Inside a Kitchen Constantly Put to the Test

It takes artistry to make a kitchen sing, to create dishes with flavors, textures, and intensities that frolic on the tongue.

- IGAN D'BAYAN

Chef Josh Boutwood knows this only too well. While other culinary artists recognize that "dining is theater; each dish a chapter," Chef Josh and his team are ensconced in the kitchen in quiet brilliance, crafting dishes as they boldly try out new ingredients and combinations. The Test Kitchen in Rockwell is precisely such a place with its, well, kitchen where culinary ideas undergo rigorous exploration (perhaps inspired by the chef's astronaut figure nearby, ubiquitous in Boutwood restaurants).

Past the dining room and into the narrow upstairs hallway, and you'll find meat quietly aging behind glass such as pork legs, duck breasts, and lamb sausages. It is apparent how this is not a restaurant built for trends or tempo. This is a space, a playground for ideas in fermentation.

The Test Kitchen began, as many origin stories go, unintentionally. Chef Josh established its early incarnation along Kamagong Street in Makati. "It was our company's (The Bistro Group) test kitchen," he says. "We'd develop dishes for our big brands—Friday's, Italianni's. And then we just turned the space into a restaurant at night."

The Kamagong location was deliberately raw: two communal dining tables flanking a kitchen, dim lighting, high trust. "That was inspiring," Boutwood says. "It gave me this creative outlook where I could return back to my fine dining roots." It did very well. In 2019, a different kind of serendipity struck.

"I was walking my dog," he explains. "And I saw that a restaurant in Rockwell had boarded up. I called Rockwell Leasing and asked if it was available. They said yes. I messaged Jean-Paul Manuud [the company president] and said this could be a great opportunity."