Monday, March 10, 2008 Culinary Artistry By Jenara Regis Newman
WATERFRONT Cebu City Hotel and Casino has a new executive chef in the person of Joerg Walter who was born and raised in Germany where he served his culinary apprenticeship for 16 years. From there, he moved on to other parts of the world—Hong Kong, Cairo, Abu Dhabi, the Maldives, working as executive sous chef or executive chef in hotels like the Conrad International Hotel, the Millenium Hotel and the Laguna Beach Resort Hotel.
His stint in Waterfront is his first in the Philippines, but he says he is no stranger to Filipinos working in the kitchen as he met many of them in the kitchens he worked in Abroad, which is the reason he wanted to work here.
He says: “Filipinos enjoy life. I try to enjoy life, but Filipinos enjoy life a bit more. In general, I find them very good.”
Chef Joerg prepared a luncheon for members of the press. It showed not just his culinary capability, but also his culinary artistry: from the “Cured Marinated Scottish Salmon,” flavored with beet root and apple and finished in a blend of five Oriental spices, to “Laksa Frapuccino Soup with Red Langoustine,” to the pink pomelo sherbet, and to the main dish, “Sauteed Tiger Prawns,” and the sinful desserts, “Chocolate Lava with Mocha Baileys Ice Cream and Hazelnut Parfait” in a cone.
Each dish was a work of edible art and reflected his culinary philosophy: “..there should be no pretensions.
His dishes are clean, simple and sincere – in visual appeal, in aroma, and in flavor.” He relies on the freshest meats and produce in making his foods wholesome and palatable.
German though he is, chef Joerg says he does not really like German food “because it is quite heavy—a lot of meat, a lot of cream and butter, because Germany is a cold country.” So at home, with his Chinese wife and daughter, he prefers to cook pastas and curries, which he learned to like in his stint in the Middle East, and which he learned to do from an Indian chef.
With Joerg as the executive chef of Waterfront, one can expect new flavors and new dishes in its many outlets, UNO, La Gandola, Treff, Café Fortuna, Lobby Lounge, Pool Aquarius, Power House, Madeliene, Mizu, Tin Gow.
