Francis Tolentino’s latest tasting menu, the third since launching Taupe a year and a half ago, is full of life and color and unlike anything the neutral hue stands for.
More often than not, thematic menus can be casually thrown around that it’s practically cliche to base something on a singular idea alone but the likes of Taupe and a few others who adroitly pull it off (Tandem and Helm by Josh Boutwood both come to mind) have endeared themselves to many by transforming themes the best way they know how—poetic and powerful yet pensively delicious, avoiding the dangerous rhetoric of all style, no substance.
So if you find yourself in need of terrific flavors wrapped in earth, air, water, and fire, then Tolentino’s gorgeous, nature-kissed plates assert themselves with such aplomb that just when you think you’ve had enough of tasting menus, the blithe chef reels you back in with an almost mischievous assertion.
From signature to nostalgia to now the elements, Tolentino’s latest seasonal menu can be seen from distinct points of view. He wields modern techniques to manifest dishes that present nature on the plate—fermentation, grilling, smoking, freezing, dry aging. That’s him at work.
But it is also, in essence, nature at work. When the fire kisses the Iberico pluma and A5 wagyu ribeye, when the air circulates around the environment where the duck was dry aged and moisture is extracted, or when the binchotan burns the Italian meringue near the end of the meal, these phenomena are as natural as they can get. And it is also in these moments in which Tolentino relinquishes control and lets nature take its course.
“I don’t want to lose the soul; the flavor is still there. You might not see it but when you taste it, it’s there”
It reminds me of what Blue Smoke’s Ivan Yeo once told me about playing with fire. “You have the illusion of control. But the real person in control is actually the fire so you have to cozy up to its temperaments.”
Tolentino understands this well.
Especially when speaking about his playful exercise of radically creating a blue crab ice cream sandwich and then opening the affairs with it after a gentle pair of amuse-bouche (cloudy guyabano tart and prawn butter brioche). “I haven’t seen ice cream as an appetizer or as a savory dish,” he says about the self-imposed challenge to disrupt the menu order.
Seeking cold in his first dish—freezing the blue crab ice cream then building the sandwich itself with a crisp chicken skin biscuit and finishing with Osetra caviar—communicates Tolentino’s desire to be more exuberant with his stylistic choices without losing the flavors in the theatrics.
“I don’t want to lose the soul; the flavor is still there. You might not see it but when you taste it, it’s there.”
Akin to this song of ice and fire (and air and earth), Taupe the restaurant itself is a wink to his principles. Unobtrusive interiors redirect attention to the plates themselves, which are dramatically assembled, brimming with bite and color against the indifferent interiors.
That said, this is no vanity project. Elements, as what his newest 10- or 8-course menu is called, demands attention. Every ingredient, every slice, every subtle choice returns to his vision of executing nature’s reaction on food. You also get the sense of variations between each course, as if the flavors are progressing seasonally and geographically, even rising in temperature as part of the storytelling.
It’s particularly noticeable in the first half of the tasting menu.
From the icy depths of the Atlantic where blue crabs are generally found to the warmer Pacific and Japanese waters where hamachi is pretty much native (served wet-aged and with hints of acidity from an intriguing calamansi “snow”), Tolentino then ricochets off into South Asia with a unique winter melon salad made with plenty of tactile details (winter melon spaghetti, peach granita, salmon roe infused in gin) and then swerves up north again for an impossible-to-ignore smoked and cured Hokkaido scallops sitting in a Japanese corn soup mixed with shrimp head fat that can practically send anyone into euphoria.
The prevailing sentiments in the middle, save for the “24K magic” palate cleanser of a translucent fermented guava soft gel dusted with edible gold particles, lead you to a flurry of combustion.
The aforementioned smoked Iberico pluma is skewered into a sugarcane that fuses the elements of fire and earth; sinking your teeth into the juicy meat then sucking on the juices of the sugarcane is akin to a ritualistic experience.
Tolentino’s dry-aged and grilled duck is marvelous; it tastes almost like steak but broadens it with intense sauces (smoked truffle and coconut ash duck) and a tiny bite of braised duck quenelle covered in a queso de bola veil. It’s perhaps the climax of the menu. Meanwhile, the A5 wagyu balbacua glistens in its fattiness (albeit a touch too velvety, puckery even) and comes blanketed by a black squid ink pasta that serves as the carbs of the dish, and finished off with an earthy kadyos purée and a beef tendon demi sauce reduction to slurp on.
His desserts move into earthier terrains with a beautiful binchotan-burnt brazo of passion fruit and calamansi and then onto an ice-cold chocolate pistachio entremet marked by black sesame dark chocolate, which perhaps is his wintry nod to the pistachio chocolate trend coming out of Dubai.
As for the Pinoy petit fours, Tolentino refines elements of the classic meriendas (turon, bibingka, hopia, and karyoka) using smoked banana mousse, caviar, coconut custard, pinipig tuile, purple yam, and rosehip compote, among others, and turns the final plate into a balance between finesse and memory.
In the end, Taupe’s new menu is a case study in Tolentino’s strategy of taking techniques seriously and then seriously falling in love with the outcome. His messaging about earth, air, fire, and water comes through but it doesn’t overwhelm to the point that the dishes themselves get lost in the concept.
There’s a boldness in each dish that makes you think all the components can build their version of a tasty periodic table of elements—just with Francis Tolentino’s narrative at its core
Elements as a whole holds its form perfectly, loud and clear in its design, with dishes that drape effortlessly and inventive beverage pairings (whether wine, premium wine, cocktail, or zero-proof) that equally articulate Tolentino’s ideas. There’s a boldness in each dish that makes you think all the components can build their version of a tasty periodic table of elements—just with Tolentino’s narrative at its core.
There’s an element of surprise here amid all the familiarity, and that’s an important quality any menu should have. But with Tolentino in charge, perhaps, no one is really surprised about it. Taupe is located at G/F The Maridien Tower 2, 26th Street, Bonifacio Global City | www.taupedining.com
