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02 · My Journey
The Story Behind the Kitchen
It started with being a fat kid who loved eating good food. That love of eating sparked a curiosity about cooking: I wanted to understand why certain food tasted the way it did, what made a certain dish unforgettable.
Growing up, through a screen I watched Gordon Ramsay cook and teach great techniques, while also learning from Joshua Weissman’s obsession with getting it right from scratch. These weren’t just videos: they were a self-directed education, one technique at a time.
Our home kitchen became my first lab. I replicated dishes, building sauces from scratch, studying timing, absorbing kitchen standards through repetition and failure. Nobody formally taught me. The videos did.
Before the professional kitchens, I worked part-time as an assistant baker at a local bakery in Pateros. It was there I learned that accurate measurement isn’t a formality: it’s the foundation of consistent, quality food. That lesson has followed me into every kitchen since.
When I stepped into my first professional kitchen at Cargofish BGC, everything changed. Two lines running simultaneously (British and Filipino cuisine) as a working student. Then came Tulum, where I worked as a line chef and relief bartender, balancing service and studies through long, sleepless nights. Every kitchen taught me something the previous one couldn’t.
Today, I work the line at LaPita, a Michelin Bib Gourmand awardee serving Levantine cuisine in Makati, where the standard isn’t optional. Along the way, I built food brands on the side, proving that the same discipline that runs a kitchen can build a business.