Three things were set at a height that Thursday high noon at the tony Rockwell Center branch of modern Filipino restaurant Sarsa: The scorching sun outside, the stylish ceiling inside and the endearing confidence of its owner Chef JP Anglo that filled the whole place.
The amiable chef was dishing out warm hi’s and hello’s to every table in his resto packed with media members. They were covering the launch of the second season of Hungry with Chef JP, a surfing/cooking documentary series shown on CNN Philippines every Saturday at 7:30 pm.
Anglo was the star of the luncheon, and he acted the part. He stood out in a simple, all-black ensemble of shirt, pants and boots. He entertained the crowd like a consummate pro—conversing in fluent English and rugged Tagalog. He explained his show’s new season, professed his love for surfing and, of course, talked food. He was in his element.
At 38, the so-called rock-star chef, who shot to fame five years ago as a “Master Chef” for ABS-CBN’s adaptation of the popular TV cooking competition, appears to be on top of his game. And with a TV show, a cookbook, a number of sought-after restaurants and a celebrity status to show for, who’s to say otherwise?
Well, for one, there’s Anglo himself. “I’d rather see myself as this probinsyano boy trying so hard to make Filipino food respectable on the global stage,” he said at the sidelines of the event.
Here was a respected culinary figure who aspires to champion the country’s flavors throughout the world. It’s a valiant dream, just not the first one Anglo had.
The Negrenese chef originally wanted to become a director. He joined the drama club in high school and even directed all of the school shows. That was until Anglo found his way to the kitchen to cook his own food.
He was living in the US with his family when he had to make meals for himself while his parents were out for work. Necessity grew into hobby, and hobby grew into passion.
Since then, he has always answered the call of the kitchen, mainly because
the kitchen did the same for him. In college, Anglo shifted courses multiple times. The move frustrated his parents. He asked them for one last chance and went with the sure thing. “I really wanted to cook. That was the one thing I was good at, and that was the one thing I couldn’t fail.”
Anglo made the most of his opportunity at the prestigious Center for Culinary Arts, and even furthered his culinary studies at the acclaimed Le Cordon Bleu in Sydney. That’s where things really started to turn around.
He lived in Australia for five years where, in his words, he worked his “ass off”. Anglo gave everything he had to earn his stripes. For the first two years there was no social life, no love life, all work. He had no time for other stuff.
Even when he had a day off, he spent it doing laundry. Break times? He still sliced in the kitchen. Heck, 10 hours would go by and all he could say about that time were two sentences. “I was really that serious. I didn’t want to f__k up.”
Anglo burned the candles on both ends to get permanent residency in Australia, and he eventually did. He worked for citizenship next. But with one year remaining toward achieving that goal, a dilemma came.
Back home in Bacolod, his Chinese restaurant Mushu was dying without him. Should he stay put and get his Australian citizenship, or go home to save his business? The answer was actually much simpler for Anglo. He chose his restaurant, which is still running to this day, over living and working abroad with one simple reason: “I didn’t want to be a slave for the rest of my life”.
The days in Australia were hard for the celebrity chef, but proved to be worth the sacrifices. Every single day, he said he’d wake up asking himself why was he doing this, why was he killing himself…why.
“But then,” he said, “at the end of the day, on that first day of beer, I realized why. It’s the fulfillment of having conquered those challenges.”
Speaking of which, another one came in 2012, when Anglo was invited to be part of ABS-CBN’s local version of the British reality cooking series MasterChef, along with Filipino culinary titans Chef Fernando Aracama and Chef Rolando Laudico as judges, and showbiz icon Judy Ann Santos as host.
Anglo was daunted by the project because of two things: First, he had no prior TV experience and, second, he believed the audience wouldn’t take him seriously being an unknown chef plucked from Bacolod. On the first day of shooting, he was left agape, thinking “This is Judy Ann Santos beside me. What the f__k am I doing here?”
The Master Chef wasn’t able to say much during the first month of the show. On the few times he did, he stuttered. Anglo struggled with Tagalog, because he could only speak English and Ilonggo. The director eventually pulled him to the corner and challenged him to step up against his counterparts. Anglo thought to himself that he had nothing against the two other Master Chefs, especially not in Manila, where no one knew of him or his food.
But a quitter isn’t the person Australia made him to be.
He gathered the lessons from his time there, and Anglo was able to bounce back. “That’s what Australia taught me: the “never give up” attitude, laban lang ng laban,” he said.
After the show, Anglo became such a recognizable figure that he enjoyed his celebrity status. He was greeted by strangers. When he ate in restaurants, chefs recognized him and made sure their meals were worthy of the Master Chef’s approval. “It was so cool being a probinsyano boy and then all, of a sudden, being famous.”
It was also during his time in the Land Down Under when Anglo discovered the thing he would love as much cooking.
The chef worked in front of the beach, and every time he opted to stay in the kitchen during breaks, his colleagues grabbed their surfboards and rode waves. Anglo couldn’t do anything but watch. He was too locked in on his goal. In the five years he spent in Australia, the chef was only able to surf for a grand total of two times.
Anglo died of envy. He vowed that one day, some day, he would surf without restraint. That time came when he came home. Anglo started to surf in La Union, and he hasn’t let go of the surfboard since.
“Surfing is inspiring,” he said in a deep, reflective tone. “The water is my source of energy, my source of happiness.”
In the show Hungry with Chef JP, Anglo’s two passion points of surfing and cooking come to fore. CNN Philippines President Armin Jarin-Bennett compared the show to a dessert, or an after-meal coffee following the heavy news content the network‘s other programs served.
“CNN Philippines provides news and information you can trust. But we’re also developing content and programming that can compliment your life, to further inspire you, to entertain you,” she said.
Hungry with Chef JP follows Anglo on a trip to the different surf spots around the country. Of course, cooking is part of the program, as the chef studies and tries to improve the delicacies of each place. For the second season, the team went to six destinations, including Anglo‘s home province of Bacolod. “Full circle,” he said.
The chef added the show is titled Hungry because of how he views food and life lessons in general: as a never-ending journey. “There’s always, always room for learning and experiencing things.”
And these past five years have proven exactly that. It may have been a wild ride, but it didn’t pass Anglo by as a mere blur. The chef worked hard for each moment, and he enjoyed every single passing second of it. “Did I envision myself to be this? Yeah,” Anglo said without an ounce of hesitation or hubris, only vindication.
He was also quick to add that he’s far from done. Asked of the other things he has cooking, Anglo seemed to sift through a long list in his head, before ultimately deciding to keep mum. Instead, he took a moment, smiled knowingly and teased, “Marami pa.”