how intent Ducasse looked at the items, touching and smelling some. Chef See cut a purple yam for him.

Ducasse now and then looked for the two chefs he brought with him, Nicholas Navarro and Timothy Briggs, who cooked dinner the night before. Like a true teacher, he wanted to be assured that they were also being guided through all that hoopla.

?Lumpiang ubod?

Part of the tour included tasting products other than fruits. Margarita Fores, whose family owns Farmer?s Market, handed him her aunt?s version of lumpiang ubod, explaining that the main ingredient is coconut pith.

?Lots of garlic,? was his comment, the first time I heard his voice that day.

He tasted just-brewed barako coffee from one of the stalls whose seller looked amused at all the fuss. And then at one of the stalls in the dampa section, the generic name for a place to have your market buys cooked, he sampled bibingka and puto bumbong, brought back to service only for that Ducasse visit.

Lunch after that market trip was at 101, the fine-dining restaurant of Enderun and where culinary students practice their cooking. It was the market party Ducasse had for company, a small group compared to the previous night?s French dinner of several tables.

But before the food was served, Ducasse wanted to get an overview of the lunch by going through the items in the menu and asking the party to describe each.

On the table were three kinds of atsara or pickled green papaya, ubod, salsa monja?that he kept on picking. It was a good introduction to the prevalent sour taste in our cooking.

The menu was supervised by Suzette Montinola, a faculty member who welcomed everyone and took charge of explaining the dishes.

Ducasse asked if Montinola had a restaurant and when we said Cucina de Tita Moning where her grandmother?s recipes were still being cooked in the setting of the ancestral home, he said he liked it that heritage cooking is still preserved.

The appetizer platter contained three kinds. Kilawin was translated as ceviche, oysters and Spanish mackerel bathed in vinegar. Sisig took more time to explain: pork face boiled, grilled, then chopped and sizzled, presented with a fried quail egg on top.

Green mango salad was the third. But a separate serving of dinuguan or blood stew was placed on top of small white puto. Blood stew is familiar to the French, but the small rounded puto had to be explained?rice cake that almost always accompanies the stew and this one from a town in the north (Calasiao, Pangasinan).

?Binakol?

When the binakol was served using a bamboo container to pour the broth onto the bowls containing the chicken, Ducasse smiled while talking in French to his seatmates. He was told that the traditional way to cook binakol is in a bamboo standing on charcoal embers.

To signal the start of the main course, a whole lechon was brought in before it was portioned and served. When asked to pose with it, Ducasse made it look like he was cracking the skin, which delighted those of us who would have done the same thing.

There was also lechon kawali that needed no explanation.

Pinakbet we offered as our ratatouille. There was pork adobo and fried tilapia presented so they looked like dancing fish.

But he was most impressed with two of the courses?pinais na alimasag, described as blue crab, meat shredded and cooked with young coconut, put back into the carapace, wrapped in banana leaves and grilled; and the puso ng saging, with coconut milk, the banana heart hopefully pointed out to him at the market.

Rice choices included our white and fried rice and the Cordillera mountain rice.

The desserts included a shot glass of ginumis (tapioca pearls with coconut milk and shaved ice); leche flan (no need to explain it seems); and sapin-sapin, layers of rice flour with coconut milk and ube.

At the end, thick tsokolate e was served. It would have been great to explain what our national hero, Jose Rizal, had to say about this beverage, but it was time for Ducasse to prepare for the industry forum entitled ?Before Cuisine, There was Nature.?

After the forum, he was presented with the book, ?Kulinarya: A Guidebook to Philippine Cuisine.? Together with the market visit and the Filipino lunch, it rounded off his introduction to Filipino food, ingredients and techniques.