Chef JP Anglo poses at Sarsa Kitchen + Bar in Makati. Photographed by Renzo Navarro for the November 2024 Issue of Vogue Man Philippines
According to JP Anglo, Filipino food is best made with heart and a lot of soul.
It’s a Monday afternoon, the quietest hour of any restaurant, yet Sarsa Kitchen + Bar along Rada Street in Makati’s Legazpi Village is never without guests. Every table is its own mini fiesta, attended by sizzling plates of sisig, chicken inasal, and glorious tortang talong [eggplant omelet]. After all, Filipino food is festive by nature. And when Bacolod-born JP Anglo, founder and head chef of Sarsa, sits down for his interview, he first asks us what we’d like to eat.
In between questions, he stands up to serve us himself. He explains each component of Sarsa’s 3-Way Sisig (“It’s an homage to the late Anthony Bourdain, who once said that the sisig is a textural dish”), how it was prepared (“We honor the wet sisig from Pampanga, the crunchy Manila sisig, and the way meat is smoked in the Cordilleras”), and how to best enjoy it (“I like taking a bite of each before mixing it loosely with the brain aioli”). He eats his own food with gusto, and ensures that everyone on the team is well-fed.
When Sarsa first opened its doors in 2013, it was the age of celebrity chefs and tasting menus. “I once joked with a friend of mine that we could never appear on the fine dining lists because we weren’t polished enough,” Anglo says. But it was precisely his fun and casual take on Filipino food that drew endless lunch and dinner lines, complemented by Anglo’s conspicuously cool guy persona: an avid surfer, a candid and hearty eater, and a font of energy and drive. When Bourdain visited Manila some years ago, Anglo dropped everything, sped through the city on his motorbike, just to personally have him try Sarsa’s version of isaw [pig intestines] and barbeque. His success only mounted in the years after, growing to several branches across Metro Manila.
But a decade and several world-altering events later, the beloved Sarsa branch on Rada is now the restaurant’s sole outpost. “Sarsa version 3,” Anglo says in a 2022 vlog after renovations. The new interiors feel personal this time around, an extension of Anglo and his interests. Surfboards and skateboards lean on the walls. The bike from his wedding in Siargao bisects a lounge and the dining area. A vintage display cabinet holds Sarsa’s awards through the years and souvenirs from Anglo’s travels.
This return to roots is evident in the restaurant’s direction. The intentional downsizing meant more time and energy could be devoted to quality and standards, instead of volume and scale. A move that ultimately allowed Anglo to halve his time between Manila and Dubai, where he now cooks out of Sarsa’s sister (or brother) restaurant called Kooya, a casual eatery championing Filipino cuisine in the Middle East.
But most recently, Anglo’s biggest responsibility is to his wife Camille and their son Finn who was born last September. “It’s a lot of learning and adjusting,” Anglo says. “I’m learning how to be a husband-dad to my family.” He’s vlogged about it on his popular eponymous YouTube channel. After flying in from Dubai last June for the homestretch of Camille’s pregnancy, the past few months have seen Anglo managing his in-laws’ home, scouting out neighborhood gems and carinderias [eatery], and cooking various things for his wife.
Anglo took vlogging somewhat seriously in the pandemic. “I call myself a reluctant vlogger,” he says. Nothing premeditated or strategized. His food and travel vlogs found an audience in people hungry for good food and experiences, which eventually led him to pursue a Parts Unknown type of content, where Anglo parachutes himself into off-the-beaten-path locations, cooking over an open fire, and exchanging ideas and ingredients with friends and locals. In an episode about Bauko, Mountain Province, Anglo freestyles a grilled pork recipe with sigtim [fermented rice] and leftover coffee, coaxing out new flavors from homegrown ingredients. People gather around Anglo’s makeshift kitchens, pleasantly surprised by the potential of what their food, our food, can be.
It’s in these moments that Anglo feels most connected to his “why.” Whether speaking before the Senate, a food congress in San Sebastian, cooking in the Mandarin Oriental Tokyo’s vaunted kitchens, or over a campfire in Tanay, he radiates pride for Filipino cuisine—its possibilities, and the joy it brings to others.
During one of the earlier pop-ups in Dubai, Anglo witnessed a woman burst into tears over a bowl of sinigang [sour and savory soup or stew]. “I still remember how that lady looks, her expression… It was just an honest-to-goodness slow-cooked beef rib sinigang, that wasn’t made quickly, and was made with heart and a lot of soul,” he recalls. “That’s when I knew that I’m not cooking for my ego, I’m cooking for my people.”
Filipinos from all over the Middle East travel to Dubai just to get a taste of home at Kooya, but it is also Anglo’s platform to showcase a different side of Filipino food. “Dubai is a springboard to the world,” Anglo explains. “I still pinch myself when we attend these food events and there’s a long line, and you don’t see a single Filipino and they’re all like, ‘Wow, what is this? It’s so good,’” he says.
The past few years have been a way for Anglo to return to feeling and care. The realization that can only come after years of putting in the work and finally looking back in retrospect. “There was a time we had eight restaurants and I felt nothing,” he says. “I realized during the pandemic that one of the greatest currencies in this day and age besides material things is relationships.”
“I was just telling my chefs that our ‘why’ is to not just fill your tummy, but to give you a great day,” he says. It was never just about the food, but everything around the experience. “Even if it just means filling your water, serving your food efficiently, or even adjusting your spoons.”
“To be consistent is hard work. People have expectations and you want to meet them, if not exceed them,” he adds.
By TONI POTENCIANO. Photographs by RENZO NAVARRO. Vogue Man Editor DANYL GENECIRAN. Producer: Julian Rodriguez. Features Writer: Patricia Villoria. Photographer’s Assistant: Alexis Wang.
