Gallery by Chele

 It’s been a few years since we enjoyed this meal at Gallery by Chele, one of the best fine dining restaurants in Manila. It’s helmed by Spanish Chef Chele Gonzalez of Gallery VASK fame. Now closed, Gallery VASK was his award-winning restaurant that ranked as high as number 35 on the list of Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants.

Born in northern Spain, Chef Chele worked at some of the world’s best restaurants like El Bulli, Mugaritz, and El Celler de Can Roca before moving to Manila and opening Gallery VASK in 2013. He would shutter that restaurant in 2017 before revamping and reopening it as Gallery by Chele in May 2018.

Being from Spain, Chef Chele’s roots are in Spanish cuisine but he aims to celebrate Filipino food by applying modern techniques to local ingredients and presenting them in a more contemporary way.

These pictures were from 2018 so I don’t know if he still makes these dishes, but the perfect example of Chef Chele’s cooking concept is this fun dish called Breakfast. Made with longganisa (Filipino sausage), quail egg, and pickled papaya served in a crunchy adlai millet shell, it’s the chef’s whimsical take on the classic Filipino breakfast dish called longsilog.

This next dish was an interesting representation of Chef Chele’s position as a Spanish chef cooking Filipino food. Called Dual Citizen, it consists of squid prepared in two ways – one drawing techniques from Filipino cuisine and the other from Spanish food.

This beautiful and delicious dessert made with papaya and mustard leaves was called Pa-yaya. It had an interesting aromatic, almost spicy flavor, perhaps from the mustard leaves.

As described, these pictures are from 2018 but you can refer to my article on Gallery by Chele for more on what you can expect from this restaurant.

It’s been a while since our last meal at Gallery by Chele but based on its recent reviews, the restaurant is as good as ever. As with all restaurants offering tasting menus, reservations are a must.