Chef Tatung Sarthou

A Chef, a Restaurateur, a TV Personality, a Social Media Icon,
and an Internationally Award-winning Author.

The Chef & Restaurateur

Chef Tatung is a well-known multi-hyphenated personality in the Philippines. He started his career in cooking by serving hearty and delicious fare in Quezon City. In pursuit of excellence, he continuously opened several more casual dining restaurants where he placed Filipino cuisine at the centerstage. At present, Pandan Asian Café in Tomas Morato, Tatung’s Private Dining in Antipolo, Lore Manila in BGC, Azadore in the Scout Area, and a few more soon-to-open restaurants keep him busy.

The Well-loved Icon

As a culinary icon, he is a multi-platform influencer with hundreds of thousands of followers in various digital platforms such as YouTube, Facebook and Instagram to name a few. He also appears as a guest resource person on various shows on national television. He made documentaries about salt and the Filipino Cuisine which are being used as film reference in universities and other institutions.

A year ago, he was handpicked as the resource speaker for the Philippine episode of the Netflix show Street Food. In 2017, Chef Tatung shared the stage with other global culinary icons in the Asia Madrid Fusion. His talk on salt-making and the undiscovered cuisine of Mindanao left the audience spellbound.

To continuously create meaningful culinary contents, he founded the Vertikal Kreatives – a fast-growing food creative agency and publishing company.

The Award-winning Author and Advocate of Filipino Cuisine

His passion for food and love for Filipino Cuisine resonate in his writings. His work, Philippine Cookery: from Heart to Platter, garnered one of the highest awards at the World Gourmand Awards. He also wrote best-selling books entitled Rice to the Occasion, Dishkarte sa Kusina, Simpol The Cookbook, Simpol Kitchen Secrets, and Baking Simpol.

Chef Myke

Chef Tatung’s choice of the name “Simpol” is already a clue of what this home cook turned chef has to offer: simple, practical, and doable recipes that will empower anyone to cook with confidence. This multi-hyphenate restaurateur and entrepreneur, author, celebrity TV chef and Youtube star explains every step of the cooking process by breaking them down into digestible parts, with valuable kitchen tips thrown in for good measure.

His kitchen-tested recipes range from everyday ulam to merienda to special occasion dishes; from traditional Filipino dishes to trendy global cuisines; from recreated restaurant favorites to the latest food trend hacks. Whether on print, digital or on video, Tatung’s recipes reflect the width and depth of his passion for food. His three bestselling books, “Philippine Cookery: From Heart to Platter”, “Rice to the Occasion” and “Dishkarte sa Kusina”, reflect his ability to connect to a broad audience base.

At the Asisa Madrid Fusion 2017 in Spain, Chef Tatung sparkled as one of the guest speakers, sharing the stage with culinary giants from Europe and Asia. His talk on salt-making and salt as a preservative, as well as a peek into the undiscovered cuisine of Mindanao cuisine left the mostly European audience spellbound.

Handpicked as a resource speaker for the Philippine episode of Netflix’s Street Food, Tatung provided his own insights on the street food evolution of Cebu. As a young boy growing up in Cebu, his mother tells the story of how the young Tatung would buy his favorite merienda everyday consisting of a bottle of softdrink and a stick of banana-cue. Simply pleased with the delicious pairing, he would sing, in between sips and bites: “Coke and, Coke and Banana” to the tune of Barry Manilow’s iconic song. Today, Tatung has remained playful and imaginative with food, in a more deliberate and purposeful way.

Cerebral but also creative and intuitive, Tatung shares his life’s mission: “I really want to be known more as an author, a teacher, an advocate. Being a chef was just a stepping stone to do what I want to do – to understand what I want to understand. There are more important things like food security and national identity.”

Now everyone’s favorite kitchen buddy online, Tatung continues to shares his love for food and cooking with a knowing smile, a healthy dose of wit and humor, and a quiet confidence that endears him to his fans. With over 260,000 subscribers (and counting) on his YouTube channel “Simpol”, as well as millions of views of over 200 recipe videos, Chef Tatung Sarthou could very well be today’s Online Culinary Ambassador for Pinoy Food – for he has captured the minds, hearts, and palates of home cooks in the Philippines and all around the world.