Chefs Jayjay and Rhea Sycip’s farmhouse restaurant in Silang, Cavite is proof that good things happen to good people.
It has not been easy, but then again the past couple of years have been tough on everyone. There were times when The Fatted Calf’s husband and wife tandem Jayjay and Rhea Sycip toyed with the idea of permanently shutting down their dream restaurant, something that took almost a decade to come to fruition. However, something would always happen to turn the odds in their favour and would encourage them to carry on.
Lucky for us, since the inspired family-style dishes and world-class pastries coming out of their kitchen is truly worth the trek from the city. The house and property itself was something they discovered during one of their “hole-in-the-wall” excursions seeking out hidden gems. Chef Jayjay shared that was their favourite activity when they were still dating, and it was when they were seeking out the neighbouring Vietnamese restaurant that they first discovered the farmhouse back in 2007. “We were lost and making a U-turn when I saw the ‘for rent’ sign,” added chef Rhea, “and I remember asking Jayjay: ‘What if?’”
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As their love story progressed, so did their careers in the hospitality industry. However, the allure of the farmhouse in Silang lingered, and fate kept it waiting and available. Finally, the lease contract was signed on their Silang farmhouse at the end of 2017 when both were ready to ease out of their hotelier posts. The house itself was tailor-made for their requirements with the high ceiling in the main room, and an expansive kitchen for both Jayjay’s hot dishes and Rhea’s pastries that she also still offers under her established Flour Pot Manila brand. “With every paycheck, we slowly pieced the restaurant together,” Rhea narrates. Plates and bowls purchased during a trip to Thailand adorn the wall in the main dining room, the rope bulb hanging from the ceiling is a flea market find.
A beautiful back story, no doubt, but it is not the foundation supporting this endeavour. At the end of the day, it is about the food. The homey dishes here are the kind that gets embedded into memory, the type that you will crave for only hours after eating it. Chef Jayjay has been prodded by chef friends to make a tasting menu, but he insists that it is not their style. Their monicker itself is derived from [Christian] scripture when the prodigal son returns into the fold and the father ordered that “the fatted calf” be slaughtered for the feast. “This is how we eat,” Jayjay explains. “Our families would come and we would have one long table, then more would arrive and we would just keep adding tables and chairs.”
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