Old Manila Chef de Cuisine Gaël Kubler

Talented French Chef de Cuisine Gaël Kubler brings new culinary flair to Old Manila as he takes over the helm of The Peninsula Manila’s iconic restaurant.

It’s not sorcery, and it’s definitely not “saucery”’ that sets French cuisine apart, so why does it still remain one of the benchmarks against which most people judge all others?

Is it that certain je ne sais quoi that puts France’s chefs in a class all of their own? Is it their superb and varied larder, centuries of regional fare, the discipline of the apprentice system and a demanding public? Or is the eminence of French cuisine based on technique? These are questions that can probably be best answered by Gaël Kubler, the new chef de cuisine of The Peninsula Manila’s iconic signature restaurant Old Manila.

The story of Chef Gaël is equal parts passion and serendipity. Born and raised in the northeastern French region of Alsace that sits on the borders of Germany and Switzerland, his first introduction to the culinary world came at an early age with his grandmother.

“There’s a photo of me standing on a stool, stirring a pot in the kitchen when I was no more than five or six years old. But I don’t recall wanting to be a chef as a child. I was just a regular boy who enjoyed sports, in fact my dream was to be a rugby player like my childhood hero, New Zealander rugby superstar Jonah Lomu,” he says. And while both his parents were gifted cooks, it was his grandmother who took dining at the table very seriously. “I remember making brioche with her. It was rich and yellow from all the duck eggs and butter we used. It was also because of a promise I’d made to her that I decided to pursue a career as a chef.”

Like any French chef in the making, he went to culinary school for formal training at the Lycée Hôtelier Alexandre Dumas in Strasbourg, which consisted of three years of intensive technical teaching, general studies course work, apprenticeships, and everything relevant to a budding chef’s career.

After completing his studies at age 19, he started working in L’Auberge de I’ll in Illhaeusern, Alsace in 2012 under his first mentor, three-star Michelin chef Marc Haeberlin.

“Right after school I decided I wanted to learn from one of the greatest chefs of France. I worked with Monsieur Haeberlin as a commis for nearly two years and he taught me two things that have never failed me in my career: First, that I am only as good as my team. I must show them the same care and respect that I do our guests. Second, respect for the produce and simplicity, flavor, and honesty in my dishes. He also drilled in me discipline and taught me to be less stubborn.”

To further hone his talent, he worked as demi chef de partie in Marseille’s Le Petit Nice and as garde manger in L’Assiette Champenoise in Reims. Then, in an effort to achieve his dream of gaining international experience and learn English, he packed his bags in 2015 and moved to England. While in London, he became head of the meat and banqueting kitchen of The Ritz Restaurant at The Ritz London.

During the year he spent at The Ritz London, three-star chef Michael Nizzero mentored him, reinforcing further his philosophy that fresh local produce combined with a well- balanced palate and extensive understanding of flavor can create exquisite modern French dishes that epitomize the best of seasonal fine dining. “He was a strict but very fair boss who took time to teach a young Frenchman who barely knew English and was living abroad for the first time many valuable lessons in and out of the kitchen. He had a big heart!” remembers Chef Gaël. 

Working in England had also instilled in him a wanderlust. “I wanted to cook and see the world,” he says, and the opportunity presented itself again in 2018 when he was asked to take on the position of sous chef at Ki Māha restaurant in New Zealand which, that year, won the “Best Opening in New Zealand” award.

A novice globetrotter with a passion for food, five years later he has now found himself taking up the plum post of Chef de Cuisine of Old Manila, where he brings an exciting new international perspective to The Peninsula Manila’s signature restaurant.

Highlights of Chef  Gaël Kubler’s new Old Manila menu include: Ahi Tuna Carpaccio (Calamansi gel, pickled mango, ginger oil, coconut dressing), Veal Sweetbread (Green asparagus, spinach emulsion, chicharron, morel jus), Tournedos Rossini (Black Opal Wagyu, duck foie gras, brioche, truffle mash), Atlantic Turbot (Prawns, oyster mushrooms, bok choi, potato, ginger, beurre blanc), Crab and Green Pepper Ravioli (Bisque, peas, espuma, toasted peanuts), and Banana and Toffee (Tuile, crémeux, rum raisin ice cream) for dessert.

“My grandmother cooked with love and care every day. I still remember the smells and aromas of her kitchen. She would sometimes create a few little extras on holidays and festive occasions, but it was always the simplest dishes that were the best. My menu in Old Manila is also very simple. I will be sourcing ingredients from local suppliers who can assure me of the freshest vegetables from Tagaytay and Batangas, with others flown in daily from Mindanao. We also have suppliers for top-quality fish and seafood that are ethically and sustainably sourced, or responsibly farmed. Australian premium beef will complement Wagyu meat that we are importing from Japan. I will cook them simply, enhancing or drawing out their natural flavors as honestly as possible. Simplicity and honesty in the kitchen are absolutely essential, just like my grandmother taught me.”

Perhaps it is the cooking of grande-mère that sets French food apart.

OLD MANILA CHEF DE CUISINE GAËL KUBLER ANSWERS 21 QUESTIONS

1. Where do you work? 
At The Peninsula Manila, in the Philippines.

2. Where were you born?
In Alsace, France.

3. When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grow up?
I wanted to be a rugby player. 

4. Did you have an “aha” moment when you knew you wanted to be a chef? What was it?
Cooking with my grandmother. Learning from her and the books she would lend me to read. I also promised her that I would be a chef one day.

5. What is your favorite thing about being a chef?
This might sound strange, but coming in before my team, switching on the lights, turning on the fire in the cooking ranges, and “reading” my team’s faces. This gives me a chance to settle in and get a feel of how the day in the kitchen will turn out.

6. Best advice you ever got? 
Do it well. Repeat. And repeat again and again. 

7. What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever eaten? 
Shrimp paste and durian.

8. What’s your favorite ingredient.
Chili. I spent two months backpacking in India and I found it to be the most fascinating spice with so many flavors and nuances. So versatile.

9. The ingredient that you would never use. 
Shrimp paste.

10. What is the kitchen instrument that you can’t live without?
The whisk.

11. What is your favorite thing to do when you’re not cooking.
Work out at the gym.

12. What was the hardest thing for you to learn? Or is there something you just can’t get right?
Pastry. I don’t have the skill nor mindset for it.

13. What would you like to do before you get too old to do it.
Travel more. I want to see the silverback gorillas in Rwanda.

14. How did becoming a chef change your life?
It opened a whole new world for me – people, travel, experiences, meeting my wife.

15. Who are the four people that you would you like to have over for a meal? 
Kobe Bryant, my grandmother, and chefs Bernard Loiseau and Marc Haeberlin

16. What would you cook for them? 
A simple Alsatian choucroute.

17. Looking back, is there something you would have done differently?
I could have been less stubborn.

18. Please give us a cooking tip that people might not know.
Don’t throw out your old vegetables (as long as they’re not moldy or decaying) or vegetable peels, discarded roots or stems, trimmings. You can use them as the base for delicious vegetable stock or broth. They’re also high in nutrients and antioxidants. Waste not, want not. 

 19. Tell us a funny story from the kitchen. 
One time, an apprentice mixed up his red wines for the sauce he was making. He used a Château Petrus instead. It was the best red wine sauce I have ever tasted.

 20. Tell us a deep dark secret of yours (doesn’t have to be food related).
I’m afraid of rats.