BAGUIO CITY — What does a Malaysian chef who has worked in five-star hotels and resorts like to eat at home? It’s pinakbet cooked by his Filipino wife.

The love story of Gina Ulat (originally from La Union in the Philippines) and Alvin Emuang (of Penang, Malaysia) began in the late 1990s when they met at the hotel in Phuket, Thailand, where they were working. She was a singer in the band and he was the executive chef.

They eventually started a family and, for a while, lived in each hotel where Alvin was assigned. It was quite a life, with turndown service every night and the hotel recreation facilities serving as the children’s playground. But political unrest in the summer of 2010 made them decide to pack their bags and head to the Philippines, specifically, Baguio City.

It’s perfectly understandable for anyone who has experienced the allure of the crisp mountain air and laidback living. In Alvin’s words: “The first time I visited Baguio in 2001, we smelled the pine and loved the cold… and there were less people. I liked it a lot!” 

Unexpected beginnings

So, the family made the move. Gina and the children went ahead to Baguio while Alvin settled their affairs after more than a decade living in Thailand.

Gina, who also loves to cook, decided to open a carinderia beside her aunt and uncle’s sari-sari store on Outlook Drive. Alvin was then on a kind of sabbatical, studying his options while spending quality time with his family after working almost nonstop in the frenetic international hospitality industry for 15 years, keeping 16- to 18-hour days. She asked him for some help in running the place before he was due to fly off to another country.

“It was nothing fancy, a turo-turo setup where we offered Filipino food,” Gina said. (Turo-turo: literally “point-point,” in which diners indicate to the servers their choice of dishes.) 

They began operations on Sept. 6, 2010. At the end of October, prominent Baguio resident Ompong Tan asked Alvin to cook for a party for his mother. Though they had never met before, Tan entrusted him with drawing up a menu for friends and relatives to enjoy.

Speaking with CoverStory, Alvin chuckled at the memory: “He was surprised when he came to pick up the food, because we had put them in beautiful serving plates. I thought, since it was a special occasion, they should be served on nice-looking plates. I didn’t know if he would come back to return the plates. But of course, he did.”

Tan later told the couple that his guests appreciated the noodles and the other dishes they had served.

Within a few weeks, lines were forming at the carinderia during the lunch hours–a welcome surprise for Gina and Alvin. They found out from their new customers that Tan, a photographer, had posted about the eatery and pricked the curiosity of the locals.

At that point, the 15-seat carinderia did not even have a name. But the swell in clientele spurred Alvin to expand the menu to include Malaysian noodles, tom yum, and fried rice. He came up with the day’s dishes depending on what was available in the market; each serving was priced around P100. Customers checked out the menu on the white board and ordered what they wanted from the “hole in the wall,” the name by which the eatery came to be informally called.

Movements

Gina and Alvin, along with Gina’s sister and cousin, took turns in the tiny kitchen and the dining area, serving their customers Monday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. By the Christmas season, they had gotten so busy that they were compelled to put a reservation system in place.

Because they were outgrowing the space, they moved to a spot near The Mansion in 2012 while renovations were made to their setup beside the sari-sari store. After a year, they finally had enough space for 40 diners at a time, complete with a beautiful garden. (Many of the systems they established then are still in practice at the larger space today. They still make curry from scratch and swear off MSG.)

The crowd never waned at the restaurant now called Chef’s Home. From all over the Philippines, and even abroad, customers came to enjoy Southeast Asian fare in a cozy environment. But there was a nagging problem of parking space.

In 2018, a family friend offered Gina and Alvin the kitchen and dining area of what used to be Sicat Hotel for their restaurant. Now at their location on Ben Palispis (formerly Marcos) Highway, they can seat up to 70 persons, with an adjacent room for overflow during peak seasons and for private events. And the parking area is huge.

What they offer

For the food, ingredients are fresh from the market (or, in the case of fish and crabs, from regular suppliers); spices not available locally are imported from Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. Among the dishes highly recommended are the laksa, crispy papaya salad, tom yum, nasi goreng, chili crabs, “coffeelicious” pork (a Chef’s Home original), and tender beef rendang with pickled onion (also made onsite). And the roti is a belly-buster.

Chef Alvin is quite flexible. For example, guests arrived with freshly caught crabs for him to cook, and he obliged. With sufficient notice, he can whip up something one has been craving.

The restaurant has a strict no-alcohol and no-smoking policy. “We want a healthy environment and we know that a lot of children are influenced by what they see,” Alvin explained. (He and Gina actively support a local children’s ministry and regularly conduct a feeding program for children.)

The prices on the menu all end with P7–a reference to “the number of God,” which they donate to social action efforts. It is something they have been doing since they started operations in Baguio. “It’s good to give back to society,” Alvin said.

There is a no-pet policy. The family has several dogs but they are not brought to the restaurant, in respect to those who are not comfortable with nonhuman pets.

There is no Wi-Fi because Gina and Alvin want to encourage those who gather at Chef’s Home to interact with one another. They rest on Sundays.

On “slow weeknights”–which are not often—one can sit and marvel at stories from the couple, as if one were in their actual home. And if one’s lucky, Gina may be persuaded to show off her vocal gift. 

Here’s the scoop: After 15 years of running Chef’s Home, dodging or flatly refusing franchise offers, Alvin is now open to the idea of helping like-minded individuals succeed in using the same concept. And he’s willing to assist in the transition, too.

For details, call 0916 4445756.

Read more: An abundant display of Laguna’s food and heritage at ‘Sa Pantalan 2025’