Careers in the Filipino food industry rarely follow a straight line. They twist through necessity, curiosity, failure, reinvention – and sometimes, sheer survival.
Few stories illustrate this more powerfully than those of Chef Morris Danzen Catanghal, and Abi Marquez.
Chef Morris Danzen Catanghal‘s culinary journey began out of hardship in Calumpit, Bulacan and has since seen him winning an Italian national cooking competition.
The journey for Abi Marquez began with viral social media posts during the pandemic, earning her the nickname Lumpia Queen, to finding herself on the Forbes 30 Under 30 List.
Both Chef Morris and Abi have in different ways, and through different career paths, helped elevate Filipino food and cuisine onto the world stage.
As they prepare to collaborate at the 2026 Melbourne Food & Wine Festival, Abi Marquez and Chef Morris Danzen Catanghal sat down with RANGGO Magazine to reflect on unlikely culinary beginnings, lived experience, resilience, culture, and what Filipino food truly represents.
This interview is part 1 of a 3-part series.
Abi Marquez
Abi is a Hotel and Restaurant Management graduate turned content creator.
She quickly rose from posting TikTok videos during the pandemic to becoming one of the most recognizable voices in Filipino food today.
Her mission is simple and unwavering: to showcase Filipino food on a global scale. In 2023, that mission earned her a place on Forbes 30 Under 30 List.
Chef Morris Danzen Catanghal
Chef Morris’ culinary path began less with ambition, and more with responsibility. Cooking to feed his family as a teenager, he later navigated fast food kitchens, personal cheffing in Cambodia, multimedia studies, a stint as a musician at a Chinese hotel, and onto Sicily – where Filipino-Italian fusion became his creative breakthrough.
He won the Gino Cerca Chef TV competition, judged by Chef Gino D’Acampo, beating hundreds of Italian chefs who applied to the show, and was all set to join the kitchen of Gino’s new London Restaurant when the COVID Pandemic placed a pause on that, the family Trattoria, and on restaurants around the world.
Where It All Began
Neither Abi or Chef Morris planned to build a life around food.
Abi’s earliest food memories weren’t about cooking or dreams of becoming a chef – they were about taste.
Before my love for cooking, came my love for eating. I grew up watching my mum cook, I guess that’s how it started, seeing the kitchen as a playground and having an innate passion for food and how it should feel and taste. Even when it was something like chicken nuggets and rice, I would throw a tantrum if the rice wasn’t fluffy and steamy – she laughs.
My earliest memory, the one that triggered my curiosity for cooking, was when I got a branded cookbook for Christmas from my godfather. I think maybe he got it for free from the supermarket. It had visuals, and photographs of kids with hotdog cocktails, and pancakes.
I started to watch cooking shows. Instead of watching Dora the Explorer, I was watching Ina Garten (American television cook, author and host of Barefoot Contessa), I found she had more interesting things to explore than Dora – she laughs.
It evolved into me making snacks for people, when we had guests. No one would tell me to do it, but I would go prepare drinks and whatever snacks I had prepared for taking to school. And I would serve them to the guests.
Chef Morris’ memories are starker.
For me it was more of necessity, I didn’t have the love for cooking. It started out when my dad became blind, I was 12 or 13 and I had a younger brother to care for too. It was that time that I started experimenting in our kitchen at home, whatever was available in the kitchen – soy sauce, rice, papaya.
That’s where I started creating dishes. We had a Papaya tree in front of our house that bore a lot of fruit.
Actually, the papaya has become a symbol of survival for me. When the papaya was not ripe, I made Gisa sauteed with some sardines, or I’d stew it, or use soy sauce and make an Adobo. If the papaya was a little sweet I’d make Tinola with some chicken or corned beef. It is a memorable time for me because I was training, but unconsciously.
I started off my career at 18 in Fast Food with Jollibee and then KFC. That was when I first started to learn how a restaurant or chain operates – and I hated it – because of the long hours and fatigue!
You’re feeding hundreds of people a day, you keep repeating the same things every day and making sure you are consistent all the time. But I loved the people I worked with, I really grew there.
Advice for the Next Generation
Together, Abi and Chef Morris emphasize patience, humility, and continuous learning – in kitchens, online, and in life.
Chef Morris is direct:
The most important thing in the kitchen is not technique. It’s a good work ethic and attitude. Don’t be intimidated with the positions – learn as much as you can every day, and just do better every day.
Being with Italians, living with Italians I learned more how to appreciate each ingredient – how the cow or pig is raised, how the plants or vegetables are grown, where the fish came from.
Everyone in Italy talks about food – 90% of their TV shows are about food, and restaurants. I love the Italian culture, and how they see food.
So, study real food, where it came from, don’t focus on the techniques because you can learn that later. Focus on the base – whatever it is – whether it’s Filipino food, Italian, French. Learn those and progress day-by-day.
Abi echoes him, adding:
Showing up is everything. I showed up even on days I was tired – that’s where opportunities come from.
And it’s important to build a community because that’s how you survive in the content creation industry. You need to know how to build and retain your community, and you can only do that by showing up.
I never really worked officially in hospitality, in the sense that I have never worked in a professional kitchen, but I did graduate with a degree in Hotel and Restaurant Management, so the fundamentals are there.
I did run a small food business – it was a requirement for one of my college subjects – around the same time that I was starting to create content. It was just supposed to be for 2 weeks, but I ended up running it for 6 months. I sold Filipino-style lasagna, and a lot of people said it was the best lasagna they ever had.
I stopped doing that business when I really wanted to focus on content, but I learned a few things. In the kitchen or in content creation, it’s very tiring and it can be really difficult to have a work-life balance.
Especially because we’re doing something that we are passionate about, so we find it difficult to stop, to step back and take a rest.
We actually have a difficult time giving ourselves a break, but we need a break from time to time, because that is also where creative ideas come from. That’s something that needs to be heard by everyone…. and by me – she laughs.
Filipino Food, Shared
Their upcoming Boodle Breakfast Feast at the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival is more than just a menu – it’s a philosophy.
Filipino food, they explain, is about sharing, family, and togetherness.
And the best way to introduce Filipino food?
Around one table, eaten together.
Chef Morris:
When we started brainstorming ideas for the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival, we firstly tried to align what we wanted to do with the style of the restaurant. And we decided that the best way to share Filipino food with Melbourne was through a Boodle Feast.
Because it is about sharing – Filipino food is about eating together, being with your loved ones, sharing the food with everyone. And brunch is part of Australian culture and we wanted to incorporate Filipino food by serving Filipino flavors incorporated with Australian local ingredients.
Of course – because it is a collaboration with the Lumpia Queen – there will be Lumpia on the menu, made with local ingredients.
Abi:
Cooking at home for a family of six, without anyone supervising you, is super different to cooking in a restaurant for 200 people.
But that’s what makes my upcoming collaboration with Chef Morris even more exciting. I haven’t really seen myself what it’s like cooking in a professional kitchen. I am sure there are things that will surprise me.
The Boodle Brunch will be held on March 28, at South Melbourne café Nine Yards (228-230 Dorcas St, South Melbourne, 3205).
With two sittings available, diners will enjoy a four-course communal feast that blends Filipino food and flavors with Australian ingredients.
Tickets for the Boodle Brunch are selling out fast but can be bought via the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival or Nine Yards websites.
Follow MY RANGGO to be one of the first to read Part 2 of our interview with Abi Marquez and Chef Morris Danzen Catanghal – talking unusual career paths, opportunities, being open to all possibilities and their most memorable meals here in the Philippines.
Abi Marquez Instagram Facebook TikTok YouTube
Chef Morris Instagram Facebook TikTok YouTube
