Gallery by Chele Goes Extra Rice on its New Tasting Menu

Beneath the glitz and glamor of operating and owning multiple restaurants distinguished by the coveted Michelin Guide, Chele Gonzalez has had a curious fascination with traditional Filipino farming methods and grains for more than a decade now. He has been building relationships with farmers in Kalinga, Banaue, Ifugao, and Benguet in his quest to put traditional Philippine ingredients front and center in his dishes.

This has culminated in Gallery by Chele's latest Heirloom Rice Project tasting menu, which takes the intricacies of Cordillera rice into imaginative and playful culinary expressions that the fine dining restaurant built its name on.

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Abalone Arroz Caldo

Filipinos have never really seen a plate or dish that they didn't instinctively put a cup of rice on. The question is and will always be whether you were in the mood for extra rice or the infamous unli-rice made popular in local fast-food establishments. Gonzalez aims to broaden that awareness of the cultural significance of the grain.

"Many people do not realize that these varieties can be pink, purple, green, yellow, glutinous, or aromatic. Each one reflects a different place and a different community," said the seasoned chef. "To understand heirloom rice, you need to go to the mountains and meet the people who grow it. In many of these communities, rice is not only food. It is part of their identity and culture."

Each dish in the Heirloom Rice Project tasting menu either uses a heirloom variety directly or incorporates a rice-based product developed in-house: miso, koji water, rice vinegar, tapuey, mirin, buro, and lacto-fermented koji.

Learning about Filipino rice in the trenches allowed the team to work with bubod, the traditional rice wine starter that became a key ingredient in many of the sauces, dressings, and broths that make up the menu's DNA.

"These rice varieties are not just ingredients. They represent generations of knowledge and a living agricultural tradition that still shapes the culture of the Cordillera," Gallery by Chele Executive Sous Chef Carlos Villaflor said. "If more people understand the value of these grains, we can help create a stronger market for the farmers who continue to grow them."

A quick rundown on some of the varieties that mark the foundation of the dishes: Tinawon Red and White, Deremen, Kalinga Unoy, Black Lennagang, and Ijampulo, all grown and harvested by hand on steep mountain terraces in Banaue, Ifugao, and Benguet. With traditions, rituals, and communities that predate the restaurant industry by a handful of centuries, Gonzalez is pursuing a noble cause in drumming up attention to heirloom rice.

"At the end of the day, the most important thing is that the food tastes delicious," Gonzalez said.

Dalandan Mochi

Kicking things off is a Filipinized Japanese mochi made from Tinawon Violet glutinous mountain rice, filled with a dalandan gel for that burst of sourness. This starter really sets the tone with how versatile Cordillera's most distinctive heirloom varieties can be in expressing different flavors at different points of the night. These appetizers were paired with an intriguing sampaguita sparkling floral drink, a sweet and slightly acidic opener to set your palate before the actual courses.

Mirin Kinilaw

In one way or another, each serving in the journey incorporates a rice angle to announce the arrival of the particular flavor Gonzalez aims to evoke.

Gonzalez's take on the classic Filipino kinilaw adds a twist of house-made mirin made from bubod. You get a fermented rice seasoning doing the heavy lifting for the acidic flavor instead of the conventional sukang tuba. The tuna, dayap, and mango reframe the sourness with a toned-down aggression. There is also a hint of sweetness veiled under the dish's acidic angle.

Abalone Arroz Caldo

This is another take on a Filipino cuisine staple, the savory rice-based arroz caldo. It is an iteration employing abalone, Kalinga and Unoy heirloom rice varieties, topped off with kiniing, the smoked meat traditional to the Cordillera. You might think the addition of abalone would be too indulgent and a candidate to upstage the rice angle, but as always, Gonzalez nails the balance. The kiniing smokiness runs through the broth in a way that pulls the dish firmly into comfort food territory.

Buro Crab

Another standout fermented rice dish coupled with aligue, crab fat, and aromatics. This one is built on buro, a product of one of the oldest preservation techniques in traditional Philippine cooking.

The marriage of ingredients involves the fermented rice cutting through the richness of the crab with its innate sourness in a way vinegar would actually fall short on.

A choice that leans in on the centuries old universe that fermented rice and crab fat fall under

This is one dish that made us realize how much fermented rice and heirloom rice could be a stable culinary foundation in more fine dining menus to come.

Rice Textures

Rice Textures is the journey's pre-dessert that cleanses the arc of savory flavors you've had up until this point in the menu. A remarkably playful note in the rice symphony, it is based on purple glutinous rice rendered as ice cream, crisp, and glutinous pudding alongside coconut milk, ginger, lemongrass, and grilled banana.

A variety of textures, as the name suggests, but still anchored on the universal centrality of rice throughout the ten-course story. Probably one of the most visually stunning moments of the night, with the ethos to show off heirloom rice front and center without hinging on pure novelty.

The tasting menu, with corresponding wine and cocktail pairings, will run you PhP7,200 for the ten-course journey or PhP5,800 for the six-course option. At the end of the service, you will be offered heirloom rice from Kalinga and the Cordilleras for around PhP200 to PhP300 per bag.

You can make reservations here.

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