Maria Elena traces the international trail that has lead to Filipino chef Sau’s masterpiece – M Cafe

When you come from a family that boasts four generations of chefs, one can safely assume that the talent can only be genetic. It’s like being born with green eyes. It’s there in your DNA, waiting to be made tangible.

So it is with chef Rosauro del Rosario – AKA chef Sau. He can safely say that his culinary talent runs in his blood. One of his early influences was his father, one of the few Fili­pinos of his time who studied at the Culinary Institute of America.

Armed with a degree in Hotel and Restaurant Administration from the Univer­sity of the Philippines, no less, he got his first job at the Westin Philippine Plaza as a junior chef.

Then he moved on to the newly opened Edsa Shangri-La as a demi-chef. His mentor was chef See Cheong Yan, who to this day follows up on the progress of his career. As Chef de Partie at the New World Hotel, he was again chosen to be in the opening team of the fine dining restaurant of the hotel, Bocarinos. Peninsula Hotel’s renovation gave him another opportunity to climb up higher and this time he became a Senior Chef at the age of 29 under the tute­lage of his bosses chef Jan Gundlach and Daniel Litchensteiger. Chef Gundlach saw the potential in chef Sau and after training him in kitchen management and design, promoted him to Sous Chef, one of only three in the hotel.

However, chef Sau had too much wanderlust in him to stay put in the Philip­pines. He decided to explore new horizons so he traveled to Nice on the south coast of France. Here he worked with Michelin star chef Christian Plumail of L’Univers. After a year in Nice, he went on a discovery tour around the region and studied everything related to French cuisine: Bordeaux wine, cheese making in Normandy, foie gras production in Perigord, and even meeting great chefs like Alain Ducasse in Monaco, Paul Bocuse in Lyon and Alain Reix of the Jules Verne of Tour Eiffel. In Paris, he worked with 3 Star Michelin Chef Jacques Di­vellec of the well known seafood
restaurant- Le Divellec Restaurant.

“Aside from the culinary arts, my Parisian experience gave me a deeper understanding of the culture and lifestyle of the French.” Since then, Paris has become chef Sau’s second home.

Back in the Philippines, he became the Chef of Venezia, the chill out place of Manila’s cosmopolitan crowd. Here his talent as an international chef came to the attention of food critics. Paul Hsu heard about his reputation as an excellent chef on French cuisine and hired him immedi­ately for his Elite Concepts in Hong Kong. He claimed that chef Sau was a French man in a Filipino body. In preparation for the opening of the restaurant, he trained under a Michelin Star chef from London named, Bruno Loubet of Atlantic Restaurant, Isola, Odeon.

Two years later, Europe beckoned once again. This time chef Sau traveled extensively along the Mediterranean coasts. He embraced and discovered new cuisines: Mo­roccan, Basque, Southern Italian and Greek. “Life is dif­ferent in these continents. My senses became alive!”

A year later, he was offered work in Shanghai; this time in a Mediterranean theme restaurant named Luna. It became the watering hole of the glitterati and the literati of Shanghai.

Everyone wanted to savor chef Sau’s well known cuisine.

It was during this stint that he met the people who of­fered him a challenging job at the Raffles Hotels and Re­sorts in Singapore. Chef Sau was responsible for the de­velopment, execution and maintenance of the culinary standards in all the Equinox restaurants namely: Equi­nox, the eponymous restaurant Jean, a unique French-Khmer boutique restaurant, the vibrant and dynamic New Asia Bar and Grill, plus four dining rooms. The overall seating capacity of the complex is 1,200 people.

Next stop; Manila. In November 2004, the Museum Café, fondly called M, opened with chef Sau at the helm. Fresh from his European and Asian stint, chef Sau com­bined cuisines from Europe and Asia and came up with an Asian fusion menu which was a big hit with M Café’s regular clientele.

The menu, aside from the delicious meat, poultry and fish dishes, had a noodle and vegetar­ian section. The evening clientele enjoyed a selection of imaginative cocktails and drinks. M Café is indeed chef Sau’s masterpiece.

Chef Sau revels in challenges and being stagnant in his art is not in his vocabulary.  “I love parallel parking because like cooking and open­ing restaurants, it presents a challenge to me.” What is the next challenge in chef Sau’s career? The road is open to so many possibilities. We can only wait and see what’s cooking in chef Sau’s exciting repertoire.