Highlights
- Chef John Rivera has found success in Australian fine dining but has never failed to advocate for Filipino cuisine.
- Before the pandemic hit, John was planning on putting up his own modern Filipino restaurant.
- John, along with his business partner Chef Minh Duong, established Kariton Sorbetes during the lockdown.
Chef John Rivera has been successful in the world of Australian fine dining for a decade, but he insists on going back to the cuisine that started his love for food in the first place - Filipino.
The chef
"I was born in Cabanatuan City, moved to New Zealand when I was 3 and moved to Australia when I was in high school," John shares, adding, "I've spent most of my life as an immigrant, adjusting to a country. My only connection to the Philippines then was through the Filipino food we had at home."
From the Filipino food he ate at home, the former Rockpool Bar & Grill and Lûmé chef nurtured a need to integrate the said cuisine to his professional cooking.
"[After Lûmé,] I worked in Amaru, a small fine dining restaurant focused on intuitive cooking; after that, I had a brief stint in Lûmé again to take over the kitchen when Shaun Quade left. I was able to showcase a modern interpretation of Filipino food and fine dining at the restaurant.
"I've spent most of my life as an immigrant, adjusting to a country. My only connection to the Philippines then was through the Filipino food we had at home." Source: Amaru / John Rivera
"One of the highlights of my career as well was representing the Asia Pacific in the San Pellegrino Young Chef of the Year 2018. From the initial 2,400 chefs who applied, we were whittled down to 21 [10 finalists from 21 regions]. For my signature dish, I made sinigang (a sour Filipino soup with meat and vegetables)."
John shares that the intention behind his modern sinigang was to show the adaptability of the Filipino migrant - he who continues to concoct traditional dishes using the native ingredients of his new home. In John's case, he drew inspiration from what New Zealand and Australia produced.
John [second row, second from left] amongst other finalists of the San Pellegrino Young Chef 2018 Source: San Pellegrino / John Rivera
"The finals were in Milan, where we cooked our dishes for the top chefs of the world. One of them was [Filipino chef] Margarita Forés, who was Asia's Best Female Chef of 2016. I can still remember how nervous I was serving her because I used her books throughout my research. She took a spoonful, looked at me, smiled and winked. That was enough recognition for me."
Luckily, recognition went beyond a smile and a wink and John won fifth place in the competition.
John Rivera's modern interpretation of the sinigang. Source: John Rivera
"I was happy more so to have the opportunity to bring Filipino food to the world stage. It justified to me that our food deserves a place amongst top cuisines."
The gelato
John, who currently works for Sunda Restaurant in Melbourne, planned on opening his own modern Filipino restaurant before the pandemic hit.
"Unfortunately, that's fallen through for now; but my friend and business partner Minh Duong and I sat down and said we should use our creativity [while in lockdown]."
"Minh is Vietnamese, but when he went to the Philippines for my wedding, he really fell in love with the concept of dirty icecream, of a person wheeling icecream on the streets and serving people which is very similar to what they also have in Vietnam."
"Minh is Vietnamese, but when he went to the Philippines for my wedding, he really fell in love with the concept of dirty ice cream." Source: Getty Images/Justine Prado/EyeEm
While 'dirty ice cream' is the colloquial term for the carted treat, John shares that the given adjective is used simply because of where it is sold and how dirt cheap it is.
"We wanted an approachable product that could reach people in their homes. We see Kariton Sorbetes (Filipino for 'Cart icecream'), our line of artisanal gelato, as a great opportunity to open the door and talk about what Filipino food is."
Drawing inspiration from dirty ice cream, John and Minh delve into classic flavours such as ube, buko pandan and queso, and other flavours based on Filipino desserts, cocktails and produce.
"We see Kariton Sorbetes as a great opportunity to open the door and talk about what Filipino food." Source: Kariton Sorbetes
"Our products have many toppings and we garnish to accentuate different flavours and textures to make them more interesting."
John shares that their ube gelato is topped with real handmade ube halaya (dessert made from mashed purple yam); his favourite turon is made of ripe bananas and topped with muscovado caramel, jackfruit and crispy spring rolls; queso is cheese gelato topped off with Skyflakes (a brand of Philippine saltines) to give it the essence of cheese and crackers; calamansi hinebra is calamansi (a Philippine citrus fruit) with a splash of gin; guyabano is soursop fruit juice mixed with milk; and champorado (chocolate porridge) is tablea gelato infused with toasted glutinous rice and topped with wild rice, cacao nibs and patis (fish sauce) salted caramel to mimic the pairing of dried fish and chocolate porridge.
"We're always trying to be creative with the desserts we could turn into ice cream. We're [experimeting] with taho (silken soy with pearls and syrup) right now and we'll be serving that soon. We're also playing with a lot of other flavours like halo-halo (iced dessert with milk and various ingredients), leche flan (caramel custard) and kape at pandesal (coffee and bread)."
Ube gelato topped with handmade ube halaya Source: Kariton Sorbetes
Turon gelato Source: Kariton Sorbetes
The hope
Though the lockdown forces their business to work within certain parameters, John shares that the more daunting challenges will occur once things return to normal.
"We do deliveries at the moment, but we're looking to eventually expand, to have our own shop so our customers can visit us and enjoy our gelato.
"We hope what we're doing will help open the door to non-Filipinos to try our food. I hope it becomes a talking point, a point of difference, that people will say 'Hey, this is Filipino food and because of it, we want to try more.' I also hope our brand inspires other Filipinos to be proud of their heritage and food, and to have the confidence to share it with their non-Filipino friends."
"We're looking to expand, to have our own shop so our customers can visit us and enjoy our gelato." Source: Daria Shevtsova from Pexels
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