In my earlier years when I was a dish washer, the feeling that I had when observing what cooks did in the kitchen left me with a sense of eagerness. Those who have made their way into the world of cooking can attest to the fact that it attracts individuals from all walks of life.
Lamesa had opened in the early 2010s and I wanted to have my hand in shaping the landscape of what would become modern Filipino food. Before Lamesa, there were classic Filipino restaurants, but nothing that had brought the style and flavours of Filipino cooking and translated it through the lens of modern techniques – at least not here in Toronto. It was so incredible to be apart of that movement. At the time, for a lot of young Filipino chefs, there wasn’t a unifying umbrella to express our roots. Many of us were cooking at established restaurants doing European-centric cuisine. What Lamesa did was open up a channel for Filipino chefs to experiment, make necessary mistakes, and explore what would eventually become the landscape for modern Filipino cuisine here in Toronto. It was a haven for like minded chefs.
In retrospect what I thought was acceptable as a dish at the time, I can now pick a part and say “there definitely could have been improvement here.” That’s only something you can know with continual progress when becoming better. I think when you become intense at anything in life there is a state of mind that you embody. For a chef, it’s not just about making the food taste better – sure, that may be the final product that reflects the skills, but what precedes that is the flow and movement in the kitchen, and ultimately the aesthetics adopted when cooking. What is the state of mind of the chef as well as the team? I think that heavily reflects on the final product when putting together a dish worthy of serving.
There’s an inclusiveness to cooking diner food – because at the heart of it, it’s about making it accessible and affordable. At BBs, we source everything locally – as an independent diner, it just makes the most business sense. Taking what we have, our goal here is to show people that delicious food does not have to be expensive. When it comes to piecing together the special of the day, or new menu items, there is a certain pride in the final product, knowing that we utilize techniques of equal intensity as some culinary giants. If I had to describe the type of food served at BBs Diner, it would have to be Filipino home style dishes, refined.
To me, my approach on cooking isn’t about having the best ingredients. Rather. I like to focus on whether the components to the dish itself has a sense of cohesion and that I’ve given the process careful thought. The charm in showcasing to diners Filipino culinary techniques, that comes close into tapping into the universality of cooking. The techniques rendered are cross-cultural. How the final product of food is captured is dependent on what ingredients are available within a given geographic region.
