Le Petit Souffle adds spunk to the classics

By Angelo Comsti

Apr 7, 2015 | 6:38am Manila time

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COCONUTS HOT SPOT — They’re more recognized as pastry chefs, but Scout’s Honor’s Miko Aspiras and Kristine Lotilla show that they can do more than just caramelizing sugar, churning ice cream and stacking layered cakes. They fold their sleeves up, work the stove and give us a sampling of their savories.

Aspiras and Lotilla, along with the restaurant group they work with, were supposed to franchise a popular restaurant from Singapore. But upon seeing that the restaurant used a lot of pre-mixes and short cuts, they decided to dump the the idea, take inspiration from the restaurant concept instead — apply French techniques to Japanese ingredients — and open their open. The result is Le Petit Souffle.

The restaurant immediately makes an impression, as the interiors transport the garden inside the mall. The lights are a bit dim but that’s to suggest the outdoors.

We find the hanging rolling pins a bit out of place, but as the night wore on, it became clear that the decor added character to the space. They make interest points of discussion and mobile photography.

The French-Japanese fusion may not necessarily be obvious in all its dishes, but they are a definite step-up from typical fare. The mac ‘n cheese, for example, does not only have sausage slices, but is also topped with a seared piece of foie gras, pumping up the indulgence factor. We love how they didn’t scrimp on cheese, and the addition of breadcrumbs for texture only made the all-time favorite dish even better.

The same can be said about the Squid Ink Rice. The chefs were very generous with the squid ink, putting out a pitch black dish, instead of a watered-down lighter-shade version of other restaurants. It is served with squid rings, mushrooms and a fluffy omelet that gave every spoonful a delightful mouthfeel.

The Chicken Pomodoro is more sweet and spicy than tomato-tangy, with the rich sauce clinging on to the al dente pasta, guaranteeing flavor in every bite. It isn’t dry, nor too drenched either; the proportion is just right.

The Vegetable Soba Pasta, however, is healthier, heartier and a bit more memorable than the Chicken Pomodoro. It is tossed with cut-up eggplant, cucumber, mushrooms, tomato and a bunch of other vegetables, and is perfectly seasoned with dashi broth.

With pastry chefs at the helm of the kitchen, you can expect Le Petit Souffle to deliver good desserts. And it definitely does. It’s hard to find fault in the Valrhona Grand Cru, a plank of a multi-layered chocolate and caramel cake, studded with chocolate shards and pearls. It is lodged in the middle of a crème anglaise pool, which somehow tempers the richness of the chocolate.

If you desire for more playful textures and flavors, then it has you covered with its parfait variants. The Matcha Azuki and Choco Parfait is a generous swirl of green tea soft serve accompanied with cornflakes, coffee jelly, choco cake, green tea KitKat chunks and azuki beans.

The Strawberry Lychee Parfait has vanilla soft serve, fresh strawberries and strawberry compote, vanilla cake, lychee gelee, pistachios and a stick of wafer. Of the lot, my clear-cut favorite is the Salted Egg and Caramel Parfait, which plays on the sweet and salty. A vanilla soft serve comes with almond dacquoise, choco pearls, salted egg custard and brittle.

Notice that I haven’t written anything about the soufflés yet? That’s because Le Petit Souffle’s menu has quite a number of items that makes it worth going to and dining in. As for the soufflés, that might just require a whole feature in itself.

Le Petit Souffle, 3/F Century City Mall, Kalayaan Avenue, Makati.Le Petit Souffle is expected to open this week.