Helm by Josh Boutwood's New Tasting Menu is a Hogwarts Adventure
It will cast a spell on you.
Helm by Josh Boutwood
3rd Floor, Ayala Triangle Gardens
Makati Avenue, Makati City
Open Tuesday to Sunday
For reservations, call or message 09159098647
(SPOT.ph) Booking a dinner at Helm these days means stepping into Hogwarts, or the world of Harry Potter. The fantasy novel series by J.K. Rowling, which has since been adapted to seven big-budget movies, is the inspiration behind chef Josh Boutwood’s new menu for his most premium of restaurants.
Hence there’s a dish that references Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, where Voldemort’s serpent is represented by a similarly colored eel but this eel hails from Mindanao. Another dish is a nod to Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, where the golden egg translates to a delicious jammy, egg-forward dish composed of a Wagyu ragu and an egg yolk gel sous vide for about an hour and at 68 degrees to achieve the desired consistency. The addition of a gold leaf on top is supposed to be the dead giveaway as to what book this dish is a nod to—a gesture clearly for fans of the books.
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Perhaps the most overtly Harry Potter-ish of all in this menu is the squid porridge served early in the dinner, hidden in a crunchy covering reminiscent of Severus Snape’s funereal cape. If you’re not exactly a follower of the books, Snape is the late great Alan Rickman’s character in the films. But do you really need to be a Potterhead to fully appreciate the new feast at Helm?
Well, not really. Although it won’t hurt if you’re seated next to two of the kind as I am: Leslie Cheng who is @shootfirsteatlater on Instagram and Charles Montañez, the inventive and hardworking chef behind Mamacita in BGC. They hold my hand as Boutwood and his assistant chefs present dish after dish, each representing a book in the series. They tell me what this or that strange-sounding word means, so I don't have to pick up my phone to ask Google. Like the term Quidditch, for example, which turns out to be a sport birthed only by Rowling’s wild imagination, one that involves flying broomsticks and has been described as like football but for wizards. The Quidditch is where the above mentioned golden egg comes from, the latter being the prize in the inaugural game of dragon-taming.
An invitation to Hogwarts
By the way, after the snacks which kickstart the meal, it’s only then that a white envelope lands on our marble table: an invitation signaling that we’re about to enter the Hogwarts program. Mine has a sticker with a golden letter G on it, stamped against a scarlet backdrop. Chef Josh tells me it stands for one of the Hogwarts houses, Gryffindor, which is all about bravery—-a warning that my dishes for the evening will have a slightly spicier edge than the ones served to my companions.
But book/film references aside, I enjoy the savory complexity of that squid porridge, with its acidic notes from the lemon and dill. It would be hard not to talk about the delightful roasted quail (a nod to Order of the Phoenix), lightly glazed with shoyu koji and best eaten with your hands. It is served with a roasted cauliflower puree and roasted beets— “for more earthiness,” says the young chef who presents the dish finished with a beetroot slash hibiscus foam on top.
Top rate snacks and hidden gems
Another highlight of the dinner is the second wagyu offering, this time with the meat more visible, although they come hidden first by a round textured chip, a nod to the invisibility cloak in the Deathly Hallows book. Lift the pancake chip and out appears two substantial slices of Japanese A5 wagyu, dry aged for about a week and cooked medium rare. They sit in a deliciously indulgent sauce made of beef bones and bone marrow, roasted— another young chef informs us—for about four days just to turn the beefy flavor way up.
Whether you’re a Potterhead or just a fan of transportive culinary experiences, Chef Josh’s latest tasting menu makes Helm an exciting place to be any given night. It’s a dinner that engages your eyes, your palate, and your imagination. Even the ones outside the Hogwarts menu—the delicious snacks, the intermission that is Chef Josh’s excellent sourdough bread which comes with four delicious kinds of butter (including one that legit tastes like chicharon)—will cast a spell on you and make you think of this dinner many days after.
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