You bought the jar, but you hesitate. Is it still real cooking if you don’t make the sauce yourself? At a recent five-course tasting, Clara Olé gave a resounding yes—showing how pantry shortcuts can still carry the flavors we love, and how gourmet doesn’t always have to mean cooking from scratch.
Held at Brutal by Wadoughs with longtime collaborator Chef Wado Siman, the dinner wasn’t about restaurant theatrics. It was a demonstration: proof that convenience products don’t have to feel like compromises. In the right hands, they free up time, spark creativity, and bring back the joy of cooking.
Gourmet, Simplified
The meal opened with Black Tide, squid and feta on fried pasta crisps, brightened by Clara Olé’s Pasta Negra sauce whisked into a vinaigrette. For the main, Duckgalbi Assassina featured glazed duck breast over tomato pasta layered with kung pao, basil, and hickory sauces. Dessert sealed the point with Peach Mango Nitro: a fruit spread spun into gelato and topped with frozen marshmallows.
Other playful dishes followed, each one a reminder that gourmet doesn’t need hours of chopping or simmering. Sometimes it starts with what’s already on your pantry shelf.
Why It Resonates with Home Cooks
Many Filipinos feel guilty about “taking shortcuts” in the kitchen. We’re taught that the best food means everything from scratch. But between work, traffic, and family obligations, that ideal rarely matches reality.
This tasting showed that shortcuts aren’t the enemy—they’re tools. A jar of sauce doesn’t make food less homemade; it buys back minutes so you can focus on what matters most: sharing the meal.
“Cooking gourmet doesn’t have to be intimidating,” Chef Wado said. “What matters is that you enjoy the process and share the food. Everything else is flexible.”
It’s the kind of reassurance busy home cooks need: care isn’t measured by time at the stove, but by how food brings people together.
From Pantry to Plate
Since the late ’80s, Clara Olé jars and pouches have quietly sat in Filipino cupboards—pulled out for weeknight pastas, marinades, and quick desserts. Seeing them reimagined on a white-tablecloth menu reframes their role. They’re not just helpers; they can be the starting point for creativity.
That shift matters. At a time when convenience foods are often dismissed as “less real,” this tasting made the opposite case: convenience can be a way to cook with imagination and care, not just to cut corners.
A New Kind of Gourmet
The real luxury today isn’t elaborate technique—it’s time. Time saved in the kitchen, and time given back to the table. That was the larger point behind Clara Olé’s collaboration with Chef Wado: gourmet isn’t about how much labor you put in, but how much intention and joy you bring out.
So the next time you hear the pop of a jar lid, don’t think of it as giving up. Think of it as your head start—the beginning of a meal that turns an ordinary dinner into something memorable.
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