Vegetables take center stage in Westin Manila’s culinary series 2
Chef Sharwin Tee is the guest chef for Westin Manila's Cuiscene No. 2.
Food & Drink

Vegetables take center stage in Westin Manila’s culinary series

For the latest iteration of Westin Manila’s Cuiscene culinary series, executive chef Rej Casanova invites Chinoy chef Sharwin Tee to heat up the woks of Westin Manila’s Seasonal Tastes for a vegetable pairing dinner.
Jeeves de Veyra | Jan 31 2024

Cuiscene is Westin Manila’s culinary series where executive chef Rej Casanova invites guest chefs to share the kitchen to bring new flavors and techniques. For the last one, Casanova partnered with Mimi Vergara-Tupas and her son, Chef Uno Tupas from Made Simple and Clean Kitchen of Davao to showcase plant-based ingredients.

For this latest collaboration, the farmers and their vegetables are again the focus. The hotel teamed up with the Agribusiness and Countryside Development Foundation (ABCDF) to directly link it to farmers and increase value all throughout the chain. The end user gets a better deal by removing all sorts of extraneous fees and the farmer gets to take home more money making this a more sustainable venture supporting the foundation’s push for job creation in the countryside.

“The Agribusiness and Countryside Development Foundation is dedicated to linking farmers and agribusiness owners and practitioners to people who can support them,” explained Yvette Tan, a journalist and board member of the foundation. “If a regular Filipino wants to help a regular Filipino farmer... buy local, or if possible buy straight from farmers or patronize restaurants that you know support local farmers.”

Westin Manila executive chef Rej Casanova, Yvette Tan of Agribusiness and Countryside Development Foundation, and guest chef Sharwin Tee.
Westin Manila executive chef Rej Casanova, Yvette Tan of Agribusiness and Countryside Development Foundation, and guest chef Sharwin Tee.

What better way to showcase this partnership than featuring the vegetables in an eight-course Chinese feast. For this, Casanova invited Chinoy chef Sharwin Tee to heat up the woks of Westin Manila’s Seasonal Tastes for a vegetable pairing dinner. Each entrée would feature a vegetable and a protein.

With this dinner, the highlights are really the two chefs’ creative interpretations of tried-and-true favorites from a Chinese restaurant menu. The menu is a contrast of styles between the two chefs. Casanova takes a more adventurous, modern take occasionally putting in premium western ingredients, while Tee goes for more traditional flavors, often weaving stories of eating this food at home with his family when he was growing up.

Cuiscene No. 2 starts out with faux char siu. It looks and even has the texture of Chinese pork barbecue, but is really a nice amuse bouche of radish and pear. 
Cuiscene No. 2 starts out with faux char siu. It looks and even has the texture of Chinese pork barbecue, but is really a nice amuse bouche of radish and pear. 
That piece of foie gras on top of Chef Rej’s siu mai certainly dominates this plate of dumplings. The spinach dumpling with that translucent wrapper and the lobster hargow complete the trio best with a couple of drops of black vinegar.
That piece of foie gras on top of Chef Rej’s siu mai certainly dominates this plate of dumplings. The spinach dumpling with that translucent wrapper and the lobster hargow complete the trio best with a couple of drops of black vinegar.
Tee follows this with lettuce three ways using lollo rosso, iceberg and romaine spiked with his trademark XO sauce and kiniing (smoked pork from Benguet).
Tee follows this with lettuce three ways using lollo rosso, iceberg and romaine spiked with his trademark XO sauce and kiniing (smoked pork from Benguet).
This was a different take on chicken and corn. Chef Rej shapes a terrine into what looks like mini corn cobs then glazes them with sesame corn sauce with Asian slaw on the side.
This was a different take on chicken and corn. Chef Rej shapes a terrine into what looks like mini corn cobs then glazes them with sesame corn sauce with Asian slaw on the side.
Tee’s take on Mapo Tofu’s highlight is his twice-cooked tofu. The block of tofu is surprisingly meaty: crunchy on the outside and slightly chewy on the inside stuffed with mushrooms topped with green onions that goes really well with that ma la spicy sauce.
Tee’s take on Mapo Tofu’s highlight is his twice-cooked tofu. The block of tofu is surprisingly meaty: crunchy on the outside and slightly chewy on the inside stuffed with mushrooms topped with green onions that goes really well with that ma la spicy sauce.
It’s kale on kale on kale served with sous vide apahap (Asian sea bass). Spoon some of Chef Rej’s fish milk broth with scallion oil and vegan XO sauce for clean umami flavors.
It’s kale on kale on kale served with sous vide apahap (Asian sea bass). Spoon some of Chef Rej’s fish milk broth with scallion oil and vegan XO sauce for clean umami flavors.
I bet nobody has had beef and broccoli like this. Angus ribeye steak is served on top of oyster sauce flavored oyster cream with roasted broccoli on the side. The burnt tops of the broccoli flower were a nice umami surprise.
I bet nobody has had beef and broccoli like this. Angus ribeye steak is served on top of oyster sauce flavored oyster cream with roasted broccoli on the side. The burnt tops of the broccoli flower were a nice umami surprise.
Tee’s last dish was his version of biang biang noodles from northern China -- carrot noodles and carrots seasoned with cumin topped with a 63°C sous vide egg
Tee’s last dish was his version of biang biang noodles from northern China -- carrot noodles and carrots seasoned with cumin topped with a 63°C sous vide egg
Chef Rej finished off the dinner with his interpretation of mango sago. This showcased eight textures of mango from cremeux and cake to chantilly cream and the sauce.
Chef Rej finished off the dinner with his interpretation of mango sago. This showcased eight textures of mango from cremeux and cake to chantilly cream and the sauce.
The dinner ends with the cracking of Chinese fortune cookies. For everyone else, they get their words of wisdom. For one lucky diner, the gods and Westin Manila will bless them with a one night stay at the hotel.
The dinner ends with the cracking of Chinese fortune cookies. For everyone else, they get their words of wisdom. For one lucky diner, the gods and Westin Manila will bless them with a one night stay at the hotel.

Cuiscene No. 2 will run for two nights on January 31 and February 7 at Seasonal Tastes at the Westin Manila. Each seat is priced at P4,800 nett. 

Photos by Jeeves de Veyra