“YOU should try our specialty for today,” he says. A tinge of excitement and delight twinkles in his eyes. “It’s a choco almond pie. It’s something that I used to enjoy on my own at home, but now I can share it with everyone.”
Jutes Templo used to be a regular guy like you and me before he decided to open his own pizzeria at the heart of the bustling student hub, Katipunan Avenue. It’s a joint venture that he shares with his wife, the owner of Cello’s Doughnuts & Dips. They named the place after Gino, their firstborn son, and so it became Gino’s Brick Oven Pizza.
Born to a regular family in Quezon City, Jutes had his first taste of great food from his lola, who was a home economics teacher. He jokes when he says, “my mother missed out on the ‘home’ part and just became an economist.” But fortunately for Jutes and his family, his lola was able to pass the family recipes to Ate Puring, their beloved yaya. He confesses that some of the recipes that they serve at their restaurant are Ate Puring’s specialties. “My yaya has been my inspiration and guidance when it comes to food.”
From Scratch
Jutes never had any formal training when it comes to cooking. He went to Ateneo de Manila University for college and took up BS Management Engineering, where he learned the basics of running a business. But his culinary journey truly began only with Gino’s Brick Oven Pizza. “Honestly, I was just the taste tester and really studied how to cook just one month before we opened.” His wife was supposed to be the main chef, and he was slated to be the head waiter. But something in him made him want to actually take the leap and put on a chef suit.
As a child, Jutes experimented with making shakes and drinks. The shakes didn’t exactly receive rave reviews, however. “My siblings hated it and thought it was weird. And I vowed that one day, I would open a restaurant and serve all these drinks!” His dream came true when they began serving his shakes at Cello’s. That was the spark that made him want to try his hand at cooking. It was truly a great leap, from his first job as a banker to his new job as the head chef of a restaurant.
Despite his hazy beginnings, he was always aware of his passion for food, given that his family was the type that eats out often. But when he started researching for Gino’s, he became serious about the painstaking process that really goes into making great food. “I stopped being the ‘put everything on it, the more the merrier’ type of eater. Concepts like balance, theme, history, passion were introduced to me, and it has helped me appreciate food more, not to mention respect the people who prepare food for me more.”
Overcoming Obstacles
An unexpected challenge arose for the young couple in the planning phase of Gino’s. Making great pizza is one thing, but learning how to make homemade cheese was another. “Making cheese is more like chemistry than it was cooking. After we opened, the first six months was honestly not consistent. We would have really good days and really bad days.”
Jutes still says that there are days when he wishes he’d gone to culinary school and had formal training, but for now he’s glad that he has friends who are chefs whom he could ask advice from. Jutes and Cello are still experimenting with their menu and have recently added fresh pasta to the list. The most interesting things on their pasta menu are the sea urchin pasta, as well as the lengua pasta.
Lots of Love
Jutes oversees the operations every day, and prepares most of the food himself. This is something he learned from one of his idols, Domenico Demarco, the owner of DiFara’s, a pizza restaurant based in New York. Demarco personally made every single pizza that has left their kitchen in the past fifty years. Jutes comments that it wasn’t the best business model, because Demarco probably had to sacrifice so much of his time for the restaurant, and also because the restaurant’s operations would stop every time Demarco would be sick. However, Jutes learned that great pizza truly comes from passion, dedication, and commitment. In Gino’s Brick Oven Pizza, they vow to use only the best ingredients: the ones that are fresh, top-notch, and as their slogan says, “made with lots of love.”
The Best Job In The World
The restaurant has been praised here and there by major publications and has also been featured in popular websites like Table for Three, Please and Spot.ph. When asked about his future plans for Gino’s, Jutes says something surprising, but expected at the same time. “For Gino’s, let’s see where it goes, but I don’t really want to branch out. Making a single perfect pie is easy, but making a perfect pie every time for every customer is the hardest thing in the world.” Given his dedication to quality, you can guess why he thinks that way. But of course, it’s really no harm to keep on looking ahead and dreaming of what he could do next. “My yaya is the best cook in the world, and my dream is to really open a restaurant featuring all her dishes.”
These days, Jutes spends most of his time balancing his work, his family life, and his hobbies. He remarks, “Deciding to cook has been one of the best decisions of my life and the past year has been the fun-est year I've had so far in my life. I think very few people are as happy as me. My typical day would be, wake up and play with our son, cook during lunch service, coach basketball in the afternoon, and cook again at night. This is the best job in the world!”
Carmina Jean B. Caparras
09275620547
*photo of Gino's logo from isabelicious.blogspot.com