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Celera and the core memories of Nicco Santos and Quenee Vilar

BY Jar Concengco

February 16, 2025
11:04 am

Nicco Santos and Quenee Vilar’s long-awaited new restaurant Celera is a masterclass in creating a world built on memories and raw Filipino ingenuity

When talking about chefs Nicco Santos and Quenee Vilar’s new restaurant Celera in Makati’s hip complex Comuna, it’s hard not to bring up the past. The two have worked together since 2014 and have crafted a number of concepts since.

“The hardest for me was Hey Handsome. I was so young back then… 22?… and I was given so many responsibilities. I had to learn everything at the same time. I remember for about six months, I would cry every day because I didn’t know what to do,” Vilar reminisces. “But here, it’s fun. It’s more mature. I can handle more stuff—you know what to do next. There’s a system in place.”

Dark interiors allow the space to disappear while surprise pops of texture such as the chain curtain make space for discovery

Santos looks back with a realization.

“When I was starting out at Your Local, the food was punchy. Hey Handsome, even more. As a cook, I really didn’t believe in myself that much when I was starting out. So I hid behind these strong flavors. I love these cultures and cuisines like the Peranakan, Malay, and Indonesian. They were an escape and a reason to hide behind their flavors.”

“Now coming home to Celera, I’m brought back to the reason why I wanted to cook in the first place, which was to create a safe environment for myself and my team to just let loose, be happy, and thrive,” Nicco Santos says

Celera’s interiors were designed by JJ Acuña of JJA Bespoke

“Now coming home to Celera, I’m brought back to the reason why I wanted to cook in the first place, which was to create a safe environment for myself and my team to just let loose, be happy, and thrive,” he says.

Can remembering help rebuild a love for cooking?

Quenee Vilar and Nicco Santos of Celera — Quenee Vilar and Nicco Santos

Santos, who recently just turned 40, takes guests on a trip down memory lane. After all, Celera is the pursuit of the taste of some of his memories. “I’m looking back at certain core memories in my life—most of which are when I was a kid. So, some flavors and ingredients on the menu were based on these memories that I’m longing for or trying to recreate. Celera in Malay means ‘appetite,’ but for me, it’s more like a desire to taste the memory.”

Celera is a break from many of the duo’s past creations. For one, it isn’t strictly focused on Southeast Asian flavors as many of their previous menus were, something Quenee Vilar calls as “more protein-forward

Celera is a break from many of the duo’s past creations. For one, it isn’t strictly focused on Southeast Asian flavors as many of their previous menus were. Vilar calls Celera’s menu as “more protein-forward.” Yes, the food is a lot more refined and matured, but the dishes also have opened up as vessels for storytelling.

At the entrance there are jars of ferments that Celera uses frequently in their dishes

“I have a specific memory in Baguio that I like to chase now. I grew up spending all my summers there when I was young. I remember the smell of pine as I ran around Camp John Hay. I remember bonfires at night as well. So I created this meatball that represents those bonfires and the scent of pine,” Santos recalls.

The meatball is made with kiniing—pork that is smoked in Sagada using pine wood. “We brush the meatball with a pine essence that we get from Baguio. Because the flavors of the kiniing are a little too punchy, we use White Pekin duck as a vehicle to round out the whole experience in the mouth. Then we top it off with strawberries that we slowly grilled,” Santos describes.

The dish that evokes Nicco's memories of Baguio: smoked pork meatball with essence of pine and topped with slowly grilled strawberries — The dish that evokes Nicco’s memories of Baguio: smoked pork meatball with essence of pine and topped with slowly grilled strawberries

The tuna crudo dish has noodles made with smoked tuna heads under a thin blanket of local tuna. It is then poured with a sauce made of vinegar and fermented jalapeños

Another dish is inspired by a crudo with noodles covered in a blanket of thinly sliced tuna. “We used local tuna heads that are not being exported, so they’re like a byproduct. We turn them into a noodle. We smoke it for several hours using santol wood, simmer it for around six hours, and then we turn it into a noodle,” Santos shares. “This dish represents what Celera stands for. It’s basically getting what we have here and using raw Filipino ingenuity.”

Celera is a treasure trove of new signatures

Clarified Szechuan sauce being siphoned over a Gallagher oyster

For the interiors of Celera, Santos and Vilar worked with longtime collaborator JJ Acuña of JJA Bespoke. “If there’s one thing I know about him and I love about JJ is that he’s an empath,” Santos says. “He feeds off energy easily.”

The space features a darker ambience with a gabled ceiling to mimic a home or a barn. “Nicco and Quenee were offered another bigger space downstairs but there was something about this upper area that they liked,” Acuña reveals.

Celera's dark but serene interiors — Celera’s dark but serene interiors

“Maybe because it’s like an attic or maybe because it has a view of the city. So I said, if it’s going to be an attic, why can’t we have a concept like an attic or a top of the house where everyone can just chill and hang out? So we created this vibe that’s like a barn where everyone can come together.” Acuña says.

The space features a darker ambience with a gabled ceiling to mimic a home or a barn. “Nicco and Quenee were offered another bigger space downstairs but there was something about this upper area that they liked,” JJ Acuña reveals

A seasoned designer like Acuña has also seen the growth of Santos and Vilar through the years. “Nicco and Quenee usually don’t like to be frilly. They’ve always been like that. But now, they’ve demanded certain refined finishing and touches, colors, and textures. They always wear black, but when you talk to them and when you eat their food, they surprise you. So what we wanted to do with the color tones is foundationally it’s black. Then we surprise guests with bits of sheen from this metallic copper chain curtain or the weaving of the Nazareno/Lichauco lamp or the brittleness of the gray wall comes to play.”

Lamb that is aged for two weeks in sake kasu becomes a vessel to carry an updated version of Santos' beetroot curry back in Hey Handsome. This time it s a beetroot mole made with beetroots, mushrooms, and chocolate — Lamb that is aged for two weeks in sake kasu becomes a vessel to carry an updated version of Santos’ beetroot curry back in Hey Handsome. This time it s a beetroot mole made with beetroots, mushrooms, and chocolate

Ultimately, the interiors of Celera are meant to allow guests to enjoy their experience while dining. “Our focus is for our guests to enjoy themselves. The food is secondary for me. I just want them to have a nice experience, enjoy each other’s company, and then I just want the space to kind of disappear,” says Santos.

Celera bears another meaning in Latin: to hurry or to hasten. Santos brings this up to shed light on the current state of food in the country.

“Ingredients are expensive. There’s a lack of supply. So for me, there’s this urgency to kind of share what the state of the food supply is in the Philippines. As much as I want to do all local ingredients, I cannot because ingredients are hard to find. Even though this is the state of our food here, it doesn’t mean we cannot produce dishes that make you think a little bit.”