FLAVOURS OF ILOILO

Just as you enter the front door of the Amigo Plaza Mall, to your left is the newest dining destination in the city – Stavros’ Kebab and Mediterranean House and Piccolo Mondo . This family-oriented restaurant serves mouth-watering Mediterranean and Italian delights that were created by no less than Chef Mervyn Whitfield. EXPERTISE His expertise in the kitchen spans 42 years. But, surprisingly, cooking wasn’t really his first love. “My father was in the Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. My mother is Italian, with a little bit of Greek in her. I wasn’t tall enough to go into the Armed Forces. My mother's cousin was a chef in a hotel, so I got into that instead,” he narrated. He was only 14 when he left school and worked as an apprentice in a hotel. “When you are in a hotel kitchen, you do an apprenticeship. So, I started at the very bottom. I strained sauces for about a year and it was a horrible job. All the rubbish, the pots and putting everything in. Then, you strain to another...

Attuned with chicken inasal and Lapaz batchoy, Ilonggos would give any restaurant serving a cuisine this foreign. a curious second look. Much more, if items on the menu read tzatziki, falafel, baklava, kofta and moussaka, an order would be likely as hard as these items would be pronounced. But this didn’t stop renowned chef Mervyn Whitfield from bringing this cuisine into the mainstream Ilonggo culinary scene. Stavros’ Kebab and Mediterranean House gives Ilonggos a journey across cultures through the palate as it brings whole world of cuisine just in a single setting. With a casual dining ambiance, Ilonggos are lucky to have this cuisine readily available at an affordable price. Assorted kebabs A Greek word for cross, Stavros’ presents itself at the crossroads of different food traditions and gastronomic cultures of the Mediterranean. It brings in specialties from this part of the world that is relatively new to the Iloilo dining scene. “Most of our ingredients are imported to give the...