Uplifting Anecdotes and Insights by Chef Philip Golding

One fine day, we sat with Chef Philip Golding, Culinary Director of CCA Manila and founding chairman of Disciples D’scoffier International Asia Dinner at his culinary lounge and cafe in Makati, called Chef Works to uncover his culinary journey, to delve deeper into his projects and role in CCA Manila, and to acquire a bit of knowledge from his 40 years in hospitality.

Chef Philip’s humble beginnings as a part-time dishwasher and cook for his father and brother in his mid-teens catalyzed his progress in the food and beverage scene of London. Through passion and perseverance, he was able to harness his skills and his gift in building good relationships with his colleagues, landing him in Michelin-star and other top-rated restaurants and giving the opportunity to work and learn from some of the biggest international chefs, including Gordon Ramsay. 

Yet, it was in learning about the lives of pioneer chefs like Auguste Escoffier and Rick Stein that inspired him to pave his own culinary journey, away from the hectic kitchen culture of London during the early 90’s, down to the family spirit and effortless state of happiness in Asia.

Thus, in his candid and sheer mastery in his craft, while sporadic and engaging, Chef Philip fed us with his uplifting anecdotes and insights, as reflected below.

Here is the first part out of three parts from our long interview with our talented and charismatic featured chef:

I'm not a fan of fusion cuisine, but I'm definitely a big fan of taking a cuisine and innovating. I like purist food. If you historically go back, food is medicine, Food Nutrition. I've moved really into food nutrition and wellness. So, I use earthenware and put salads in it, I put in marinated tomatoes. 

I actually serve my dishes in those (volcanic mortar & pestle). I don't like big portions. People eat small, especially as you get past 40. You don't want a big 300g steak, but you like to share it with people. 

Well the first thing that stands out in CCA is that we're Filipino homegrown. Founder Chef Annie Guerrero, who was recognized by the International Association of Culinary Professionals in California with the Antonin Careme Award for her zero-waste practices, had the vision to put up a cooking school with her daughter Badjie, CCA’s CEO, who I work side-by-side with. 

I'm fortunate I don't have to report and run the school on a day-to-day basis. I did before when we're in Katipunan. I was the Program Director. I had to be there to make sure the programs were in place and that they're running, and to really be on top of the school day-to-day. I do spot visits just to check and see. So, as the Culinary Director, it's more about business relationships.

We're good enough to send our faculty and develop them abroad. We're good enough to bring our food and culture to Asian culture, wok cooking, palabok, using flowers, indigenous foraged herbs. We’re a Tamarind Cuisine. We use a lot of Tamarind in our cuisine. It's a souring agent. So we're scratching the surface in Philippine culinary and Regional Philippine cuisines. 

CCA is really expanding. We have that partnership with a finishing-off school in Dubai, so they'll be able to evaluate the students. It's sharing the syllabus and curriculum and then bringing their trainers over to us and our trainers over to them. 

In our 28th year, we're now moving forward into being recognized outside of the Philippines. It's good timing that Michelin is in the Philippines.If you look at the cuisine that Michelin is used to working with, traditionally it's culinary French, but French restaurants succeed well in Vietnam and Thailand. In the Philippines, all the French restaurants don't survive, because Philippine Cuisine is used to putting a mix match of a lot of ingredients, and thereby drowning the essential flavors of each ingredient; whereas French cuisine enhances.

Trying to do Mexican food here is very difficult. The only way you can get good Mexican here is to take a longer time with the process to get the flavors. I've been and lived in Mexico. Mexican food here doesn't have the level of depth. It doesn't have the level of flavor and to get the tamales, to get the limes, to get the chilies, to get the chocolate, to get that kind of stuff, it's constant research and development, and that's something that's interesting today.

As we talk about women in the kitchen, it's a tough place, but we're getting more and more women in the kitchen. I think this country definitely has the opportunity to create more great and potentially Michelin-star female chefs. CCA has plenty of female chefs. 

I'm very much a discipler when it comes to the white jacket. No nail varnish, take off your watch, being on time, respecting people's time is that. The biggest challenge is the man in the mirror or the woman in the mirror; to say am I doing it right? Am I progressing? Am I giving the right knowledge, the right feedback? 

Everybody has to start with a basis, a book. Auguste Escoffier’s recipes were written for specific events, specific times, and the more you understand this guy, what he did to bring alcohol out the kitchen, what he did to create the a la carte system. So can you imagine the chaos before an a la carte system? Order comes and goes. He invented the Duck Press and Bullion. He traveled around looking at different cuisines and presenting these French and Mediterranean cuisines with a method. He would always start from zero ingredients, zero mis en place. That was always there as a base in any cuisine, a fond de blanc stock. He's the idol that I look up to and every day remind myself why I wear the white chef jacket.

That's why we started Disciples D’scoffier International Asia Dinner as an association. The association holds a dinner every month. So someone who likes food can come from any background. As the founding chairman and president, we'll focus on Makati and Pampanga to build a stronger partnership in the nonprofit way, bringing in chefs from Thailand and Vietnam to share.

I've opened almost 38 restaurants in the last 28 years, like Azzuro with Billy King, Paper Moon, and Fashion Cafe. I came in where that's a commercial kind of kitchen, but then when I started to slip in our specials and kind of changed the model pie. And then with CCA, we just opened our new Cravings in Insular Life in Alabang. 

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