Interfel partnered with the renowned chefs to whip up festive staples you can elevate with apples sourced directly from France.
It’s that time of the year again when the weather is cold, the city is beaming with dancing lights, and family and friends gather for holiday traditions. For all the hearty gourmands out there, Christmas is also when food takes center stage. Chocolates, cookies, and cakes are given out in shiny cans, and charcuterie boxes are shipped with sparkling wines. And, of course, there’s the Noche Buena, where lasting memories are created over a festive meal.
Christmas, without a doubt, is the merriest time of the year. And if you’re looking for ways to spice up your family’s annual Christmas Eve dinner this year, you won’t go wrong with doing it the French way. It starts with using French apples to elevate the flavors and festive vibe of your family’s feast.
Apples are a staple in French festive cooking and no wonder, because those produced particularly in France are fresh and crisp, true to their original flavor and texture. They adhere to strict European grading and sorting systems to ensure that they have minimal residues, do not contain pesticides, and are protected from pollinators like bees.
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French apples are exported to over 100 countries, including markets in Asia, the Middle East, and North America. They have been increasingly available in the Philippines along with French fresh fruit and vegetable through Interfel, which promotes French companies globally.
French apples come in four variants—Candine (sweet), Juliet (sweet with a hint of tanginess), Gala (sweet with a touch of sourness), and Granny Smith (sour)—that can all balance the rich flavors of a dish.
Guevarra’s owners and chef-couple Rolando and Jackie Laudico \ Photo by Justine Punzalan
Interfel recently partnered with renowned chef Rolando “Lau” Laudico and his wife chef, Jackie, in whipping up festive staples you can elevate with apples sourced directly from France. While these dishes are available at their restaurant, Guevarra’s by Chef Lau, until January 2026, the couple gave a quick demo of how you can create them at home during the launch of their collaboration on November 13.
Below you’ll find dishes that are sweet and savory, but one thing’s for sure: all of them are perfect for Christmas.
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Adobo Paté Brushcetta with Candine Apple Salsa
Photo by Justine Punzalan
For their collaboration with Interfel, Chef Lau added a Filipino touch into the traditional liver paté bruschetta by infusing it with the savory flavor of adobo. The dish is topped with an apple salsa made from Candine apples, turning it into an appetizer that’s as a savory as the main course itself. Here’s how to do it:
Start by preparing the adobo paté ingredients:
500 g chicken liver
100 g butter, divided
3 dried bay leaves
50 g garlic, minced
50 g white onion, minced
30 ml soy sauce
30 ml cane vinegar
30 ml brandy
60 g all-purpose cream
Salt and pepper, to taste
Proceed to creating the paté by:
Trim chicken liver of fat and sinew; season with salt and pepper.
Heat 3 tbsp butter in a pan until bubbly, then brown the livers on both sides.
Add onions, garlic, and bay leaves; sauté for 2 minutes.
Add soy sauce, vinegar, and brandy; simmer for 2 minutes or until nearly dry.
Remove bay leaves and transfer the mixture to a food processor.
Add the remaining butter and cream; blend until smooth.
Chill before serving. Spread on toasted bruschetta and top with apple salsa.
Once you’re done with the adobo liver paté, begin with creating the bruschetta:
Slice baguette or pandesal.
Brush with olive oil and sprinkle lightly with salt.
Bake at 175°C (350°F) for 10 minutes or until crisp and golden.
Spread a tablespoon of adobo liver paté on top.
Lastly, mix the ingredients below to make the apple salsa. Top them on top of the paté before serving.
1 Candine apple, cored and finely diced
1 small red onion, minced
Juice of 4 calamansi
2 tbsp parsley, chopped
1 tsp fish sauce
1 tbsp honey
Sea salt and pepper, to taste
Juliet Apple Yema Cake
Photo from Guevarra’s PH/Instagram
A favorite among the guests at last Thursday’s event, Chef Jackie’s yema cake brings an abundance of flavor to the traditional Filipino dessert with the use Juliet apples that are naturally sweet and aromatic.
It’s the perfect dessert, snack, or present for dear friends that you can bake at home using the following ingredients:
3 Juliet® apples, peeled and sliced
1½ cups all-purpose flour
1½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp cinnamon
1¼ tsp salt
1½ cup melted butter
¾ cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp milk or cream
1 tsp lemon juice
¼ tsp cardamom
After preparing the ingredients, proceed to baking the loaf:
Preheat oven to 175°C (350°F). Grease and line a 9-inch round or 8×10-inch pan.
Toss apple slices with lemon juice; set aside.
In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.
In another bowl, whisk melted butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, milk (and rum, if using).
Combine wet and dry mixtures; fold in half of the apples.
Pour batter into prepared pan and arrange remaining apples on top.
Bake for 40-45 minutes or until golden and set.
Cap it off with the light yema glaze that you can cook with the following ingredients:
See also
3 egg yolks
½ cup condensed milk
1 tbsp butter
Pinch of salt (omit if using salted butter)
Instructions:
Cook all ingredients over low heat, stirring constantly for 5-7 minutes, until slightly thickened.
Spread over the warm cake and let set before slicing.
Roast Turkey with Apple Chorizo Stuffing
Photo by Justine Punzalan
Other than the couple’s Adobo Paté Brushcetta and Juliet Yema Cake, another standout in Guevarra’s French apple-infused masterpieces is the Roast Turkey with Apple Chorizo Stuffing.
In an exclusive interview with The POST, Cehf Lau said that he began working on the turkey two days prior to make it soft and juicy. “I put it in the ref and soaked it in brine, a salt and vinegar solution, so it’s soft and moist when you roast it,” he shared.
While waiting, Chef Lau proceeded to work on the stuffing, which consists of “diced pandesal, Juliet apples—make sure the apples are pealed so there is no skin and take out the seed—chorizo, carrots, celery, and onions.” Sauté all of that together, except for the bread, which should be added after the fruits and vegetables are cooked.
When all of these are done, add chicken stock, which should be absorbed by the entire mix. Lastly, stuff them inside the turkey before roasting. “You roast it at around 325 degrees Fahrenheit for a time depending on how big your turkey is. My turkey is four kilos, so I roast it for an hour and a half to 45 minutes,” he explained.
How to choose apples for cooking dishes?
With the variety of French apples now available in the country, choosing which one that’ll best suit your dish can be quite confusing. For that, Chef Lau recommends starting with the texture—they must be firm so that the apples “will not easily break down or become mushy when you cook, roast, or bake them.”
Knowing the taste is also key because “each apple has different levels of sweetness,” Chef Lau told The POST. “The Candine apple is the sweetest. So if you’re gonna use it for baking or something, make sure you complement it with a sour ingredient, or don’t put too much sugar on your dessert.”
“And there’s the apple that’s a bit sour, like the Granny Smith apple which is green,” he continued. “That’s perfect for dishes that are naturally sweet, like apple pie, ‘cause you add brown sugar when you make apple pie. So for sweet dishes, you can use the Granny Smith or a mixture of it and sweet apples.”
To get a taste of the French apple-infused dishes in this article, visit Guevarra’s by Chef Lau at 387 P. Guevarra Street corner Argonne, San Juan City. Meanwhile, Interfel’s French apples are available for purchase at select Robinsons and Landmark supermarkets and Shopwise branches nationwide.
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