Before my move to the West Coast, I had the opportunity to celebrate with my Filipino and food community that I’ve built over the years in New York City. We threw an old-fashioned block party and cooked up all kinds of Filipino dishes. This was an amazing night to reflect on all of the memories NYC has given me through the years.

We did an amazing collaboration with Kasama, and our chef friends Timothy Ryanchi and Genie Kwon, in celebration of the Philippines Independence Day weekend. We served a Kamayan box for two and a special dinner menu, with a portion of the proceeds going to benefit our non-profit partners AFIRE Chicago.

To kick off the AAPI Heritage Month, I linked up with Paolo Dungca and Tom Cunanan, owners of PogiBoy in Washington DC, to create some epic Filipino dishes like my Spam beignets and soft shell crab ube baos. In solidarity with the AAPI/Fil-Am community, a portion of the proceeds were donated to the National Federation of Filipino American Association Capital.

We started the summer off right with my friends at Project Barkada when we pulled up to Roller Wave, an awesome community event in NYC that combines rollerblading, silent disco, and good food. Here we spread Filipino culture and cuisine with specials like crab fried rice and the Spam Burjer to the hungry crowd.