Honing his trade in some of London and New York’s finest restaurants Chef Gilbert Pangilinan knows how to deliver when the pressures on. Maria Elena discovers more

Kai is a Japanese restaurant located at the posh Greenbelt 5 Mall and having a meal there is guaranteed to be a memo­rable culinary experience. The brains behind the restaurant’s exciting menu is Chef Gilbert Pangilinan – a hard work­ing, experienced chef and co-owner of Kai restaurant.

Before he could convince his mother to allow him to study at the Culinary Institute of America, he first had to graduate from his Entrepreneurial Management Degree. Then he had to prove to her that he was serious in pursuing a culinary career by being an apprentice at Edsa Shangri-La Hotel and at Tagaytay Highlands, (a golf resort) which was run by Chef Gene Gonzales’ group. Highlands had 22 kitchens and Gilbert worked there without pay, just to learn the ropes. After a year, his mother was convinced of his culinary ambition and packed him off to the Culinary Institute of America where he earned an associate’s degree.

When asked what was his most difficult job, he recounts his experience when he worked at the Savoy in London. “We had a restaurant and a banquet serving a thousand guests. There were 50 of us in the kitchen under a German sous chef and we worked at both the banquet and restaurant simultane­ously. When there was a function in the banquet, we’d go up to cook for the thousand guests, then come down to the restaurant again. We were in an oven room with burners in it, plat­ing the food, and a hundred waiters would come in to get them and serve them to the guests. Then there was a refrigerator room for the desserts. We were going from hot to cold (hence the toque and gloves), from the ban­quet to the restaurant in one night.”

“So I realized what our chef used to tell us was true: What you can do with one plate you can do with 2000 plates. That’s what I do now for catering, no matter how difficult, it’s feasible. It can be done.”

In New York, he worked for the prestigious and popular Nobu restaurant. Working in Nobu made him dream of opening his own restaurant, which had been at the back of his mind even while he was still studying. He came home to the Philippines and opened Sticks Japanese Bistro, a casual dining restaurant that gives classic Japanese dishes an unexpected twist. Sticks was first opened in Robinson’s Star Mall in Pampanga, then he moved it to Rob­inson’s Galleria in Ortigas. The food in Sticks Japanese Bistro was very good and very reasonably priced.

But soon after Sticks, he was approached by some restaurant entrepreneur friends and together they opened Kai at Greenbelt 2, then moved to Green belt 5, a newer more plush mall.

Gilbert claims that as much as he loves to experiment, there are some dishes you just can’t touch. Like Peking duck, “you don’t touch the sauce profiles. Even in Japanese cooking, you don’t change the teriyaki sauce. I’ve been wanting to use truffle oil for one Chinese soup, but I know it would ruin the taste, so I gave up the idea.”

Part of Chef Gilbert’s success lies in his attention to detail. During one cater­ing experience for a high end group, he and his staff called up the guests one by one and asked them to choose from the main courses. Weeks before the party, they asked the host to give them a copy of the seating arrangement. So at the party, the waiters knew exactly what to give to the guests without having to ask them. It was such a gratifying moment for him when he was introduced after the dinner and all the guests clapped and congratulated him for his menu and the excellence of his service.

Gilbert got the idea when he attended a wedding in the USA. The hotel called him and asked him to choose from the set menu. It was such a good idea, he thought, no intrusive waiters interrupting the guests who are in the midst of a conversation to ask about their choice for a main course.

Chef Gilbert is in his restaurant daily to personally cook the specialties that Kai offers daily. He comes up with new menus every so often and usually gets his ideas after a long walk which he says clears his head.

The best gauge of a good Japanese Restaurant is when you hear the Japanese themselves giving it a good rating and this is true for Chef Gilbert’s restau­rant. And the man most deserving of the restaurant’s excellent rating is Chef Gilbert Pangilinan himself.

KAI NEO RESTAURANT
Green Belt 5, Makati City, Philippines
For reservations, call: 632-7575209
fax is 632-7575210