Chef Kevin David believes now is the perfect time to rethink how we dine, not by focusing on cuisine, but by simply coming in curious about the food.
Most of us will choose a restaurant based on the cuisine we crave at a given time: French, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Mexican, and even Filipino. Chef Kevin David proposes another school of thought with regards to his dining: reflecting on our times that move beyond cuisine to something more essential and fundamental: coming open-minded and interested about food, he shared at the quiet end of the evening’s service at his newly soft-opened Restaurant Idalia.
The towering yet insightful chef, along with bon vivant co-owner Ferdi Salvador, welcome guests to their two-floor industrial, modern yet warm affair, tucked away from the busy Valero Street in Salcedo Village, Makati. A spacious, no-fuss, and straightforward kitchen welcomes the intrepid—it’s the anchor and the heart of the enterprise. But it is the little touches inside the dining room that catch our attention.
The journey, which started as a chef-centered pop-up dining, culminates into an unpretentious casual experience, with constantly evolving menus and beverage programs that tickle anyone’s fancy, whether you have an eye for tasting menus or good-to-share à la carte.
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Having been a chef for over 16 years cooking in the kitchens of some of America’s decorated restaurants in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Austin has had a profound effect on David, which he carries to this day. Before relocating home during the pandemic, chef Kevin confesses that apart from the simple lutong bahay fare he enjoyed growing up, it was seafood pasta during a trip to Europe during his teenage years that opened him to cooking—and he never looked back.
“No one cooked at home. For survival, yes—but not like this,” he shared lightheartedly, counting the likes of Thomas Keller and Heston Blumenthal as early heroes who had pulled him in with a philosophy that food goes beyond mere sustenance.
Having known little about food initially, David eventually embraced principles of sustainability and the ability to grow or make the ingredients yourself, which serves as one of the inspirations of the Idalia experience. Hearing him speak about being nurtured by food—past his burly 6-foot-tall frame, complete with a cadence of thoughtfulness—is both refreshing and quite unexpected.
Though chef Kevin’s dishes share some form of storytelling in speaking about their value and uniqueness, it is his intentionality about ingredients and techniques that is most evident.
“Contemporary, progressive, and unique,” he describes the philosophy at Idalia—a word whose Mediterranean roots lean towards “hardworking” or “constantly oriented to the sun.”
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The tight menu is focused on chef Kevin’s essential pillars for Idalia: sustainability and zero waste, along with full animal butchery (“Butchery is a lost art”), which allows them more freedom to choose as needed. Fermentation (“It is amazing how simple time, water, and salt can give you something wonderful”)—a process he views as an antithesis to our obsession with technology. Sourdough-making, which is not only for breads but for pancakes, pita, pasta, noodles, and ice cream. “Sourdough pansit” soon, why not?
In the end, chef Kevin allows his food to speak for itself: “Try to do what I think tastes good. Flavor before appearance but it has to look good as well.” Nothing capricious, but a balanced and purposeful use of ingredients and techniques, with elements fitted accordingly, as we go over their menu.
A nicely charred sourdough focaccia, accompanied by nori cultured butter, lacto-fermented alliums, and preserved dayap, made a great first impression, setting the stage for things to come.
Rich and smooth beet salad was an easy favorite. With pomelo, avocado, pepitas, and baby kale thrown together. Not as unsettling nor earthy as we expected, but a highly likable starter that gives a glimpse of David’s rationale.
Sourced directly from upland farmers, the Sungold tomato salad is an evenly balanced number of cherry tomatoes, pickled celery, pistachio, and sherry vinaigrette. A generously served piece that situates David’s skill: the preparation of the pickled celery nearly reminded us of meat.
The chef’s long-lasting love affair with pasta came with Pomodoro on sourdough tagliatelle—an amiable and slightly spicy number that checks the boxes, even the diabetic ones we joked on the side.
The hulking Iberico bone-in pork chop is like a delicious and good-to-share love letter to the many influences, traditions, and insights our chef cleverly employs. “The roasting is Italian. The chickpea stew is like a shakshuka. And the apple jam is American,” he confessed, resonating with a beloved classic yet with elements used in quite unexpected ways, to rapturous approval.
Somehow keeping to our standard “surf and turf” leanings, a familiar and deftly prepared salmon, complete with crispy skin, made the appreciative rounds for those of us with certain delicious preferences for the evening.
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Chocolate lovers will have a field day with a 64% Auro dark chocolate, olive oil, and crème fraîche dessert with slight leanings to the Middle East. For our inquisitive minds, we zeroed into the parmesan and corn: an intriguing proposal that one needs to taste all in a single swoop—financier, gelato, and basil coming together. It might be slightly strange to our personal palate, but in the end, like many of chef Kevin’s other creations, we enjoyed it.
Just like the many surprises chef Kevin pulls out, he wants guests not only to come with an open mind, but be nurtured by the food and experience. The idea of nurturing through food, with its specific and evolving point of view, is not one you would expect from a burly, tattooed, 6-foot chef. But it is.
Perhaps Idalia is not merely a restaurant with a progressive young chef with a fastidious and laser-focused passion for ingredients, techniques, and thoughtful balance but a sense of restlessness that follows the promise of warmth and surprise we need from time to time.
Restaurant Idalia is located at G/F, Citrine Residences, Valero Street, Makati City. Follow @restaurantidalia on Instagram
