There’s a new Filipino restaurant poised to take over the London food scene, and it offers, among others, lechon ice cream.
Kinilaw & Buko, an intimate 42-cover restaurant and cocktail bar, opened on Oct. 23 at London’s trendy Hoxton Street, with a promise to bring to the table a revolutionary menu that will change the way Londoners will think about Filipino food.
Cooking up a storm at Kinilaw & Buko is Filipino Head Chef Francis ‘Ace’ Puyat, who was the mastermind of last year’s largest pop up in London, The Hallou-mi.
Originally from Mindoro, Chef Francis moved to London with his parents in 1997 and wasted no moment in spreading the word about Filipino cuisine one plate at a time. Fast forward two decades later, Chef Francis teamed up with his buddy, 100 Hoxton Founder Andrew Zilouf to transform what was once a tailors’ shop into a Filipino restaurant that masterfully sews together the diverse flavors of Southeast Asia’s biggest culinary secret.
“Filipino cuisine has a lot of influences from neighboring countries and European countries like Spain. There are some dishes that have always been our own, like kinilaw and tinola, and some that we have made our own, such as kare-kare adopted from Malaysia and lumpia, our take on Chinese spring roll,” said Chef Francis.
“There is a wide range of different people within the Philippines as well, so added to the melting pot of foreign influences you also have a beautiful mix of different local cooking traditions. Essentially Filipino cuisine is the original Asian fusion art. It is a tradition I am very happy to carry on.”
Chef Francis combines his training in classical French culinary art with his penchant for explosive spices and bold flavors to put together an eclectic menu revolving around two favorite Filipino culinary elements: Kinilaw, the Philippines’ answer to Peru’s ceviche; and Buko, a fusion, artisan Filipino ice cream concept served in a baby coconut shell.