Zagat: Tara Monsod On Mentorship In The Kitchen And The Renaissance Of Filipino Cuisine.

Executive Chef, Tara Monsod shares “I started at Animae as a sous chef at the end of 2020. The head chef moved on right before I came, and then before the next COVID closure, I had been running the restaurant by myself for about a month. I became the leader of this restaurant after arriving here in a short period of time. I guess the owners saw a lot of potential from that short period, and I became executive chef in the summer of 2021.

Anybody who’s known me in the industry—they know who I am. I have always kind of been in the background, but they’ve always known me as a hard worker and somebody who had talent

When I took over, Animae didn’t have a true identity in terms of what exactly the food was. Is it a steakhouse? Is it an Asian fusion restaurant? Should I go more steakhouse-y? Should I go food that I like to eat? Is it too casual? Should we go family style? Should we go tiny plates? I thought of all sorts of things. But in the end I was like, I just want to make food that people can gather around. It’s very eye-appealing, but also not too pretentious where you almost feel uncomfortable being in here. Something a little more warm, a little more welcoming, but fun, all at the same time.”

Monsod later shares her leadership in the kitchen, “I’m trying to be a mentor tool to all my cooks. I’m not just telling them what to do in the kitchen. I’m trying to teach them that there’s more to being a chef. You need to know how to manage money. You need to know how to cost your recipes. It’s not all about creating something and putting it on a menu blindly. You have to have an idea of how much it costs you. How did you figure out that cost? How much are you going to sell it for? Where are you going to source from? I show them all the steps because then they know how much work it really does take.”