Soon at Celera by Nicco Santos and Quenee Vilar: a "Fresh Start," "Mixed Marriage" Cuisine

(SPOT.ph) It came as a bolt from the blue, but news of the departure of chefs Nicco Santos and Quenee Vilar from Restaurant Aurora has become the talk of the dining community in the past couple of weeks. Thankfully, the two themselves aren’t going anywhere, and the exit is only to make way for new beginnings—that is, the opening of Celera, their upcoming restaurant in Makati slated to open later this year.

Also read:  
Café Aurora Lets Us in on the Streamlined Side of Chefs Nicco Santos and Quenee Vilar  
The Café Aurora x Peach Blossoms SG Collab Brought Together Asia's Vivid Flavors 

Here’s a sneak peek of what’s to come at Celera, the upcoming restaurant of chefs Nicco Santos and Quenee Vilar:

With known stints at Your Local, Hey Handsome, and their delivery-only service Sambar, the two have long been known for their penchant for feisty flavors that mainly draw from East and Southeast Asian cuisines. This was just as evident—albeit with strategic restraint—as they opened Restaurant Aurora (initially called Café Aurora) at Makati’s Pacific Star Building in 2023. It’s here that they dished out glistening bowls of ikura-adorned Salmon Donburi and rice-stuffed chicken wings brushed with a Marmite glaze—no wonder they were highly celebrated among the community of lawyers working in the area as well as food-loving circles. Restaurant Aurora was included in SPOT.ph’s 50 Great Restaurants list in 2023, and named Tatler Dining’s Best New Restaurant 2024.

“I think we've already brought Aurora to its peak form. [We think] it's at its best now,” Santos shares in an exchange with SPOT.ph. With that, they also realized it was time to focus on their own restaurant. Santos' only request from Restaurant Aurora's partners? “Sabi ko lang... 'I hope that you can take care of my staff.' To which [the partners] replied, 'Don’t worry, chefs they'll be in good hands.' So, I'm very excited for them.”

For Celera, Santos and Vilar share they sought to make a “super duper fresh start.” “[By that we mean] fresh minds, new designer, new space, new everything.” Located at Comuna in at Pablo Ocampo Senior Extension, Makati, the place is poised to be a spacious 140 square meters in size, but will only hold 36 seats so as to not feel too cramped.

For this, they enlisted the prowess of acclaimed interior designer JJ Acuña, who Nicco says has helped “uncover blind spots… in terms of how we thought our restaurant could look like.” “‘Yung first time we met [JJ]… when we were talking, parang he knows the characters that we have,” says Quenee. “Parang he already knew what would excite the both of us.” For the first time, Nicco continues, they didn’t feel the need to dictate as much. “The only thing we said was, we want an open kitchen.” Acuña got the vision right on the first try—which allowed the two chefs to shift their focus on the food.  

Marrying Flavors, Genres, and Other Culinary Influences

Celera’s “fresh start” also extends to the food side of things. “The only thing that we're bringing with us is... I guess the same DNA. That's what we did in Hey Handsome, which was mixed marriage cuisine.”

“Mixed marriage.” The term has personal significance to Santos, as it touches on his family background. “I think the term means a lot more to me. Because I like what comes from two marriages.” More fundamentally, it touches on his own experiences crossing paths with a diverse set of influences as he was learning how to cook. His first mentors were French and Spanish trained chefs (particularly Marc Licaros and Ed Quimson, Nicco tells us); another mentor of his was part-Indian and part-Malay. Santos brings up the case of his laksa recipe, which is a tad different than most as he was taught by the said Indian-Malay cook “who has a very nice way of using both spices and herbs in her laksa rempah (laksa paste).” It also draws from his love—“culinary passion,” in his words—for the cuisine and dining scene in Singapore, which has been a "continuous source of inspiration" to Santos when he's developing dishes.

In practice, specifically in the context of Celera, this translates to a wider breadth of cuisines and genres from which they get inspiration. “Celera is not just gonna be Asian anymore,” says Santos. "It's just going to be us on a plate." There would be crossovers between more cuisines (and cultures)—which is less a deliberate choice, and more a product of his diverse cooking background as mentioned.

“The recipes I've learned are fused in a beautiful way by means of marriage. When two different cultures marry and when the context of cooking stems from love and family, a lot of intention will be present into the quality and flavor of the recipes.”

“I'm hoping that Celera will bring to Manila the cooking of the markets and homes that represent Southeast Asia with each inspired recipe I've personally learned,” says Santos. 

They're also working with ceramicists for their plates. "Some of the dishes will be conceptualized based on the ceramicists' design and the interior design of the space," says Santos.

Celera was initially to be centered around serving a tasting menu, but the two have more recently decided to instead do a combo of set menus and ala-carte offerings.  Still, tasting menus will be available on occasion, e.g. for chef collaborations, as they’ve done a good number of in recent years—one from 2023 had them joining forces with Peach Blossoms Singapore’s Chef Edward Chong. (They’ll be doing it again in Singapore on October 8th.) They’re currently also slinging Chicken Krapow Tacos at Taqueria Franco for the month of August.

Whereas chefs Nicco and Quenee took on a “straightforward” approach to food at Restaurant Aurora, at Celera, it’ll be all about “very simple” cooking—but with “very good” ingredients. That includes both local and imported, as long as they’re of high quality. “We'll source from wherever we can find, and then inject some local sensibilities into it. Because we believe that our produce is just as amazing as what we have abroad. Celera will hopefully bridge that gap."

Flavors-wise, Nicco admits Celera fare wouldn’t be quite as “punchy” as its predecessor used to be known to be. “This one is a bit more sure. A bit more… very grown up. Which means... a lot of wine, not a lot of cocktails. A lot of good sake. Quite grown up.” With Nicco turning 40 this year and Quenee, 31 (it’s been 10 years since they met), it looks to be the appropriate route to take, too.

Working With Their Team + Each Other

Asked about their dynamic in the kitchen today, Santos praises Vilar’s ability to make ideas come to life. “She's the structure… to make it to happen, I guess. And that's not that easy,” says Chef Nicco. “That's why, honestly, [with] all my restaurants, I wouldn't have opened anything else if not because of Quenee.”

He further expresses his gratitude for those he’s worked with over the years, in the kitchen and otherwise. “I'm very touched and grateful for all those we have worked with all these years, and who have contributed to providing us with a safe space for us to work and thrive," says Chef Nicco. “We also share same sentiments with partners, with suppliers.”

Santos admits Quenee and him have a “lot on the line” in opening Celera, in that they’ve put their life savings on the line. “Having our skin in the game is very important to me,” he says. Fortunately, the two met the right partners and are able to collaborate with the right people; and the time, they feel, is now ripe. The restaurant is slated to open in Q4, a couple of weeks after another collab they’ll be doing around that time, again with Peach Blossoms’ Edward Chong.

“I guess, you know, I've always had this… frustration. Like, we're always starting [again]... I'm just super happy that this one is definitely for keeps."

Says Quenee, “I think, really, it’s the best time… we're really making it work. We're gonna make it there.”

Also read: 
Drop By Taqueria Franco for Feisty Thai Tacos by Chefs Nicco Santos + Quenee Vilar This August 
Here's Why Café Aurora's Chef Quenee Vilar Is Culinary Royalty 

UPDATED (August 11, 2024, 1:40 a.m.): Some parts have been revised upon the interviewees' request, for brevity.

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