How Chef Wesley Altuna's Filipino Delivery Restaurant Is Taking Over Toronto — First Person

today i'm going to be heading out to the market to pick up some goods but uh because this guy here such a process to make i'd like to get it on the uh on the stove first so this is uh called lechon kawali this takes about probably an hour to brine and then i dry it in the oven and then i finish it off in the fryer while this thing is boiling we really got to go to the market the beef has to be on there like now this is paulie paulie is i guess he's like my sous chef i guess you're a sous chef right i guess so i guess so yeah known this guy for i don't know maybe over 25 years yeah well you're 42. so oh yeah at least 20 years while i'm out he's going to go and start putting stuff together i think he's going to work on the minute high five we're always high fiving by the way it's like [ __ ] high five okay all right guys i'll do the autographs later just just sit still all right look after these guys this guy right here this guy he's the loudest one he's the biggest he's got the biggest bark he was like harassing me so we're at the market i'm with my guy here bobby bobby's my gun man he's my he's my meat guy he's been here 30 years awesome dude 27 37 there you go bob i'm gonna pick up some shanks this is the tastiest thing ever the only thing is you have to cook it float in a long time can i get you to cut it crosstalk by the bulb okay my friends thank you sir i'll see you right one starts to creep into like 11 that's when the the panic sort of uh starts to creep in but get the beef on there and uh should be on time should be first a few of these guys so what i'm gonna be making right now is my for me i just like being with my friend like you know he's my one of my best friends and it's like it's fun just working with him you know just get each other's jokes and so and get paid not enough though not enough do you hear that wes not enough so this is what keeps my uh my lovely locks lock down okay that smells good man yep you didn't pick it up right don't you season it yet no no make it super super salty man okay so it's 11 15 we really get a hustle we really gotta get this stuff going otherwise we'll be scrambling again brother yep how's that hey put more man put more yeah if you're not getting the salt you need to put more all right so get this guy in there the oven is already preheated and all we're really doing is just drying it so popping this guy in the oven but i'm going to start doing the beef so we just came back from the market went to go see our friend bobby and hook this up with some nice beautiful shank there you go kind of do it you know do a little turn is that good right there bam to pull this together it's gonna take about about three hours till we have to just start rolling now but the beef that i'm offering this week is called beef machado our dish are mainly made with a lot of i guess you would say cheap cuts but we make such beautiful dishes out of it right beef machado is made with this like hearty tomato sauce it takes about anywhere between three and four hours to make the goal is to have all the the heavy meat dishes on the go by 10 11 o'clock it should already be moving first thing i'm going to do is i'm going to start frying these guys i mean we're a little bit behind today because we ran in the market but it doesn't mean we're late it just means we're not on schedule but i love filipino food i love it i don't know if i'm allowed to say this but the one thing that really bugs me about filipino food and just in our culture in general is that like our food is looked at as something cheap you know and it's far from man it's far from cheap a few uh cloves of garlic in there so all that flavor in there i just want to lift it that's what i want some tomato onions the things that go into it the love that goes into it the flavors that come out of the kitchen that translate into this beautiful beautiful dishes is nothing less than spectacular see i love how like the bone marrow is still like in there so by the time this is done all that stuff is just all mixed in in the sauce there three different kinds of soy sauce [Music] and just let it let it do its thing so i'm gonna start up the pork pork adobo is another dish that's like if you're a filipino you need you know adobo it's like it's it's your student dna so we've pre-cut these guys already as part of our prep so the first step is to cook this guy down and then get all the uh the oils out of the pork then you sort of just fry it in its own uh fat there's a lot of stuff that goes into it uh the most basic ingredient for adobo is really soy garlic onions and vinegar once everything is done there's about seven to eleven uh ingredients in there if you're gonna cook based on measurement you're cooking based on someone else's technique the way i cook it's all by feel right and there's a sense of honesty that comes out of that right because you're really just cooking from you know from the heart i guess that sounds kind of corny but that's that's sort of like how it is you know yeah so the final step of this dish is the the vinegar again i don't measure i would say that's maybe what a quarter cup the rule is that you don't stir it once you put it on just let it simmer for a little bit why do we do it i don't really know i just i was just told not to touch it once you put the vinegar so i do it like that and it comes out it comes out magic now i can start staring this bad boy like everybody knows adobo in our culture everybody has their own version often times when you have adobo it's always you know you'll hear the my my lola which is my grandma or my lolo grandpa makes it the best so my dad makes it the best but to be honest with you dude mine's the best it's like one thousand percent well my mom's is the best bro even your mom said mine is the best it's kind of good that's what she said it's that right like when you ask me why don't you stir it when you put the vinegar well this is why yeah well this is why this is why one of my customers that i'm delivering to today i could even show you in thread it's hilarious they specifically wait for the adobo to drop and then they just order like three four of them so that they could hold it for the week until my next run so is my adobo good right rice is cooked right i think we have about three orders of wings uh so that will be uh i think we could do that together that'd be cool yeah like i said we're not on schedule but we're on track dude let's go just basic seasoning here salt pepper just like massage that guy in there probably just put in the uh the first batch and we're doing the first fry after this we take it out let it sit for a little bit and then put it in for the final fry and that's what's gonna give it the crispiness that we want like all this thing is so funny dude like you know how we started you know we've obviously lived very different lives you know we we grew up doing [ __ ] together right went to high school together we did a whole bunch of stuff so again he's older than i am but we were in the same class and like look at us now dude like we're like side by side like building building something great together and i wouldn't do this with anybody else man i have beer that's the uh that's the history of us man so this is the second fry for wings it's ready for uh dressing this is the uh this our sweet chili sauce we've worked been working on the branding for a while and we finally started getting uh got our stamps in our stickers that's a pretty big deal for us so it feels a little bit more real you open it legit i guess like we've always been legit but it's like yeah it's good seeing your project come to life the way that it's happening now it's like it's pretty special man being on the other side of that like as a project manager working on clients to do you know to work in their dreams it's it's different let's put a little bit of garlic of course you guys know bawang means garlic right so this is their anato oil that's the wings right there man that's the famous sweet chili wings that we offer by 3 30 everything should be done and then we start bagging four o'clock by five i should be out of here yeah good i'm good and this sort of happens super fast yeah so these are the the side these that go with our dish yeah this is good to go it's all done right it's all good yeah so now i'm gonna do the the beef machado take the potatoes that we double fry and then start laying out the meat and that's our beef machar that one is stuck yeah i think the pork is done like this is like you could eat it like that but the way we do it extra extra love you ready see how that starts to bubble up there you see that that's three hours of work right there that's why when you say what makes a fried pork dish delicious it needs to be crispy man and this is it you know when i first started this i didn't know what i was doing i just knew how to cook all right and i didn't know the business side of it i didn't know how people are going to react to it and now that i've gotten so many dishes out the door and i've met so many people the confidence level is definitely up there to a point where like man i fantasize about jumping into a restaurant right and then i thought about it i'm like wait a minute like the world is upside down right now it doesn't make sense for me to open a restaurant right now you know maybe not but i think i'm pretty worthy of you know putting out something really delicious you know so that's that's one order right there so i'm going to be here in about probably 5 15. right everything needs to be back by then sure all right give me time as long as you give me a little bit of time so the last part of this story is now me hopping on my bike getting my ass to my place pick up the car and head back here pick up the goods and delivery [Applause] [Music] just waiting on them always as per usual [Music] at the end of it like we're still we're still like really good friends well forget about me when you when you're like this big right bro come on guy oh i you know you don't know both they both have the tron but one has wings and one is adobo perfect perfect now i'm gonna just help you with the other one yeah okay grab it cool okay everything's here yep good yep okay let's go good luck man bro i'm on my way be there in like 10 minutes less i work 14 to 18 hours a day man a day that's a grind see you soon you know and i go home with my 10 margin and i still feel like i don't feel dude i don't feel deflated at all i did this out of like love and passion and then when i see people like actually reach out and grab it and post it and celebrate it you know people like build date nights around my food which is crazy you know and people that have never had filipino food before i are trying it with me for the first time like who the [ __ ] am i you know what i mean it's like that's the last door of the day and that's the dude that's that's the thing that makes me feel like yeah i'm actually doing something that one i love too that makes sense and three people actually appreciate it okay peace these guys order from me almost every week and that's the thing that that that drives it home man you know there's this level of satisfaction that that you get when you finish your run and then you have people like that that just appreciates everything that you put out just amazing man just an amazing feeling you know

