For Osteria Antica, Great Italian Fare Begins With Using the Best Ingredients

L/6 The Podium, 18 ADB Avenue, Ortigas Center, Mandaluyong City

Contact: 0917-109-7880

Facebook: www.facebook.com/osteriaanticaph

Chef Carlo Miguel talks of the food he makes at the osteria-style restaurant with a fervent passion, yet he also has the aura of one who is confident and comfortable. 

“I’ve been cooking for 32 years now. I’ve done the modern stuff. I’ve done the molecular stuff decades ago. So I think I’m in a place where it’s almost a little back to the basics,” Miguel says. “It may be a basic meal but every part is considered.”

It’s back to basics for the culinary director of the Wildflour Hospitality Group, who joined the group earlier this year right in time for the opening of Osteria Antica. If you remember Wildflour Italian (the group’s Italian concept that won awards for its pizza), Osteria Antica not only replaces that concept but upgrades it with wider menu offerings and a sprawling space atop Podium mall.

Brick walls, vaulted ceilings, and a sophisticated VIP room with a panoramic view of Ortigas sets the tone for the food you’re about to enjoy—no frills, marking the return to Italian food done right. To add to the experience, Miguel has added items that are finished table side and he believes that this engagement is an important aspect of the dining experience. “I love trying to get the kitchen into the dining room somehow,” Miguel shares. “When you do these tableside presentations, you get the smells [that come with the food preparation], and it’s like bringing the customer into the kitchen.”

One such dish is the Pompano Al Forno served inside a neat parchment package, simmering in a rich marinade of bagna càuda. The local fish itself is market fresh every morning and is characterized by the buttery texture of its flesh. “We bathe the pampano filets in bagna càuda. Bagna càuda is one of my favorite things in the world. It’s like a paste or a sauce made from butter, olive oil, garlic and anchovies. Then we wrapt it in paper and cook it in the wood fire oven. When the paper swells up the fish gets kind of steamed and roasted inside. All of that flavor from the bagna càuda goest through.”

Wagyu Zabuton from Snake River Farms gets finished tableside as well. Although the Zabuton comes from the shoulder of the cow, it bears a deep beef flavor with a savory umami and is unbelievably tender. Miguel experimented both dry aging and wet aging (keeping the steak inside a vacuum-sealed bag for the meat to age in its own juices) the steak for 30 days, and found that wet aging rendered a more buttery texture. Served over a celeriac puree alongside charcoal-grilled mushrooms and broccoli for smokiness, the server then proceeds to drizzle a peppercorn and barolo beef sauce over the puree.

Miguel stands by the locally sourced burrata they use for their Burrata dish. “This is made in Negros. It’s for me, bar none one of the best burratas that you can get in the country, even the imported ones. It’s very delicate, it’s creamy inside. You just poke it with a knife and it just opens up.”

The cheese gets paired with prosciutto, aged balsamic vinegar, hot honey, and a controversial ingredient: wood-fired pineapple. “I don’t usually like pineapple on pizza, but I was looking for a flavor pairing that would work off the prosciutto. Honestly, if you think about the Italian ethos it’s using the best fruit, vegetables and ingredients around you,” he explains.

The grilled pineapple adds a welcome tart sweetness from the salt and richness of the prosciutto and the creaminess of the burrata.

Even the new dessert gets served tableside—the Apple Crostata. Everything is made in-house: the buttery and flaky pastry; the rich vanilla gelato accompanying it. An apple marmalade is hidden inside the pastry and topped with fresh apple slices. Salted caramel is poured over this followed with a generous amount of grated parmigiano reggiano. “For me a little bit of salt from the parmesan and a little bit of salt from the caramel really balances the sweet and the tart of the apple and richness of that pastry,” Miguel adds. 

He continues, “I think the food here at Osteria Antica is really as authentic as Italian as you’ll get here in the Metro—executed flawlessly with the best ingredients that we can absolutely find. And I think that’s the ethos of Italian cooking: always start with the ingredient, execute simply but execute perfectly. That’s it.”