At first glance, Now Now Canteen’s new cultural incubation and artist residency program seems like it is not for the casual diner. 

When you launch an artistic statement that bridges food and contemporary art—with visual artist Isabel Santos as the debut collaborator in a series that would see a number of local artists take the reins in the space—it’s easy to designate it as both less and more than individuals might expect.

One that can come across relatively esoteric for some—with a requisite commitment to activate all senses to experience the program’s gastronomic acrobatics—or tentative in the scale of what its dishes might want to say.

But look past the initial reservations about Now Now Canteen and Santos’ curatorial vision for the first edition of “ReNOWn” and this culinary exercise slowly makes sense.

“When Bryan [Kong] and I started thinking about this project, we wanted to create something, first, unexpected, and second, interactive,” says visual artist, art writer, and curator Patrick de Veyra. “Something that builds a sense of community”

“When Bryan [Kong] and I started thinking about this project, we wanted to create something, first, unexpected, and second, interactive,” says visual artist, art writer, and curator Patrick de Veyra. “Something that builds a sense of community.”

“We realized this could be a space where artists—visual and culinary—can step into each other’s fields, processes, and vocabularies to create something unexpected,” he adds.

In its simplest definition, “ReNOWn” provides a stage for a multisensory dining experience orchestrated by the artist’s thoughts and creations, and, in the case of Santos, “her personal experiences with her body.”

“She has easily triggered acid refluxes and that influenced everything,” says de Veyra. “From the R&D process to how much she could eat, how she could eat it, what ingredients were tolerable, and so on.”

Santos’ takeover of Now Now Canteen is a good starting point for the visions of both the curatorial team comprised of Patrick de Veyra, co-founder Bryan Kong (director of fermentation), Maxine Kong (director of brand and culture), and Zoilo “Chino” Recto (hospitality systems designer) as well as resident chef Kelvin Pundavela and sous chef Keona Liuson—both of whom function under the supervision of executive chef Mateusz Łuczaj and executive pastry chef Lisane Łuczaj.

The renaissance of deft and deconstructed touch

There is a compelling messaging here that cannot and will not be ignored. Over the translucent kitchen panels are food illustrations mixed in with iconic depictions of old Hollywood glam girls; on one side of the restaurant hangs a patchwork fabric art punctuated by wooden art tabs reminiscent of misplaced puzzle pieces resting on the tables.

“I gravitate towards images from ’40s- and ’50s-era advertisements and comic books, based on my own particular interests in them, recombining these glamorous and often fetishized imagery with the normal, mundane, and unremarkable scenes, views, and still lives gleaned from my own life, blurring image associations, and ultimately obscuring them,” explains Santos.

Now Now’s fluency in fermentation and explorations from lab to table take a detour into Santos’ repurposed art world. And despite all the ideas involved, the eight-course menu (one of which is an Isabel Santos original printed fabric) came about naturally.

Each of the dishes crafted by Pundavela correspond to a memory, dabble into Santos’ methods, or draw inspiration from her life. Amid the deconstructed wooden pieces on the table, the beverage pairing (three types of kombucha, a Argentinian white wine that sips like flowers, sake, and a local mead), and the menu printed then folded inside the napkin, Santos invites you to approach the degustation—no, her world—with an open mind.

Each of the dishes crafted by Kevin Pundavela correspond to a memory, dabble into Santos’ methods, or draw inspiration from her life

“The chefs were definitely taken out of their comfort zone,” says de Veyra. “Isabel’s work involves a lot of appropriation, tapestry-building, and layering of materials. So the chefs had to find ways to translate that into a culinary format.”

The Italian-Japanese-leaning menu is Santos’ art distilled into food with many of her recognizable signatures showing up in spades. To some, it may be a challenge but, again, with the right mindset and a willingness to walk alongside Santos and the Now Now Canteen team, they’ve put together a menu akin to strolling inside a gallery-like headspace.

The Italian-Japanese-leaning menu is Santos’ art distilled into food with many of her recognizable signatures showing up in spades

“For example, in the bread course, the chefs are actually able to create translucent bread through a food tech process whereby a special starch is used to create a mother of pearl-like material that allows for light to pass through. The resultant color matches Isabel’s yellow ochre hue in her paintings,” says de Veyra. “It isn’t just about making something look a certain way—it’s about translating structure, form, and process.”

The appetizers aptly function like a prelude to the exhibition with a progression of flavors from subtle (pillowy puffed pasta) to slightly sweet (a sando of fermented corn shokupan with katsu scallop), and eventually savory with a toasty texture (octopus heads, shrimp, and smoked peppers in pave form).

But the most interesting examples heavily lean into Santos’ sensibilities. The brilliantly acidic salad of pear, oakleaf, mizuna, and ginger ponzu with crisp lotus chips and hibiscus pickle plays with Santos’ affinity for construction and reconstruction of fragments sans the anxieties she sometimes projects.

A conceptual shoyu swordfish crudo sees Pundavela and Santos reconfigure starch into dashi “crystal” bread whose level of translucent finesse bears resemblance to haute cuisine

A conceptual shoyu swordfish crudo sees Pundavela and Santos reconfigure starch into dashi “crystal” bread whose level of translucent finesse bears resemblance to haute cuisine. Next, you’ll encounter a seafood standout covered in a Santos textile: a prime halibut edamame with what seems like toasted rice flourished with ikura, miso butter, and amazake caper sauce. Expand the portions into a fuller size and this jewel of a dish would be a fast-moving star in any a la carte menu.

An interlude of a warm palate cleanser made with mushroom tofu, wakame, and tomato dashi provides enough time for a breather before launching into the main—a patchwork presentation of gyutan (grilled beef tongue) lasagna.

Here, Pundavela and Santos focus on glamour and a “technicolor treatment” to weave a plate that references the eclecticism of the quilt hanging in the restaurant. When you uncover the sheets, frenetic flavors of curry, black garlic cheese, nori pesto, and papaya chutney evoke euphoric emotions Santos must have felt—I assume—when she won the grand prize at the 15th UT Grand Prix design competition by Uniqlo and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Lastly, in what seems to be another high point of the degustation and the most Japanese of the lineup, Santos pays homage to her love for strawberry with a bright red strawberry hiyayakko summer dessert. The sweet silken tofu tastes and feels more like panna cotta with the kombucha strawberry and beetroot molasses escalating the effervescence of the resplendent dessert.

Punchy but not too sweet. Confident and clear despite the mystery of the menu. It’s a stark contrast to the uncertainty lingering at the start. 

Now Now Canteen’s crowning moment

In the end, Now Now Canteen’s limited-time incubation with Santos is more about what and how artistic ideas can yield when new ingredients are employed and when art informs gastronomy.

That said, something about this unorthodox approach can either alienate or allure an audience but this isn’t a bad thing. When the overall experience transcends a simple multicourse dinner, food becomes even more comparable to art in that you give up control and let the receiver come to their own conclusion.

That said, something about this unorthodox approach can either alienate or allure an audience but this isn’t a bad thing

This first edition with Santos may be a separate piece of work but the impact fits right within the wider context and catalogue of both her ethos and Now Now Canteen’s earthy, fermented landscapes. 

It may be unwavering in its intent to incubate contemporary art within food—or food within contemporary art—but the results of “ReNOWn’s” first outing is a down-to-earth display brimming with identity. One that seems to refresh how chefs and artists document their coexistence in many delicious ways.

Now Now Canteen x Isabel Santos is open to the public on May 21, 22, 23, 28, 29, and 30. To book a seat, visit https://nownow.ph/. For further inquiries, email us at [email protected] or contact us at 0917 164-6747

Additional interview by Lala Singian