Chef Jorge Mendez Reveals the Secret Ingredient to Making Food People Love
For SPOT.ph's Chef of the Year, cooking is all about expressing his love for his family.
(SPOT.ph) Jorge Mendez has just returned from vacation. This is just what he does when things get too hectic. “Usually when I’m stressed, I go somewhere where I can breathe, or think of anything other than what I’m doing everyday in Manila.”
And so, he went to Japan. He says he really didn’t visit anywhere new. He had tempura. He had sushi. He went to the typical places he goes to when he’s feeling overwhelmed.
He returns to Manila refreshed, once again ready to take on the myriad challenges of running a handful of successful restaurants. This has been quite the time for Jorge Mendez—Modan, which opened last year, continues to be one of the most celebrated dining experiences in Metro Manila, and their latest degustation takes diners around the continent with inventive, Japanese-flecked dishes inspired by different countries in Asia. This year, he opened Some Thai, serving what he admits is an inauthentic take on Thai food, that has created considerable lines on Tomas Morato.
Some Thai will be opening another branch at The Podium. He has a new concept coming as well, and continues to consult for other restaurants. There’s just a lot on his plate, and one can understand wanting to get away from all of it, even for just a little bit.
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SPOT.ph's Chef of the Year Jorge Mendez
When asked what he thinks is the secret to his success, he seems almost flummoxed. “Until now, I’m surprised they’re all doing well,” he says. “Especially Some Thai and Modan.”
“I just work. I just do what I need to do and what I love, and what I want to share with other people.”
Mendez credits his family as the guiding force for his cuisine. “When I conceptualize—I think first if this is a concept my family would enjoy. If my family enjoys it—I’m not even thinking if it’s going to work out or if it’s going to be successful. If my family enjoys it, I’m going to push it.”
“It’s the same with Modan—when I conceptualize a menu, or when I think of a dish, it involves my staff, because my staff is my family na rin as well.”
“When we travel, if it’s something we really enjoy eating—I just think of good memories and I think maybe that’s something we can serve in my restaurant.”
Even some of the more out-there dishes of Modan have their roots in Mendez trying to please his family. “Muscat grape is my son’s favorite,” he says. This resulted in him serving the grape with a mentaiko and melon granita. “He doesn’t like mentaiko, so I combined it with the muscat, and he said, ‘okay pala.’” Mendez laughs. It seems clear his son is one of the customers he likes pleasing the most.
Mendez isn’t prone to talking about business. When asked why he decided to open Modan in Cubao, a place where there isn’t much fine dining, he replies, “We just wanted to relax, be free to do our own thing.” There’s no talk of strategy—just the desire to find a place to cook what he wants to cook.
“I treat it like an art gallery,” he says. “Sometimes there’s a food you don’t know, but you can enjoy it. It’s like looking at a painting you aren’t familiar with, but as you get to know the artist, you can appreciate something new.”
With Some Thai, he talks in terms of dreams. “It’s always been a dream of my wife and I to open a Thai restaurant,” he says. “Pero matagal pa dapat.” His mother worked as an English teacher in Thailand, and this fostered a love for the cuisine. When his brother-in-law suddenly came to him with an opportunity, with that small space opening up in Tomas Morato, he just had to take it. “I had to promise my wife that even if we opened a Thai restaurant, we’d still regularly go back to Bangkok,” he laughs.
“I’ve always known what kind of food—what kind of flavor profile I wanted to do with my Thai restaurant, if ever we were going to do it. We just took two months to conceptualize everything,” he says.
“Tadhana na ‘yan, e,” he says. “We didn’t really know if it was going to work. I’m still surprised, honestly.”
Currently, Mendez is working on the new branch of Some Thai, which will be twice as large as the Morato space. And his new concept, Makanai, which is Japanese for “family meal.” “We’re going to serve an elevated version of the Japanese family meal,” he says.
WIth Mendez, it always just seems to go back to family. You can taste it, too. His food is ambitious and inventive, but never pretentious. It isn’t just about trying to impress people with expensive ingredients, but more about finding unusual combinations that might open up one’s mind about what’s possible in cuisine. When you dine at one of his restaurants, here is what’s guaranteed: he is serving you food that he would serve to the people most important to him. This is what makes everything so wonderful.
Photos by Dave Graciadas