Channel: undefined

Views: 3,217,355

Rating: 4.9296064 out of 5

Keywords: Filipino food, best Filipino food, best Filipino chef, Filipino chef, Filipino food Toronto, best Filipino food Toronto, beef mechado, pork adobo, adobo, chicken wings, sweet chili chicken wings, Filipino chicken wings, lechon, fried lechon, deep-fried lechon, food business, starting a food business, best food Toronto, Toronto restaurants, Toronto food, how to make Filipino food, wesley altuna, bawang, eater, eater.com, food, restaurant, dining, dish, foodie, chef, food show

Id: G_4kOyEUek8

Length: 13min 19sec (799 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 26 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/dsilvius]

My fiancé is Filipino, and her family makes the best food. Wish we had someone/something like this locally. Really want to try the brined pork, to the oven then fried 😳

[u/mozygotflowzy]

Its all fun and games until he gets his hands on some duck eggs.

[u/Syrinnissa]

Y’all getting into Filipino food need to know, it’s dangerous for your health if eaten in excess. We got a fuckton of salt and deep fried foods ahah so delicious but so bad for your BP and organ health ahahah

[u/Horsecowsheep]

Do you need to reheat it all?

[u/oldkeeper]

Good stuff. There is hope for all of us, kids...

[u/generation27]

I did't expect to watch the whole thing, but did. The passion he has for what he's doing is amazing!

[u/ChacarronandCheese]

Violins and him delivering his food has me pretty verklempt. Can’t wait to try some Filipino food!!

[u/myname-onreddit]

Now I want some nilagang baka

[u/KaleOxalate]

I wonder if the state health boards tried to throw fines at him