As head chef of Nobu Manila at City of Dreams, Michael de Jesus has stayed busy throughout the pandemic, training the Nobu Manila team to adapt to COVID-19 safety guidelines and other stringent measures for the restaurant’s in-room, indoor and outdoor dining service.
The Filipino American chef, 45, began working with Nobu more than 10 years ago, first as sous chef in Nobu Los Angeles, then as chef de cuisine in Nobu Las Vegas, before finally joining Nobu Manila in 2016.
De Jesus, who graduated from the California School of Culinary Arts in Pasadena, has been a chef for over 20 years. As a fan of Nobu, we know the kind of deliciousness he whips up at work.
But what does he cook at home? What does he like to eat? He tells Lifestyle in this week’s Food Slambook.
Food confessions
Describe yourself as an eater. I thoroughly enjoy exploring and trying new food, eating at places where the locals eat. This is where I tend to find the identity of cultural foods. Food is the language that connects everyone in the world to each other. What’s your favorite thing to eat at home? This is a fun question to answer, due to the fact that I have several homes to consider. When my mom is visiting, I always ask her to cook Filipino food. She is from Ilocos Norte, so she will always cook pinakbet. Her adobo and karekare are heavenly also. When I visit my fiancée in Vietnam, I enjoy eating fried spring rolls and crab soup. When I am alone at home, I usually keep it simple with homemade tacos. I usually have an assortment of roasted chicken, carne asada and roasted pork. I top them with a simple mix of chopped onion and cilantro and use Tapatio hot sauce and a squeeze of lime juice or calamansi.
Describe yourself as a cook/baker. I love to cook for family and friends. It’s the best way to welcome guests into our homes, by cooking a meal with our own bare hands. I love baking different types of breads. But that is the extent of my baking skills.
What’s your specialty? My early culinary education was at the California School of Culinary Arts for French cooking. My first two chef mentors were French chefs. Over the years I learned and cooked in many different kitchens. For over a decade now, I have been cooking Japanese-Peruvian, “new style” Japanese
cuisine at Nobu restaurants around the world. In essence, I see myself as a student of world cuisines.
If you can only eat one food every day for the rest of your life, what would it be?
How can you ask somebody to decide on one food item, out of all the fabulously great-tasting food!? If I really had to choose, it would be tacos. I can just make different types of tacos every day, lol.
What’s one food you will never eat? That’s a hard sell to me. I like to try anything at least once.
What’s your guilty pleasure when it comes to food?
In-N-Out cheeseburger with Animal-Style French Fries, or fried food in general
What’s your favorite midnight snack? As long as my doctor does not find out . . . I do love to eat just a few pieces of the Salted Macadamia Milk Chocoaki late made by our chocolatiers at City of Dreams.
Kitchen raid If we were to walk into your kitchen today, what would we see? A smorgasbord of international ingredients. Modern and classical cooking equipment. Most importantly, it is very organized and clean (habits of a chef).
What are kitchen gadgets/ appliances you can’t live without? Kitchen Aid Professional Mixer, manual pasta maker, Anova Sous Vide Machine, Baumann Living food dehydrator, Global Chef knife set, Khun vegetable peeler, Hobart hand blender, Vitamix blender
What’s always in your refrigerator? Kirkland Organic Unsweetened Almond Milk (Vanilla), Coolibah Herbs Baby Spinach, Jufran Sweet Chili Sauce, Miracle Noodle Garlic and Herb, Miracle Noodle Angel Hair, House Foods Tofu Shirat(angel hair), Vegenaise Pesto Mayo, Vegenaise Chipotle Mayo, sliced Gouda cheese, sliced Pepper Jack cheese, sliced cheddar cheese, Pure Harvest Whole Bean Soy Milk, homemade garlic confit.
What’s always in your pantry? Maldon sea salt, Lakanto Monkfruit Sweetener, Coco Natura Organic Coco Sugar, Birch Benders Pancake and Waffle Mix Chocolate Chip Keto, Tapatio and/or Cholula Hot Sauce, Bella Terra Organic Balsamic Vinegar, Bob’s Red Mill Organic Steel Cut Oats, Bob’s Red Mill Organic Buckwheat flour, Bob’s Red Mill Organic Tricolor Quinoa, Cadia Organic Apple Cider Vinegar Spicy Turmeric Ginger, Spam, Delimondo Garlic and Chili Corned Beef, Tamari Glutenfree Soy Sauce, Datu Puti Patis, My Pho Dao Tuyet noodles from Vietnam
Favorite . . .
Bread: Whole-wheat batard loaf
Cheese: Gouda, cheddar, Pepper Jack
Butter: Flechard Creamery Butter (unsalted), Kerrygold Pure Irish salted Butter
Milk: Kirkland Organic unsweetened Almond Milk (Vanilla), Pureharvest Whole Bean Soy Milk
Coffee: Dunkin’ Donuts coffee
Rice: Koshikari Japanese rice, Jasmine rice
Pasta: Miracle Noodle Shirataki angel hair pasta, Home Foods Tofu Shirataki angel hair pasta
Catsup: Heinz
Mayo: Follow Your Heart Vegenaise Pesto Mayo, Follow Your Heart Vegenaise Chipotle Mayo
Fruits: Fuji apples, Dole bananas, chico, avocados
Veggies: Coolibah Herbs baby spinach, shitake mushrooms, onions, mixed field green mix
Herbs and spices: Garlic, black garlic, Maldon sea salt, kosher salt, negi, chives, ginger, pink peppercorns, ground black pepper
Bacon/hotdog/sausage/ ham: Ilocos Norte hamonado garlic longganisa paired with vinegar
Cooking oil: Avocado oil, extra-virgin olive oil
Soy sauce: Tamari organic gluten-free soy sauce
Vinegar: Cadia Organic Spicy Turmeric & Ginger Apple Cider Vinegar
Canned products: Spam, Delimondo corned beef (Garlic & Chili), Cadia Pinto Beans
Frozen food: Corn dogs
Snacks: Nori sheets, Tom’s Farm Honey Butter Almonds, Tostitos Tortilla Chips (lime)
Chocolates/candy: City of Dreams’ Salted Macadamia Milk Chocolate at Café Society
Cake: Mocha sponge cake
Ice cream: Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
Drinks: Rico Bubble Milk Tea (taro flavor), coconut water, waterOther favorites: Yamazaki 12-year Japanese Whisky, Hibiki 17- and 21-year-old Japanese Whisky
Pam Pastor is a Lifestyle writer and section editor.
