Organico Gourmet

Deliciously healthy!

By Earl D.C. Bracamonte

These days, everything has become so fast-paced that there’s so little time to cook and prepare food; spawning the nutrition-deficient ‘instant’ food craze that has given urban dwellers a host of lifestyle acquired ailments; with some getting the conditions at a very early age.

“Eating is the bonding time of our family ever since. It’s like a fiesta on weekends. And cooking has always been a passion of mine. It was the journey of trimming down my then 12-year-old youngest daughter and helping her lose weight that gave the impetus to start the resto.

“You can say it was my youngest daughter who inspired me into putting up this dining place after seeing her slim down. I started with the Atkins diet and then the South Beach diet thereafter. In two weeks, she lost ten pounds.

“She diminished her steak eating and replaced it with chicken until she finally turned to fish. Now she’s semi-vegetarian. That’s when I decided to share the advocacy to people other than my family,” shared executive chef and mother-of-two Gloria De Vera.

After finishing her Accountancy course, she enrolled in a culinary course under Chef Gene Gonzales at the CACS. Her sous chef, Mark Bernardino, was a schoolmate.

Now at sixteen, the once overweight Shobe at 170 lbs. now flaunts her trim and healthy 115-pound frame.

Dishes are prepared with pesticide-free, hand-grown, non-GMO (genetically-modified organism) ingredients and are therefore very nutritious. They contain no MSG, preservatives, nor artificial taste enhancers. The culinary team of Chef Gloria and Chef Mark aim to blow diners’ expectations with their flavorful concoctions.

For starters, savor the Tinapa Mousse on Mini Pancakes, a melding of tinapa flakes with milk reduction atop mini flapjacks.

Red meat lovers would delight in their Bellychon dish, a plate of pork belly roulade stuffed with lemon grass and leeks. Or their best-selling Bulalo steak, a recipe from Chef Gloria’s Reyes side of the family that had been handed down through the generations since the pre-war years.

Seafood lovers, on the other hand, would swoon on their Grilled Prawns with Passionfruit sauce, an epicurean plate of buttered shrimps/tiger prawns with sidings of fresh beans, carrots and a ball of pasta. And speaking of pasta, never miss their 3 Mushroom Truffle Cream variety. Simply mouth-watering!

“A lot of people think that just because it’s healthy and organic, that it can’t be delicious. That’s why our motto is ‘deliciously organic.’ We want to show people that organic food is very healthy yet highly palatable,” enthused the former accountant.

“Everything is organic food and cooked using mostly locally-produced ingredients. It takes a month of taste tests before new dishes are incorporated unto the menu. There’s usually a new dish to sample each month,” she continued.

Organico Gourmet also offers cold-press juices made from all-natural ingredients: 80 per cent vegetables and 20 per cent fruit juices. There’s red beet, carrot fusion, mango fusion, pineapple mint and (my favorite) Energy drink made from kale and Chinese broccoli.

Diners and health conscious individuals can also procure organically-grown produce and meats, dips & sauces, chips and snacks as well as condiments and fresh herbs therein. Diners can bring the healthy goodness of the organics products home right from the super grocer just beside the resto.

Organico Gourmet aims to ignite a healthy dining revolution among Filipinos. For more inquiries, simply call mobile no. 0917-3790888 and/or email organicogourmet88@gmail.com.