Long-time Filipino restaurateur Chris Joseph has served ube across his London establishments for the past decade, but interest in drinks and desserts featuring the purple yam has surged in the past year.
Ube, a naturally sweet, starchy vegetable that is grown by farmers in the Philippines, has been the star of Joseph and his wife Rowena Romulo’s Soho restaurant Kasa and Kin, founded in 2021.
“What was really flying off the shelf was ube from the start,” Joseph told CNBC in an interview.
Their former restaurant, Romulo Café, which opened in 2016 and has since closed, was also known for ube dishes. Kasa and Kin’s menu features an ube latte, ube martini, ube tsunami cheesecake (with a flood of purple sauce), and even an ube cream cheese bread among other creative items.
Joseph’s initial customers were nostalgic Filipinos searching for a taste of home. “What we’ve seen now is people walking in and [being] curious about ube, people that we don’t normally see. ... They come in, they’ll look at the bakery case, they’ll pick up an ube something, or the ube brownie, or ube ice cream,” he said.
