The holiday season is the time for going home. It’s a time when balikbayans come home
to their relatives and families gather to celebrate reunions and even the most cosmopolitan city-dweller longs for the dishes of his childhood. Tucked along Yakal Street in Makati, Villa Café serves heirloom recipes from Pampanga, the province many consider to be the gastronomic capital of the Philippines. Villa is the brainchild of the French-trained, well- known Chef Sau del Rosario and Chef Jam Melchor, who has made a name for himself as the Chef de Cuisine of Le Bistro Vert. In spite of their accolades, the two have never forgotten their childhood in Angeles, Pampanga—where the biggest room in a house is the kitchen and everyone knows how to cook.
“After all the time we’ve spent working for others, it’s nice to finally be able to make something for ourselves,” shares Chef Jam, whose family is well-known in Angeles for their cooking skills. The restaurant’s Kapampangan fare includes treasured favorites like their Fresh Pacu and Prawn Salad, a light side salad made from the crunchy fern that grows wild in Pampanga, and Suwam, the province’s creamy take on corn soup.
While the chefs prepare the meals, you are welcome to take a peek at the open kitchen while enjoying the free appetizer of Tinapa Mousse, or take a look at childhood pictures of Chefs Jam and Sau with amusing anecdotes written on the frames. Thanks to these touches, the 40-seater café (the second floor is a function room) feels like a close friend's
home.
It’s a very personal place: Chef Sau’s own sister Tek helps out in the kitchen, the chefs often come out to chat with their diners and the staff is friendly and attentive. Meanwhile, the menu features saints—and that heritage shines in this spicy tomato- based appetizer. Other Villa Café dishes which have the Spanish gene are the rich, mouthwatering Lengua and the Soft Lamb Shank Caldereta, another tomato- based dish with meat so tender that it seems to melt in your mouth.
But if there’s one thing you absolutely have to order, it’s Villa’s Rellenong Bangus. What first strikes you about Villa’s approach is that their rellenong bangus comes with a flavorful sauce made from its drippings. The second thing that hits you is how big the bangus is. Even though you aren’t served the whole fish, it’s enough to feed two— maybe even three. “We use bangus from Dagupan,” says Chef Sau. “My mom would never make this with small bangus. She’d only use the best!”
There’s something for everyone in Villa. Vegetarians will enjoy dishes like the Quezong Puti- Stuffed Kalabasa Blossoms.
Meanwhile, exotic foodies will enjoy the Garlic Susu, a bowl of de-shelled snails in garlic, all inside a delicate pastry puff. This approach, Chef Sau says, is in response to how young people balk upon hearing the word “snail.” The result is clever, authentic and, most of all, delicious. “We put snails in a pastry puff and crickets in lumpia. We can make young people eat these kinds of food without realizing what it is. And hopefully they’ll like it,” he explains.
Another innovation is their Boneless Crispy Pata, Chef Jam’s personal favorite from their menu. Unlike your usual Crispy Pata, Villa’s take is to serve it boneless with kare-kare sauce and vegetables. “Usually, kare-kare is meat swimming in a pot,” Chef Jam says in Filipino. “I like that ours is crunchy.” But while such innovations have been made, you don’t doubt for one second that what you’re eating is the real deal with authentic Filipino flavors. For dessert, you can even have San Nicolas Cookies, sweet biscuits traditionally blessed and given to children during the San Nicolas feast.
Even the ingredients are close to home. Barring some ingredients such as edible flowers from Australia, Villa makes a point to use locally-sourced and organic ingredients whenever they can—an advocacy the two strongly believe in. They may have met when Chef Sau hired Chef Jam at Le Bistro Vert, but the two now consider each other as partners in running Villa. “There were other people I could have done this with,” says Chef Sau, “but I wanted to work with someone who had the same passion for our food.” That’s their other advocacy: sharing Filipino cuisine to the world, including Filipinos themselves. “Because we grew up with it, the food here is ‘normal’ for us—we just want to share it with people,” says Chef Jam. “We’re happy when people like our food.”
Whether you’re a Pampango missing the taste of your hometown, a balikbayan, or simply an average Juan looking for a great Filipino meal, going to Villa Café is like going home.
