A preview of the special Four Hands dinner at Solaire’s Waterside Restobar on the 24th of November gave us an exquisite taste of the gastronomic ingenuity of whizzes-in-the-kitchen, Waterside’s chef de cuisine Alfred Santiago and Aaron Isip, the French culinary school-trained, half-Ilonggo former chef of noted Paris-based restaurant Dix Huit, who, in 2015, was awarded the prestigious Trophée Espoir of Ile de France by Gault & Millau — the only Filipino chef to be so honored by the renowned French guide which particularly rates chefs for excellence in their craft.

A sampling of the Four Hands dinner menu had us sitting to an amuse bouche duo of Santiago’s tuna with crab fat on a base of alamang (shrimp) seaweed meringue and Isip’s cured yellowtail scad with crisp ube tapioca, dragon fruit aguachile and oba leaf topped with pickled red onion.

Those, along with what followed — a raw bar of plump oysters with green mango relish and torched bone marrow, charcoal-seared scallops brushed with tamarind brown butter kosho, along with prawns, sigarilyas (winged beans), poached razor clams with lambanog (coconut vodka) citrus jelly, candied guanciale and a red bell pepper sauce set on kansi (Filipino beef soup) ice sent our senses through the roof, setting the tone for what was truly a remarkable feast.