Hidden Restaurant in Makati Philippines (Celera)

- When I was young,
I had this conversation

in my head floating—
if I'm good enough.

Am I good enough as a son?

Am I good enough as a grandson?

Am I good enough
as a human being?

One day, my friend
in college brought me

to this leadership seminar,
and I took it,

and it opened my eyes
to my blind spots.

I started becoming present
to what I had.

What I have are strong,
deep memories of food

with people I love.

Having my team experience
the same thing.

I guess for me,
it's a constant recreating

of moments back in time,
and then applying it

to the cooking and into
the dining experience now.

This is my make or break.

This is it.

- It's happening now. All right.

So our supplier, J Vasco, is...

They're cutting the ficem board
because we want

the top of the table
to be cement.

The griller came.

***May specific na materials po ba para panglinis?
- Yan lang yun ma'am, ibubrush niyo lang yan.
- Brush lang?
- Pwede po bang isukat kung pasok dito?
- Malaki eh. Sa tingin ko lang malaki eh.
- Lagpas? Oh no, yung width.
Medyo unexpected kasi it's nice, pero ang laki than the usual sizing. My god, kinakabahan ako, ang laki po ata pero let's see. Akala ko ba malakas kayo? Anyare? Okay lang. I mean, it happens. Good thing napagplanuhan na namin to before. I think it helps to be very hands-on with the construction workers kasi at least alam nila first hand kung ano ba talaga yung gusto mo. Kami ni Nicco yung project manager, owner also, and then the chefs. So it's nice kasi parang, ito yung lulutuin natin, maaffect ba yung surrounding natin pag niluto natin to, mangangamoy ba yung wood, mangangamoy ba yung this one. So with this, naano namin yung experience namin how to build things. And what's also important, I think ito yung masasabi namin na home base namin.

- I think Quenee
is the best person

to tell the story.

- I think it's 2014.

So I went to Florida
for my internship,

and then I went back home,
but I'm not yet graduating.

I was looking for work
because I'm kind of bored,

I didn't want to be idle.

One, of my best friends back then
in high school said,

"Hey, there's an opening
in your local."

And I said, "Okay."

I was very happy
because everyone's welcoming.

Nicco was so quiet.

He was so quiet.

- Still quiet.

- Still quiet up to now.

There's very little interaction
between the team and him.

- Quenee talks a lot...

which is nice—
it balances us out, right?

Why are you doing this?

Why are you adding that?

Are they suitable
for each other?

All these things.

So the R&D process became
a lot more annoying.

I'm kidding.

More...

It became a bit more...

It was less lonely.

At first, it was R&D,
and then later,

I was slowly relying
on her operational stuff,

which freed up some time
on my hands.

So I was able to...

During this time,
because my son was

in Singapore—
he was just born—

I would be able to fly back
to Singapore to see him.

I have sort of left
your local running,

unconsciously.

I didn't realize it was running
on its own

because Queenee was there.

And then, there was one day,
I was in Singapore

and this writer messaged me
and said,

"I'm here in your local."

A food critic.

"And you're not here."

And then, I was like...

Screwed.

And he said, "But it's okay.
Your team doesn't need you."

So I'm like, what the [ _ ], right?

He said, "No, because your team
is functioning so well already."

So like, I take it
as a compliment

that you've managed
to let them excel on their own.

So for the first time
in my career

of working for myself,
I was very moved.

Like, all of a sudden
I have a team really working

with me and towards
the same goal.

Quenee was able to rally them
and mold them

into a tight knit group,
to a family.

For the first time, I chose
and I said that to myself,

that from now on,
I will lead differently.

So instead of leading
from the front,

I will push them from the back.

Even though she was scared,
she would break through it, right?

***'Cause ako naman parang, I would always parang, I'll test first, parang okay ba sa Quenee? Talon, diba? So kung talon siya, talon din ako. We have been holding each other to account in terms of work and eventually it became like family and really bestfriends na talaga. Her generousity of heart was what glued this team together.

- Same goal.

***I also noticed that
he likes treating everyone pantay pantay. Di siya madamot to ask the idea of others.
And then he tried to calibrate it, he'll try to fix it based sa mga comments ng team members and kung sino mang tumitikim.

- I was born, 1984.

My mom was quite young
back then.

So I first grew up for a bit
with my dad.

And then eventually,
my grandmother took me in.

Grade three, grade four,
I started hanging out a lot more

with my biological father.

And then at around grade six,
I moved to my mom's place.

And then during that time,
I was just starting

to get to know my mom
in a different way—

living with her.

At that time, my mom hung out
with a lot of chefs

for reasons I still don't know why
and how to start it.

But back then,
it was apparent to me

when I observed them
how they all revolved

around the island table
in the kitchen.

They would all taste the food,
they would all talk

about their days.

And so weekends was mostly that.

At that time, I was still dreaming
to have my parents

back together—
my biological father.

And I was still, you know,
maybe if I cook,

they might be back together.

And I was, you know,
grade three at this time.

But all of these
were just thoughts.

I think what I was longing for
back then was really

role models and a set of people
who would continuously

just be there.

Living with my dad
and my grandmother and my mom,

so I was, like, not really sure,
when I was young,

what was happening.

Was I good enough
to stay with them?

Why am I being passed around?

All of these thoughts
in my head, right?

