‘We felt a certain chemistry’: chefs cooking 4-hands dinner compare notes on baseball and green mangoes, and US influence on Philippines and Venezuela

Jordy Navarro from the Philippines and Ricardo Chaneton from Venezuela saw on social media what each was cooking and felt they should collaborate

When the chefs cooked a four-hands dinner at Chaneton’s Mono in Hong Kong, the disparate Spanish and US influences on their national cuisines fascinated them

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Ricardo Chaneton (left) and Jordy Navarra of Manila’s Toyo Eatery at Mono in Hong Kong. The chefs served a four-hands dinner - and compared notes on their cultural and culinary influences Photo: Mono

Published: 4:15pm, 1 Apr 2023

With China and Hong Kong having scrapped quarantine and masking rules, it might appear that, finally, we have moved on from the global pandemic. Yet the World Health Organization notes that the coronavirus pandemic caused a 25 per cent rise in anxiety and depression worldwide – a sign of collective trauma.

Restaurants and bars, including those in Hong Kong, have been among the worst hit. As travel began to resume, one of the first things restaurants and chefs organised post-pandemic were four-hands dinners. They were an opportunity to see friends again, collaborate with contemporaries and mark a break from three oppressive years of pandemic stress.

One such collaboration was between Venezuelan chef Ricardo Chaneton, of Michelin-star restaurant Mono in Hong Kong’s Central district and Filipino chef Jordy Navarra of Manila’s Toyo Eatery, ranked 42 on Asia’s Best 50 Restaurants list in 2023. The two chefs had been in each other’s orbit for years, but only got to know each other through social media during the pandemic.

“I’ve been seeing Ricardo whenever we travel to events and we always cross paths,” says Navarra.

“We felt we had a certain chemistry,” Chaneton adds. “Personally, I’m a bit shy and Jordy is very quiet and polite. After watching each other’s work on social media we felt we needed to do something together.”

The two also found common ground in the shared history of their countries, whose cultures have both been influenced by America.