Kasama

[Music] kasama's a Tagalog word it means together included a convenient companion your co-worker your company [Music] and we chose that name because this is the both of our Concepts put together you know Cheney always wanted to open a bakery and I always wanted to open a restaurant and run dinner service and so we're doing breakfast lunch and dinner all day and we work together on this project and it's a collaboration when people eat here I want them to know that we're trying that we're trying to make it worth their while like you come into a place and you spend money and you want to feel good about spending your money somewhere like something that you can't do at home that's that's why we do it it's because we don't we don't care for ourselves you know we cook for other people and that's the point I was trying to think of things and Googling Tagalog words you know it has a lot of different meanings depending on the context but just just seeing included and like your company you know who you're with it's like that's why you eat you know out it's like to dine and like talk to people and like and get together you know and so like having that company and having those those people around you that's like that's kasama you know my parents grew up with nothing they they immigrated to the states with nothing and they built a life for themselves which I can't imagine ever doing and going through War like I can't imagine what psychologically that has done to them but I always knew what I could make them to make them happy even if it was just for a moment and the best part about it was after they ate it it would be gone did you ever expect me to work in a restaurant or to work in food no when you were here then you were interested in her baby you quote you you baked the birthday cake for every of your friends just fantastic and then I covered up your cookies and someone ever buy Sonia had one and every time that I offered you a cookie to death so good [Music] [Music] maybe that's why you wanted to become sick there's a lot of guilt which I had never heard of until I actually saw an Anthony Bourdain episode where he went to Korea and there was a word for there they call it Han and it's this um word for like the sorrow and hopelessness of every generation that's come before you um that's embedded in your DNA and like I heard I heard it and I was watching it and my brain well yeah I had a flashback of every my entire life like in this Montage when I when I saw that episode it's always been baking I'm not quite sure why I I think I just loved sweets and I loved sugar and candy and that was just a way for me to have an excuse to to eat it and you know my family was always moving there were just so so many things I think out of my control this was the one thing that I could do if it came out right in the way that I wanted to have an end result that I was I was happy with there's probably some like deep skeletons down there that um kind of turned itself into this craft that I do but it can either go one way or it could go another way and you know luckily hopefully it turned into something positive so [Music] I remember watching Jacques papan Martin Yan like Yan can cook Julia Child PBS like when you know watching daytime TV instead of watching cartoons I remember finding that interesting I just dismissed it and then kind of The Culinary education and gave me sort of like some motivation to to cook like I never thought I was gonna do open a Filipino restaurant up until I was like ready to open a restaurant honestly she because she works so much my parents worked so much so like she started at five and sometimes she'll be home like six or seven we I would like either eat frozen food TV dinners or cook something for myself so I remember learning to make eggs and sausage or bacon like at a pretty early age my thing was is why isn't it a popular cuisine I think one of the things about the Filipino culture is hospitality if you come over go over to like a Filipino person's house you're probably gonna ask you if you've eaten or if you want some to drink or something and they'll give you their shirt off their back I never knew he was gonna cook I'm gonna be like I mean I thought it was just I didn't know he was planning to have a restaurant cup for people I said I mean they're eating your food right right she always is like a taste tester like if she eats it and there's no reference to her dish at all I'm not doing the right thing you know if I'm changing it there has to be some reference to her food like it has to somehow resemble it in some way or shape or form I went to Boston University I majored in Biochemistry molecular biology but at the same time that I started school I started my first job in the industry at a bakery in Boston she offered me a job and she's like you should come start as a barista and then I eventually moved into the back as a baker but then I moved to New York because I figured if I'm going to continue to cook in restaurants that's the place to be once I left there I went overseas to learn from some people that I really admired and then I was either going to come back and move to LA or Chicago and then I started working at GT and that's where I met Tim and people like don't even realize that we're married like or a couple just because we're busy working doing our thing and we try not to let those lines cross uh I think for part of it for me and starting my own restaurant with Genie is like you got to put your money where your mouth is kind of thing like can can I do it like can I actually run a restaurant can I do the things that I always critique managers and owners were doing can I actually do it there was that question when we first opened like even on the first day it was like should I be doing this like what did I get myself into and uh it's almost like it's sink or swim you know this is an evolving situation literally every day we learn a little bit it's weird because like when it first started coming around and you started hearing about cases spreading we didn't think about it as much okay cool we'll you know we'll be fine in a month or so or something like that and then quickly we realize that it's not going away yeah Germany and now we have to start figuring out how we're going to operate virus infections recorded each day in the U.S has Nationwide almost twice as many people are in the hospital tonight than there were just a month ago and Americans are now dying each day at levels not seen since the worst months of the pandemic in a way like a lot of people are like it's awesome you guys open like that's Brave of you it's like we we didn't have any choice like everybody still wants to pick up food or sit down and dine regardless of what was happening and nobody was stopping that but I don't think necessarily we were treated the same as like front line when it's like most of us don't have health insurance in order to