Who knew raisins could be this versatile?
James Beard Award-winning food content creator Erwan Heussaff teamed up with renowned chefs Angelo Comsti and Don Baldosano to craft a four-course menu of Filipino dishes featuring a surprisingly versatile ingredient — raisins.
Supported by the Raisin Administrative Committee, in partnership with the U.S. Embassy in the Philippines, the culinary event, “Reimagining Filipino Heirloom Dishes with California Raisins,” was held at Offbeat Bistro in Ayala Triangle Gardens on Tuesday, July 8.
For the first course, Heussaff prepared an appetizer featuring malasugi, the local term for swordfish, paired with coconut cream and raisins tapenade.
U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines Mary Kay Carlson also joined the food content creator to prepare the main dish: a seared steak with potato pavé and roasted eggplant sauce elevated by the natural sweetness of raisins.
“Americans and the Philippines [Filipinos]— one of the things that unite our people is our love of food, getting together with family and friends,” Carlson said.
“We use a hashtag on the embassy account: #FriendsPartnersAllies but also #FriendsPartnersFoodies,” she quipped.
Chef Comsti followed the course with a pan-seared bacoco (sea bream), served with bulgur salad and a kusido-style sauce featuring raisins, which is a nod to the flavors of the classic Filipino stew.
To end on a sweet note, Chef Baldosano reimagined sorbetes by creating a milk ice cream with California raisins, topped with a crisp milk tuile and a drizzle of burnt raisin oil.
The event was supported by the Raisin Administrative Committee, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service in Manila and the U.S. Embassy in Manila.
In 2024, the Philippines ranked as the fifth-largest global market for California raisin exports, totaling P522.5 million ($9.5 million). In the same year, the United States was the leading exporter of raisins to the country, with an 80 percent market share.
