WE LOVE a chef who is in touch with his roots: and from a chef born in what was once a Phoenician settlement, those roots run deep.
Finestra at Solaire Resort North invited us over for dinner on Jan. 26 to introduce its chef de cuisine, Joel Manchia, who hails from Olbia in Sardinia, and seems to love his family a lot judging from his food.
The antipasti at the newly revamped bar area included a Mortadella open-faced sandwich, with excellent homemade bread, the cheese blending into the bread as if they had always been one, the union interrupted by the richly porky mortadella. We made bites out of Portuguese sardines, which he served with capered butter and pickled onions. We also had great fun with his octopus, breaded and served with an aioli: just the right texture. This he uncovered last: cottony soft meatballs in a cheesy tomato sauce — a recipe from his very own mother.
We washed all of this down with sparkly Bellinis, and their version of a Negroni: the Pecoroni. It’s made with Bulldog Gin, Pancetta-fatwashed Bianco Vermouth, campari, and Pecorino foam: all this combined made us think we were drinking a multicourse dinner.
They had to extract us from the bar for more treats: there was an amuse-bouche of Wagyu Carpaccio on a potato millefeuille fried in Wagyu fat: it had a very intense taste, and little of it from the relatively mild Carpaccio. Next came platters of antipasti: there was a slow-braised Wagyu ragu poured on top of a Roman risotto suppli — the ragu was almost fully liquid after a braise of 12 hours, lending all those hours of flavor to the rice. He takes a little bit from his adventures outside the hotel, channeling the sour vinegar from Pinoy street food calamari with a tart lemon-parsley sauce and sharp pickled onions, complementing that with a black garlic aioli further blackened with squid ink.
While he served several pastas — there was a filling and creamy orecchiette with king prawn and broccoli, and handmade tortelli stuffed with Parma ham and balsamic — the star no doubt was his version of Pomodoro, arguably the baseline for all Italian pasta dishes. He made this by cooking the pasta in tomato water, making a tomato salsa to rest at the bottom, and a tomato coulis on top: then sprinkling it with powdered tomato skin. It had a very intense tomato taste and captured the essence of a tomato, slowly turning ripe and juicy on a vine. Uniformly, the pasta dishes are heavily textured but have a light taste and touch.
For the mains, he brought out a very tender roasted lamb with pumpkin cooked in the lamb’s fat, an Australian Wagyu Carrara M9 Ribeye (surprisingly light for a steak; its chimichurri accompaniment gave it a nice lively grassiness). While we liked all of the mains, we couldn’t stop thinking about the Yellowfin Tuna, lightly charred and served with pickled lemons. The fish itself was very aggressive, but paired with the pickles, it was almost like eating something that cleansed the palate.
As for the desserts, Mr. Manchia channeled his own grandmother with My Nonna Hanni’s Brown Sugar Tart, wonderfully creamy and rich, served with coffee gelato. The Chocolate Pudding, very rich and warming, was served in a little cast-iron pot, and was made with the wagyu’s tallow (ensuring no waste).
SAME NAME, DIFFERENT DIRECTIONSWhile the Finestra restaurants in Solaire Resort North and Solaire Resort Entertainment City down south share a name, Mr. Manchia is taking his northern base in a different direction.
Finestra down south is known for its fine-dining, degustacion-portioned opulence. As one can see from the selections above, opulence and excellence still take precedence, but up north “We want to give the kind of celebration that we used to have in my hometown, or with my family,” he said. “If I come with my family at the restaurant, nobody will order one dish each. We’ll all have a feast in the middle.” So up north, the dishes and serving sizes are geared more towards sharing (and what a difference it makes!).
As for his hometown in Olbia — when the Romans came there, it was already bustling with Greeks, taking off from what the Phoenicians left behind — he said that the flavors there come from both the land and sea: hence the prominence of seafood in the menu. However, he pointed to the roast lamb, one of the most important dishes in Olbia. “We eat a lot of sheep. If you think about it, there are one million people in Sardinia — and two and a half million sheep,” he said with laughter (we like him, he’s funny).
As for sharing his family recipes, he talked about his mother’s meatballs: “She wasn’t really a good cook. She made two things, and they were really nice.” As for his Nonna, that heroine of all Italian tables, he said that she had passed 10 years ago. “Sometimes, there are little treats of things, and I get the memory of her,” which is why he served up her tart for dessert.
“They deserve a place here, because, well, they made me,” he said, again with laughter. “Everything is thanks to them.”
For reservations and inquiries, visit sn.solaireresort.com/dining/finestra, call 8888-8888, or e-mail snrestaurantevents@solaireresort.com. — Joseph L. Garcia