make outdoor dining possible filmed this incident where her restaurant is required to close the work I did for outdoor dining for tables being seven feet apart and I come in today how do you pay your rent when you can't even open everything everything I own is being one of those restaurants that you loved A lot of them aren't gonna be there you know and our main goal this year was to stay afloat I just don't know if it's ever really gonna go back to how it was when it was five years old that's why I can't be crazy because that's the good times peace time everybody seems like you know very nice in Sweden out there but you've never known something happened [Music] we were lucky I can't stress it enough like the timing of everything that happened for us was luck the opening day at Osama where it was like am I ready for this can I actually do this I don't know I don't know if I'm cut out for this like and um I mean there's definitely been some some challenging points right um in the restaurant I mean it's it's hard it's a hard industry to be in unless you really enjoy cooking for people I don't and she would do that so why why didn't you quit like what was the factor that kept kept you going um like I saw myself being a chef in the end yeah yeah and that that always helps me is like seeing where I want to be and then doing the things to get there and realizing like opening day was hard but by the end of the week we're gonna be fine and you just learn from it and you learn what you don't want out of your life and your career as much as you learn what you do and and for the both of us we took all of those things and we're trying to create it here um and it's just it's different because of this past year in covet and everything but we're still working towards that and we're you know we're never gonna forget the the ultimate goal for us in creating that culture so yeah the thing that Jeannie and I say about our the food that we try to put out is it it's just regular food done well thank you I think my purpose for opening this deciding to do Filipino food like I want people to eat the food if we're giving people a sausage egg and cheese with a Filipino sausage on it we're executing at a high level with the egg that's cooked you know in a steam bath and the sausage that we've been working on for like two years and tweaking the salt and the sugar and the garlic and whatever and as a guest you don't really think about that you take a bite and you're like is it good or not [Music] it's much more familiar than people think you might hear something like adobo or Korea or Olympia Shanghai or punch it and like I don't know what that is I have no reference to what that is but but he tasted those things there's not like crazy flavors that would jump out at you and be like oh that's an acquired taste and so that's how we want to portray that food Elevate Filipino food we use it on a barbecue platter where we serve it with ribs and the house-made sausage and we serve it on two pieces of white bread on a little metal tray and people see barbecue platter on the menu and they're like I know what that is I'm gonna get that but they don't realize they're eating Filipino food and the Filipino flavors [Music] and my point is it's supposed to be a stepping stone to Filipino Cuisine to the culture and they're eating my mom's dish and they're eating my mom's recipe for pancit and chicken adobo and so it's like her food elevated it's so like it is a thing to make my mom and dad proud serving the food to people who've never had it before [Music] well listen he's an artist you know cooking is a form of Art Arts creation well I love golf I mean there's no way me comparing to the the king he took the king I'm just happy that my you know my name is in the restaurant Genie Genie she made mysterious thing with a flower and the sugar I guess yeah pastry Queen pastry I call her basically I wanted to create a destination Bakery for the city of Chicago earlier on in my career recipes were everything you you found the good ones you sought people that did amazing things and you were like I have to get those recipes working with Tim and savory and and seeing what they have to do to get to that point I it's completely freed me it's changed my entire process surprising because the things that I get the most response for now are the things that I probably manipulated the least and which is completely opposite from from fine dining because I mean there were desserts that I was doing that had 10 a dozen touches to the plate [Music] or like what hasn't been done you know everything's been done but how do you make that how do you put your own twist on it and make it your own there's definitely things that we saw in the Philippines we want to elevate it a little bit make it a little bit more refined but still have those flavors there and we do a hollow hollow dish which is probably the most identifiable and recognized dessert in the Philippines so we have a version of that that we do and we do let people take it to go just happy with the end product to give to somebody else there's always going to be a moment where you can see how that's paid off when you give it to somebody my wife's always here she's telling me like I'm doing Sunday Saturday morning the light will go all the way around the building just very impressive I want to say to them and to Genie you know keep working hard keep doing what they love to do and more power to them that's all I want to say I love both of them yeah to do the best in everything they do and wish them more success nice to be part of this community it's more like a home when people come here it's just like oh you know making your heart bigger you know making so proud of being in them I think we genuinely like to see the people that come in here and regulars that come in every day sometimes three times a day we live upstairs so we're literally inviting people into our home you you have a potential of needing a complete stranger and then in a moment finding a commonality with them it's it's such a short exchange it's so quick but like that's what we look forward to every day and then being able to provide something that hopefully they like and then they can come back and then get to know them so that you can give them something that they love that's why we do it you know pandemic or no pandemic you know we don't cook for ourselves we cook for other people and I hope that people can see that it's intentional you know we we want them to come in here and we want them to feel cared for foreign [Music]

Channel: Nick Cavalier

Views: 18,148

Keywords: kasama, chicago, restaurant, film, short, documentary, fillipino, food, culinary, chef, pastry, dessert, phillipines, asian, covid, lockdown, pandemic, art, michelin, star, james, beard, korean, hahn, eat, culture

Id: obKaMLUpjQE

Length: 17min 30sec (1050 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 29 2023