EMBRACING OF OUR THE FLAVORS HERITAGE

Toyo Eatery’s JORDY NAVARRA shares his journey of learning to cook and creating homegrown concepts that will last the test of time

- SARA SIGUION-REYNA

Jordy Navarra didn’t start out planning to be a chef. “I've always had an interest in food but I never really took myself seriously with regards to that interest until I sort of discovered it,” he says, “I thought people just ate to consume. That’s what Filipinos are like.” When Jordy saw the other side, of chefs making dishes and being creative with what they plated, he realized its viability. “When I saw that side to it, I thought ‘Oh, so I never knew that you could be doing that with food.’ I wanted to learn, and that got me into cooking and restaurants.”

Jordy trained locally and abroad. “It's a hectic environment, especially in the beginning. Almost all things are hard,” he said. “You’re learning different styles.” He shares that it was like learning from scratch, dealing with food he had never worked with before. “The food is different, the produce is different. When you get into the kitchen, even the dishwasher is more familiar with all of that, so you have to learn and keep up,” he says.

The most eye-opening thing for Jordy was when he realized that the amount of labor in the kitchen wasn’t equal to the amount of time it took to consume the meal. “The amount of work you do, the amount of work that goes into making a meal because you’re prepping, and then afterwards people will eat it in 15 minutes,” he says, “I realized, ‘Oh it’s that short lang pala. It’s really a labor of love.”

PRESENTING A PHILOSOPHY IN A DISH