Here in Manila, there is no shortage of great restaurants. Whether you’re looking for a place to unwind after a harrowing day at work or a place to celebrate a well-deserved promotion, you can always count on there being a new kid on the culinary block. And with Todd English Food Hall’s arrival on Philippine shores, the local food scene just leveled up. Thanks to four-time James Beard Award winner Chef Todd English and the Rikki Dee group (of Cerveseria, Kai, etc.), we now have not just the first celebrity chef restaurant in the whole country, but also the first Todd English Food Hall branch outside New York!

Located at the 5th floor of SM Aura Premier Skypark, the Euro-inspired Todd English Food Hall boasts of nine incredible food stations, featuring superb international cuisine from the yummiest flatbreads and tastiest pasta dishes to the freshest seafoods and the most succulent prime ribs among others.

At the restaurant’s recent launch, FN was able to chat with Chef Todd’s son and company vice-president Oliver English about this exciting new venture.

Female Network (FN): So what made you decide to open the first branch outside New York here?

Oliver English (OE): A couple of reasons: First of all, we really hit it off with the Dee family. We were still so fortunate to have found partners that value the family-run and operated restaurant business like we do. You know, we’re a father and son team, and we found that they operated an incredible job here.

Also, you know we’re always looking for new, exciting markets, emerging markets to bring our concepts to, you know. It’s kinda obvious, it’s almost too obvious, to go to a market that’s already saturated. We’re kinda ahead of the curve, and we feel like Manila’s gonna be one of the emerging food cities in the coming years, so we wanna be ahead.

FN: How did you meet the Dee family?

OE: A mutual friend of my dad’s and then Eric (Dee) introduced them and they met in Kuala Lumpur about two years ago. They came to New York, and then I met with them when they were in New York, and last time we were in Manila, maybe six months ago, we really got to know each other.

We got to just bond and hang out, and Eric and I grew up very much in the same way. We grew up with families in the restaurant business and we grew up, kinda running around as little kids, talking to people, washing dishes, and doing all those little things that only really restaurant families understand, so we hit it off, and I couldn’t be happier.


FN: What are your five must-have ingredients for every kitchen?

OE: Olive oil, salt, pepper, mustard, hot sauce.

FN: Would you care to elaborate why?

OE: Of course, I would love to! My own philosophy and what I do in my own refrigerator is I like to buy food as fresh daily as I can, so to me it’s about having the staple things that allow you to cook those fresh foods whenever you bring them into your house.

So if you look at my refrigerator at home, it’s largely beverages and condiments because when I cook, I like to go and cook, I bring fresh food in that day, and those are the staples that you need. No matter where you’re cooking, you’re going to need all those salt, pepper, mustard, you can make, those are the bases for different sauces, different things, so yeah, that’s that. It gives you a lot of flexibility.

(Photos courtesy of Visions and Expressions)