Gone Global, Loves Local

The F&B scene has always kept an eye on Chele González to see what he’ll do next. As it turns out, he is always a step (or two) ahead of the pack

- Shauna Jay Popple Williams

It’s a tapas evolution!” exclaims José Luis ‘Chele’ González, who, along with his signature Cheshire Cat grin, checks in on our table at the top of our five-course tasting experience. Tonight is a big deal for the restaurant’s namesake and yet, uncharacteristic of a chef on opening night, he is running on sangfroid-infused adrenaline.

Three months of renovations have passed and what was formerly the revered Gallery VASK, the 35th Best Restaurant in Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants of 2017 (and the previous year, #39), is now Gallery by Chele. The culinary pitch: modern cuisine with local ingredients. Again, so very “Chele” when one packages it all into a neat tapas centric parcel. As he talks us through each of his beautiful creations, a couple of dishes, this writer notices, are surprise additions to the bill of fare since T.Dining’s First Taste sneak preview dinner just two weeks prior. In true artist fashion, the evolution, it seems, just keeps on evolving.

While the evolution of Gallery VASK itself is subject to cross-examination, that of González and his vision deserves dissecting, too. Moving from one avant-garde fine-dining restaurant to another (many, Michelin decorated), he counts Guggenheim Museum (now Nerua Guggenheim), elBulli, Arzak, Mugaritz, El Cellar de Can Roca, and Denmark’s Noma as not only work experience, but inspirations, in particular, the delicious duality of the former.

“I was working at places that would have dual concepts [within] the same space: one that is a bistro cafeteria that serves pintxos, tapas…everything! It’s cheaper, busier; then there’s the fine-dining restaurant, which [brings to the fore] the next level of cuisine…it is very innovative,” acknowledges González.