Are there elitist restaurants?Ĭhef Rod: For me, any restaurant is an elitist restaurant if you can’t afford it. So what I wanna bring to da plate is to let the city know that there are good spots everywhere. They usually review restaurants in the Ortigas, Makati, Taguig area. It’s difficult to hit up the restaurants. You notice, most people who write reviews in like spot.ph, they only review food that always seems pricey. So I like to review food that people would wanna eat, and that they could easily purchase when they go outside. What’s the value of reviewing those kinds of foods?Ĭhef Rod: What I don’t like about the other food experts is that they review food that people generally don’t eat. Foods that people from any tax bracket could buy. One thing you were doing that other food reviewers weren’t doing was you were reviewing “low brow” snacks, so to speak. And I was glad we did that collaboration because… it’s only right that two superpowers in the culinary world should meet, and let the people know what it’s like to have a milk tea craze happening in the city right now. How did that go, meeting Erwan Heussaff? His kind of food reviews is very different from the kind of thing that you do.Ĭhef Rod: Erwan Heussaff is a very handsome man. One was for reviewing milk teas and the other was for reviewing cheese burgers. You recently did two collaborative videos with Erwan Heussaff.

Judging milkteas with food influencer Erwan Heussaff. So when I review something, I just say ‘Okay this is wonderful,’ and the people deserve to know. What I’ve noticed about your Twitter account is that… you end up liking most of the foods you try anyway.Ĭhef Rod: I think the paradox here in this werld is that food is meant to be enjoyed whether they taste good or not. If you’ve noticed, I don’t review food from restaurants because I’m just a hambol boy, and I cannot afford any of the big time foods. What is your approach to food criticism?Ĭhef Rod: My approach is simple. And you were reviewing… not restaurants but just, like, snacks you were eatin. I was actually around when you first started publishing food reviews on Twitter. It’s going to be my sixth anniversary alive as a chef two months from now. I come into the platform as someone who should tell da people what to eat and what not to eat. How did your food reviews begin?Ĭhef Rod: I realized everyone is biased when it comes to reviewing food that dey wanna review. So now I obey my parents and now I review food for da betterment of da country. ANCX: Chef Rod, when did your interest in food first begin?Ĭhef Rod: I was born to be a lawyer, but den my parents told me I should be a culinary genius instead. I got to speak to the man, the myth, the legend-to talk about what he’s been up to and his takes on different food trends-in an attempt to decipher his enigmatic essence. He’s just… a dude who eats, and for some reason his content, as kalat as it can be, is leagues better than most mainstream food shows. He doesn’t care for any of that Michelin-starred BS, nor does he appear beholden to a food sponsor.

Chef Rod has since moved his unique blend of everyman savvy and stoner-esque epiphanies to YouTube, where he reviews everything from popular childhood baon staples to mote l foods. He’s even done a couple of collab videos with Erwan Heussaff. Is it weird that I’m proud of him?Ĭhef Rod is kind of the antithesis to the average food critic and culinary influencer. It was reviews like these that gave him a kind of cult following not so much among snooty foodies, but among folks who know good shit when they taste it. Who is JJ Yulo and why you should be taking up his recommendations on what to eat whereĪll elegance, and no nonsense, he’s basically Masarap Ba? but with way more chaotic energy.Meet Ligaya Mishan, the New York Times writer telling the world about Filipino food.The problem with Manila restaurant reviews is that they don’t exist.Attention trolls-Philbert Dy is now a vlogger.DI GAYA SA IBANG 3in1 LASANG KAHOY AMP.). KAPAYAPAAN.”)? Or his hot take on Swiss Miss (“ETO ANG LEGIT NA 3-in-1. Who could forget his greatest hits, like his review of Hansel Mocha Sandwich cookies (“ITO ANG SAGOT SA LAHAT NG KATANUNGAN SA MUNDO. Some may be familiar with the blinding genius of Chef Rod (first name Chef, last name Rod) through his food reviews on the YouTube channel Re:Create, but I remember his early days on Twitter in 2015.

Chef rad na