Daily Tribune‘I’m trying to break barriers because I feel like I don’t want to be limited to ulam (viand) and rice kind of thing. That’s how I’ve been doing things probably since I fell in love with food.’
Halibut en Papillote.
PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF IDALIA AND DSV
Chef Kevin David
panna cotta
sourdough focaccia
eggplant parm
Fried Chicken
Pasta
When Restaurant Idalia pops up at Balmori’s Chef’s Table, you make a beeline for it.
The reason is not just to enjoy a taste of Chef Kevin David’s creative takes on well-loved fare, but to catch the chance to do while it is there.
Pop-ups have been seen around the metro, from fashion, to crafts, to food. One never knows what excitement comes next in one’s area, and when it comes to limited-run dining, the delight also comes from the impermanence of the experience.
With Restaurant Idalia coming out of its comfortable nook in Salcedo Village, diners can sit down to lunch or dinner within the high-ceilinged expanse of Balmori at Rockwell until 31 July only.
One may likely run into the Chef himself – hard to miss in all his 6’ 4” frame, dark tee, dark pants and rubber-soled shoes. Both arms carry the marks of his love for food – just ask.
Chef Kevin, a culinary school dropout who learned his way through 15 years in the United States working from dishwashing to cooking under a Michelin-starred chef, looks as unconventional as his food.
“I’m trying to break barriers because I feel like I don’t want to be limited to ulam (viand) and rice kind of thing. That’s how I’ve been doing things probably since I fell in love with food. I’ve always enjoyed doing something unfamiliar. But most importantly, it has to be delicious,” he tells DAILY TRIBUNE.
It was a trip to Europe that his family took when he was young that began his love affair with food. “I had ‘real’ food for the first time. And growing up in a Filipino household, it’s always your typical food like ulam and gulay (vegetables), rice. Or the overcooked pasta with the sweet Bolognese sauce. For us, that was really good. That was a treat. You know, boxed macaroni and cheese. But when you have real food, it’s kind of hard to go back to them. So, after that, I just found out that I loved food more than ever. So, I wanted to cook or learn how to do it.”
He wanted to pursue culinary education, of course. “When I was younger, there was no such thing as culinary school just yet. It was around, but you needed to find it. Your gateway was probably HRM (Hotel and Restaurant Management). You then decide where you want to go. If you’re going to go to the hotel, to the cruise ship, or to a nice restaurant. That was it.
“I went to school. I went to Enderun in Taguig. But I dropped out as well. So, I don’t really say I’m from there. And after dropping out, I moved to New York City. I started washing dishes for a restaurant. And one thing led to another. I became a prep coach. I became a line coach. I worked at the stations. I climbed the ladder.
“I just fell in love with it. I felt like I belonged. For the first time in my life, I belonged somewhere where even if your skills are not that important, you are valued by the team because you fit in a perfect form of the puzzle.
“And for me, that was enough to keep pushing forward and see what’s out there in terms of the culinary track,” Chef Kevin recalled.
And the most important lessons he learned? That hard work really pays off. That it’s okay to fail. “I feel like if I didn’t fail, I don’t think I would be successful right now. So, I definitely learned a lot throughout the years.”
Homecoming was a shock
“Coming back was the biggest thing for me. It’s like a culture shock from where I’m from. Probably the good way to put it is when I left, the food scene here was so not what it is right now. That made me so happy. It changed so much. Yeah, it changed a lot, actually.”
The first thing Chef Kevin did was start a pop-up concept for nine months. “I just wanted to see how my food would be received by the Filipino market. And for me, doing it here was a challenge for sure. Because I’m doing food that’s probably the combination of nothing people have seen. Or if they have, it’s not here. And that’s the message I’m trying to translate where we’re bold like that. And we want you to understand that it doesn’t have to always be the same cuisine in one place. As long as it’s cohesive and delicious, it’s going to be good.”
This mindset led to his first business, the smash burger place Bun Run in San Juan. “That was the one that opened up the gates more to, I guess, meeting more people,” he said.
Then he opened Restaurant Idalia 15 months ago. “Idalia means ‘behold the sun’ and I picked it up from a show during the pandemic. I got laid off, I got furloughed and I was watching a show called From Scratch. And there was an American artist who falls in love with a Sicilian chef. Long story short, they got married, they had a baby, named her Idalia. So apparently in Italian culture, you name your daughter Idalia because they bring brightness to your life,” Chef Kevin said.
“For some reason it resonated with me and I wrote it down in one of my recipe notebooks. And I told myself I was going to use it one day. I didn’t know it was going to be for a pop-up, I didn’t know it was going to be for this restaurant. Now it’s so catchy; I feel like it’s so synonymous to me.”
Just ‘good food’
As for the food he makes for Idalia? “We just make good food,” the chef states. “Good food generally with proper technique, with proper sourcing of ingredients. And just caring about the ingredients, number one. It revolves around them. And whatever we could do using our techniques like fermentation, our live fire cooking, our sourdough program, our bread, and our fresh pasta. We just want to make food.
Defying definition, Chef Kevin David prefers giving diners the experience of their food without too much explanation. “Our food is supported by the four pillars of Idalia, which is wood fire cooking, fermentation, fresh pasta and sourdough bread. We leave that to the guests to how they want to interpret it. Because every time we say something, they’ll be like, but what’s the cuisine? I mean, there’s no cuisine. We’re cuisine-less. We’re freeform.”
For a taste of this unorthodox approach to food, book a table at Balmori where Idalia comes to life with an exclusive menu created entirely for the pop-up.
Start with a signature favorite: the sourdough focaccia with whipped anchovy butter or the house hummus. Try the New Zealand mussels in house nduja and white wine, and follow with a pasta, the rigatoni, vongole or amatriciana.
The Iberico Pork is served with wood-fired roasted cabbage, a rich plum glaze and velvety fermented cauliflower purée. The Eggplant Parm with basil, tomato and mozzarella is hearty and delicious; and the Halibut en Papillote, with shiitake, bok choy and dashi, is silky to the tongue and unforgettable.
Do not miss the most indulgent, delicious whole fried chicken, hot honey and chicken fat gravy. You might want to add a zing with Idalia’s house sriracha, so good!
End on a sweet note -- bread pudding, panna cotta or Biscoff cookie ice cream – knowing that everything you savored sounded familiar, but definitely tasted better than you expected.
A meal at Idalia leaves one with a full belly and something else: the flavor of excitement. Food can never return to the routine or banal. A singular chef and his team just showed you what eating well tastes like.
