Creating Row 19: My Restaurant Identity and Personal History

Hi! My name is Meg and I am passionate about cooking. I love to cook for other people such as my family, friends, and everyone around me. I love discovering new recipes, experiencing new cuisines, and creating my own version of the dishes I try. My goal is to put up my own restaurant in order to bring family and friends together with the food that I love to make.
In this article, I share about how I started cooking and how I created the name Row 19. I highlighted the experiences and events that help build my passion for cooking and create my identity as a cook. Enjoy!
My Humble Beginning
I can still remember the very first dish I ever cooked when I was around 9 years old. You know what it was? It was a smoked salmon Eggs Benedict with — nah, I’m just kidding! But really, the first dish I made was a simple plate of 2 scrambled eggs. It was our old cook who taught me how to make it. I can still remember that moment clearly; putting the cooked scrambled eggs on the plate and rushing to my parents to show them what I made. They were both so elated on how excited I was to show them what I made on my own and with that said, it developed my love for cooking. Up until this point in my life as a 21-year-old, you’d think that I would have at least attended 1 cooking class. But truth is, I never did. I am a typical shy person and joining classes alone was not something I would do, so I simply relied on family recipes, recipes online, tv shows, and the restaurants I eat at to create my own food portfolio.
So, here goes nothing.
Home Is Where It’s At
My home is where it all started; from cooking my first dish of scrambled eggs to other dishes like chocolate soufflé and slow roasted barbecue ribs. I was fond of watching any food related channel on TV like Food Network, Asian Food Channel, TLC, etc. and would be inspired to make those dishes. I was also exposed to cooking at a very young age. When I was in kindergarten to early Grade school , my parents used to own 2 restaurants in the late 1990’s to early 2000’s; one in Paseo de Magallanes and after, one along south super highway which had a Filipino-Chinese type of cuisine. Though both eventually closed, I can still imagine how both restaurants looked, the smell, the food, and even the people who worked there. I remember serving utensils and water to a table with 2 random people when I was around 5 or 6 years old! They thought it was cute but one of the employees told me to sit down cause was too young to do those things. I felt a little embarrassed, but I found it interesting and enjoyable. Sometimes I wish I was born 10 or 15 years earlier to have witnessed how those restaurants operated. Oh well.
As I became older, my mom passed down to me some of the family recipes my Lola created. Until now, we still make the same recipe except that there are no exact measurements; rather, it is done by feel and taste. Since I was very fond of cookbooks, cooking shows, and online recipes, I’ve kept a recipe book since I was 12 or 13 years old that I have been adding recipes to. It would include family recipes and other recipes that I place my twist on since I never liked copying the exact original recipe. I always wanted it to be different yet very tasty.

First Small Time Business
In 6th Grade, I started to get into baking. I would experiment and bake different types of cakes, brownies, cookies, etc. During one Christmas, my mom and I had the idea of giving oatmeal cookies as Christmas gifts to my class. Eventually, my friends were asking me if I were selling the cookies. At first, I didn’t say yes but with my mom’s help, I was able to kick start my first venture of selling food. I started selling to my friends, classmates, and next thing I knew, students from other classes wanted to buy from me as well and give it as Christmas gifts to their loved ones. It was a fulfilling feeling knowing that my hard work was paying off. The best part was that I got some extra allowance because of selling cookies!
Cooking From The Heart
High school and college came, yet, I never stopped cooking and baking. Even if I was tired, I found cooking and baking to be a stress reliever — a place where I can escape. I never saw it as a chore but rather, something I just loved doing. At this point, I started making more elaborate dishes such as soufflés, stews, paellas, and even vegetarian dishes. I also tried out new cooking techniques like brining a chicken and poaching an egg. If there was one recipe that I was able to fully master, it would be my slow roasted barbecue ribs. After constant trial and error, tasting and adjusting, and feedback, I came up with a great fool-proof recipe. I would have it as my lunch in school, make it for special family occasions at home, etc., so that my friends and family are able to taste it. It’s the first recipe I was able to fully master and am confident that it will always taste as good as the last batch.
It’s funny how when I meet new people and show them pictures of my food, a lot have been telling me to create an Instagram account where I can post my creations and maybe even recipes for people to follow. Someone suggested that I make videos like those in Tasty which I am really considering doing. I never really thought about doing those things until last year after talking to a friend. It opened my eyes to new possibilities and how I can start my career maybe as an online food blogger and get myself known. It really excites me when I show people the things that I make and see the expression on their faces like, “Wow! You really made that? It looks amazing!”. It really helps boost my confidence in cooking knowing that people are really supportive of what I do and are interested to know how I make it or how I started cooking.

Connection, Inspiration, Action
I started to reach out to people who were able to build their success in the restaurateur industry such as the Lechon Diva herself. I remember a piece of advice she gave me. She told me, “have one very special dish that you want to be known for and just share it with everyone you know.” I was so inspired by her life story and how she shared her love for cooking with everyone around her. I learned a lot and was really amazed by her humble beginnings of cooking for family and friends and later on, using her passion to break into the restaurateur scene to bring both family and friends together with food — something that I want to do too.
Developing the Name “Row 19”
For quite some time, I’ve always struggled to find a name for a restaurant and a simple branding for myself. I wanted a name that can tell a story, but more importantly, tells who I am. One morning, as I was scrolling through my Instagram feed, I stumbled upon one of my friends who had an account about the food she makes. I wondered, what does the name of her account mean? Then it struck me; it might have been the name of the condo unit she lives in. Because of that, it gave me an idea of my own name.

The name Row 19 stemmed from something very close to my heart; my very own home I grew up in. This is the place where it all started — where I discovered my passion and love for cooking. I watched everyone in my house cook from my old yaya, old driver, to my parents and siblings, and even my titas. The name truly embodies who I am, how I started, and I know that I can confidently carry that name for my entire life. It gave me the motivation to create and design my own branding. Knowing that the name feels right, it inspired me to tell my story through the branding I create, the logo I designed, the theme of the menu, how the restaurant will look like, but moreover, the food that I love.
I am very grateful to have grown up in an environment where my passion and fondness for cooking was encouraged and fostered. Because of this, I realize what I wanted to do for the rest of my life; cook and run my own restaurant. My goal is to be able to share that same experience with other people; bringing them together as friends or family enjoying the food I grew up making.
Come to know more about the branding idea for Row 19 and stay tuned for my upcoming articles! I’ll be talking about the theme, cuisine, and also my overall concept. It’s going to be an interesting one.
