Cover Don Baldosano (Photo: Patrick Diokno)
Don Baldosano (Photo: Patrick Diokno)
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Tatler Dining’s Rising Star 2024 Don Baldosano shares his love affair with Filipino cuisine and how he intends to continue being one of its most vocal advocates
“What matters to me more is the message, the food I discovered around the Philippines. I feel guilty for thinking Filipino food was not good. And now I feel an innate responsibility to share our cuisine’s beauty,” says Don Baldosano, Tatler Dining’s Rising Star for 2024.
There’s an unmistakable sense of maturity, experience and quiet confidence in how Baldosano speaks and conducts himself. Perhaps, it’s what five years of operating a private dining space by his lonesome has made him out to be. Or even how being a doting husband to his lovely wife Monica and father to one-year-old Don Michaelangelo has moulded him. Whatever it is, his demeanour could make one easily forget that he is only 25.
Related: The best tasting menus in the Philippines as featured in the Tatler Dining Guide 2024
Above First Things First, a starter inspired by longsilog (Photo: courtesy of Linamnam MNL)
First Things First, a starter inspired by longsilog (Photo: courtesy of Linamnam MNL)
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He sees the change in himself and doesn’t deny it, albeit he feels embarrassed confessing what he once believed in. “I know what I wanted to be before—an amazing French cook. At 12, I was already reading and studying French cookbooks like those by [Auguste] Escoffier,” he says. For him, European cuisine was the gold standard for food. He was so blinded that he didn’t even bother to learn how to cook rice, which might be strange for an Asian chef. “I purposely didn’t want to know how to cook it because, at the back of my mind, Filipino food was subpar,” he explains.
His perspective only started to shift when he interacted closely with wet-market vendors. He asked them often how they would cook the produce he would buy from them, to which they commonly replied, “adobo, paksiw or kilaw”. Probing further, he asked how they would prepare them back in their own provinces, eventually leading to dishes he would not know about. This curiosity drove him to research more about the cuisine.
“Their reply led me to travel and see what the food is beyond the confines of Manila. And every trip led to discovering a different side of Filipino food, one that is not mediocre but rather deep, complex and full of stories,” he says. Thus began his love affair with local fare.
See also: 6 decadent Filipino ingredients you should know: Asin tibuok, taba ng talangka, and more
He currently has two avenues to publicly display his affection: Linamnam, a 12-seater located in his Parañaque backyard, and Bombvinos Bodega, a natural wine bistro situated in the heart of Makati. Another one is on the way, a modern retro joint in Ayala Triangle Garden, which is expected to open in the third quarter of the year.
“The goal for me is to have these establishments share the different facets of Filipino food,” he says. “At the end of the day, all these things that I make aren’t necessarily for me. I’m just a person who wants to share what I think Filipino food should be.” And he doesn’t mind if people don’t quite get his message. It may be a different story back when he was still dipping his toes into the water, but these days, rants don’t faze him. He welcomes and embraces the flaws people find in his food.
Read more: Bombvinos Bodega’s new lunch menu
Above Putong bigas with kinuday and kesong puti on toast a buri ice cream (Photo: courtesy of Linamnam MNL)
Above Pulot sa buri ice cream (Photo: courtesy of Linamnam MNL)
Putong bigas with kinuday and kesong puti on toast a buri ice cream (Photo: courtesy of Linamnam MNL)
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His stint as a contestant in Junior Masterchef, a reality cooking competition, has somehow prepared him for it. “I remember experimenting with food and serving it to my family as part of my preparation for the show. My sisters would criticise me, and I would scream at them. I couldn’t take it. I thought only I was right. Now, it’s more of me internalising other’s thoughts after thinking I’m right. If you criticise me, I’ll know if it comes from the heart. I’ll know you like my food enough to tell me what’s wrong with it,” the chef says.
Besides, it’s not like disapproval regarding his dishes is new to him. He is the most prominent critic of his work.
In Linamnam, there’s a single poster hanging on the wall that constantly reminds him to do better. The sign simply says “shit” in all caps. It’s there not to put himself or anyone from his team down but to motivate him to know there will always be another day and opportunity to improve.
More from Tatler: The best sisig in the Philippines according to top chefs
“Why stop at this? Try your food. Get excited by it, then move onto the next one,” Baldosano says. “How can you be good if you’re not putting pressure on yourself?” His constant balance comes from his family, especially his wife, whom he considers to be the one who keeps him pragmatic and level-headed. “She makes me more rooted and honest. Sometimes I become too anal and cerebral about things. I overthink. She’s simple, which helps me think about how other people eat food.”
It’s hard to imagine how Don Baldosano, at his young age, has already bagged multiple awards and citations, juggles a handful of successful restaurants, gets invitations abroad (he once cooked for 2000 guests at a tourism conference in Laos) and tends to his still-growing family. Even more impressive is how we—those keenly witnessing his inspiring rise—know that we haven’t seen the best of him yet.
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