Two Filipino chefs turn NY into one massive no-forks-allowed boodle fight

The event brings the social nature of the traditional boodle fight to New York. 

Filipino food takes center stage in New York City as celebrity chef Jordan Andino and Kalye head chef Vance Consignado go head-to-head in a one-night-only, 10-dish boodle fight on August 20.

Dubbed “The Boodle Fight of the Century,” the event at Filipino restaurant Kalye on Manhattan’s Lower East Side transforms the communal Filipino tradition of eating with one’s hands into a culinary face-off between two chefs with distinctly different styles.

Each chef will serve five dishes laid out kamayan-style on banana leaves, with two seatings of 50 guests each at 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.

“As a Filipino immigrant and chef, it’s meaningful to create a space where people can experience our food in a shared and communal way,” Consignado said. “It allows me to celebrate where I come from while introducing our culture to a new community.”

Consignado, whose background includes fine-dining training at Gran Hotel La Florida in Barcelona and the Delano in Miami, will draw heavily from Filipino traditions and family recipes.

His dishes include Stuffed Chicken Inasal Wings, BBQ Pork Jowl, Filipino Pork Butt Bossam and Branzino Sinugno, inspired by the coconut-rich cooking of his Laguna upbringing. He finishes with Ube Cassava Tres Leches.

“It’s the most personal dish on my menu,” Consignado said of his Branzino Sinugno. “It connects where I came from with the kind of food I cook today.”

Andino, meanwhile, brings experience from acclaimed kitchens including The French Laundry, Spago and Jean-Georges.

His menu includes Lola’s BBQ Pork E-Skewers, Lolo’s Banana Ketchup Shrimp, Filipino Galbi and Turon Lumpia.

Perhaps his most unconventional creation is the Filipino-Jamaican Kare Agnolotti—pasta stuffed with peanut butter-braised oxtail, butter beans, Scotch bonnet pepper and ricotta, finished with a Dr. Pepper demi-glace.

Andino said the dish reflects his Filipino father and Jamaican stepfather.

“This is a perfect intersection of my personal life blending with my fine-dining background,” he said.

For Andino, however, the dinner goes beyond experimentation.

“My goal was and still is to put a bright spotlight on the Filipino people and culture through food,” he said. “I’m very proud to be Filipino.”

The event also brings the social nature of the traditional boodle fight to New York. Guests will be seated with other attendees rather than exclusively with their own groups and encouraged to eat with their hands, although gloves will be available.

Kalye owner Rob Mallari-D’Auria said the format is particularly meaningful at a time when people are increasingly socially disconnected.

“A boodle fight breaks down those barriers,” he said. “There are no utensils, no pretensions, just people gathering around a table covered in banana leaves, sharing incredible food with their hands.”

The restaurant will complement the feast with Filipino-inspired beverages developed by general manager and beverage director Charles Wainwright, including the calamansi, pandan and coconut-infused Manila Martini, the lychee-based Elektra and the non-alcoholic Pandan Pop.

Kalye, which means “street” in Tagalog, opened in New York in 2022 before relocating to Rivington Street in 2024. Beyond serving Filipino staples such as sisig, kare-kare, lumpia and pancit, the restaurant positions itself as a cultural gathering place for the Filipino diaspora.

“The Boodle Fight of the Century” happens Thursday, August 20, at Kalye, 111 Rivington St., New York City. Tickets cost $99 per person for the complete 10-dish menu, excluding drinks, with prepaid seating limited to 50 guests per session.

For Mallari-D’Auria, the message to Filipinos in New York is simple: “Kalye is your home away from home. Come pull up a chair, there’s always a spot for you at our table.”

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