Am I good enough as a son?

Am I good enough as a grandson?

Am I good enough
as a human being?

So I was like always longing
for home.

One day, my friend
in college brought me

to this leadership seminar,
and I took it,

and it opened my eyes
to my blind spots.

I started becoming present
to what I had in life.

And then, I realized that
during all of these times

and moments
that I was with them,

what brought us together
was food.

I guess what I have are strong,
deep memories

of food with people I love.

It's funny enough.

I'm now 40 years old,
and I still cook,

and I still eat
these simplest things.

And having my team experience
the same thing.

I guess for me,
it's a constant recreating

of moments back in time.

I traveled to Singapore
to visit my cousin one day.

His name's Andre.

He owns Yardstick now.

And then, when I went
to Singapore,

I immediately fell in love
with the food.

It really opened my eyes
to so many new flavors.

So I strived to get
into a culinary school.

So eventually, my stepdad
was so generous enough

to put me into culinary school,
and I excelled.

But then, it still wasn't enough.

So for the next four years,
I traveled back and forth

to Singapore to see my cousin
and learn how to make

these recipes.

That's my first, like,
exposure to Malaysian food

and Indonesian food
and Indian-Malay food,

Singaporean food.

***- Boss, ikaw na yan, masipag yan eh.
Kasi sabi niya pwede naman daw grout. Sabi ko, siya na gumawa para tapos na.

- When is the signage coming in?

- They said it's already finished.

- Amazing.

Oh my gosh. That looks so good!

Wow.

- And then, we change the logo.

- Yeah! Oh my god.

He wants to change the logo.

- No, no, no.

All right.

I'm kidding. I'm not a lunatic.

(laughs)

(continues to laugh)

- I'm excited because the kitchen
is finally almost ready.

I guess, in terms of development,

the team behind me—
Jaime, Neesha, and Kevin—

they all...

they've started the ferments.

It will take us...

The closest to what we can get
is two weeks for, I guess,

our rice ferments.

But everything else,
like the vinegars

and the lacto-ferments,
will take a while.

- No, no, no. This is fine.
This weave is fine.

It just feels like
it's pushing me out.

- Yes.

- It's so firm.

- No, it can't be that firm.
It has to be softer.

Because here, our concept
for this was pillow.

- Yeah.
- Yeah.

- But if they can't do that
because they need

a shape foam,
what we would have had to do

is to keep the lower one
this thickness

and the upper one more narrow
so there's an angle.

This is the third concept,
fourth concept I've done

with Chef Nicco and Chef Quenee.

We've actually designed
a few concepts

for them before.

I really admired the fact
that they wanted this to be

an independent part project.

They wanted this
to be their own thing.

So I felt like it was very important
to have a space

that was reduced and just focus
on the food on the table.

And I think this was an opportunity
for them to hone back

to their roots and showcase
what they're really great at,

which is farm fresh ingredients,
community kitchens,

and their education in different
Southeast Asian palates

and flavors and the way
it's plated.

So I said, "Why don't we just have,
like, a restaurant

for you guys that is just paired back
and that is warm,

that brings
a community together,

but is also kind of dark
and recedes in the background?"

That really allowed them
to honor the dishes on the table.

So that was really the concept.

So we're now in the phase
of completing, I guess,

the furniture, the dinnerware,
utensils, everything.

We're at the phase
that's after construction.

So we really wanted a steak knife
that can be,

like, personalized.

For the weave,
we like the idea of weaving

because we like collaborating.

So when you weave,
you kind of like weave

different cultures, different people,
different personalities.

So just like collaboration.

So that's why that's the design.

And then we said,
"Can you put our logo?"

- It's hard to stay creative
and very present when,

you know, there's so many things
happening in the restaurant

side by side.

So right now, my focus
and the team's focus

is to make sure that the finishing
in the restaurant is,

you know, executed to
what we think is its best form.

And then after that,
we can be fully present

and commit ourselves
to the menu.

***- Stressful, because parang ang tagal, the weight
of waiting for construction to finish,

the little details
that we see every day;

you just see small steps. It's frustrating. How hard it is to fix. And then tomorrow and of course paying all the suppliers. Wow. Over budget. We're still there. It's just that I have to make sure budget or else I need to raise money. I won't say it's easy. It's really hard. There's a reason why I'm doing this also in the first place. I freaking love this thing. It's hard, but I love it. My ultimate role here is one to make the food and also to handle all the operations. I like the feeling of making something with my hands and then trying it and then feeding it to others. I grew up in a family in a very food oriented father side, so and then mother's side. They had a few restaurants when I was younger. They love hosting. My mom would always have guests. Very extroverted. He likes bringing together everybody. I think Don Konaku Ha Yong Paging hospitable. I would say so. When I was growing up new mom Ko we would always wait for her. I always remember that we will always eat midnight. To be honest, Yung before didn't mean anything as much to me. I think, it really boiled down, When my mom died. My mom died when I was 11 or 12. Kamin na lang na tarano dad Ko and then my sister, sister, brother. And then we became super close every Friday, Saturday. He would always make sure hardship because it was just me and my sister. And we needed to help my dad to do the tough part. I think after overcoming death, everything's not so hard anymore. Then fourth year high school, they don't know what to do. And then all my friends chose the culinary internship during our fourth year high school in csa.