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Budgie Montoya

@budgie_montoya

36

posts

9.8K

followers

235

following

Cook
👨‍🍳 @cafe.kowloon @wontoncharlies
Writer
✍🏽 Sawsawan.substack.com
Once upon a time
🎥 S18 @greatbritishmenu

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Rule No 4 by @budgie_montoya

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5 days ago

Loml's in the wild 14.06.2026I love us @santoya ! by @budgie_montoya

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a month ago

CODE is back in Hackney this week for the third instalment of CODE Neighbourhoods: Hackney. This week it's the turn of @budgie_montoya, the head chef of @cafe.kowloon and @wontoncharlies in London Fields, who shares his favourite places to eat, drink and hang out in East London.Read the full interview with Budgie at the link in bio. by @budgie_montoya

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2 months ago

Wrote a thing......AFTER THE BURNOUTI’ve shut down my dreams before.More than once.Watched years of sacrifice disappear into empty dining rooms, broken partnerships, unpaid invoices, and the silence that comes after the last service when you realise the thing you gave your life to no longer exists.Every time,I started again.Pop-up to pop-up.Borrowed kitchens.Fold-out tables.Twenty covers.Thirty covers.Going all in every single time.Not halfway.Everything.Because I never knew how to do this lightly.Eventually the body collects the debt.The lack of sleep.The stress.The adrenaline.The years of treating exhaustion like a badge of honour.You burn so hot for so long that one day there’s nothing left but smoke.Then my heart failed, not metaphorically.For the first time in my life,I couldn’t outwork the damage.So I disappeared for a bit.Long enough to wonder if the version of me that could command a kitchen had gone quiet for good.Then slowly,it started coming back.The rhythm of service.The movement behind the pass.The instinct.The calm inside the chaos.And maybe the biggest thing I’ve learned is this:Right now, I’m not chasing the version of success I used to worship. Learning to rebuild myself before rebuilding again.And strangely,I’m at peace with that.Because after everything, I’ve stopped measuring my worth by whether my name is above the door.There’s peace in being back in the kitchen.In being useful again.In rebuilding quietly.I’m still carrying the bruises.Still swallowing the pills.Still figuring things out.But I didn’t lose myself in the punches.I survived them. by @budgie_montoya

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2 months ago

Circa early 2021 - Sarap BAon Ube MacMuppin mealUbe muppinPork Longganisa pattieBanana ketchup Fried eggAmerican cheese Cassava hash brown by @budgie_montoya

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2 months ago

Once upon a time circa 2021 by @budgie_montoya

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2 months ago

CHEFS MAKING SNACKS: @budgie_montoya ‘s Marmite char siu bao 🥟What happens when you take Britain’s most controversial breakfast spread to east London’s trendiest new Chinese restaurant? Very delicious bao, that’s what.We challenged Budgie, head chef at @cafe.kowloon , to do his worst with a jar of @marmite – and boy did he rise to the challenge.It turns out Marmite adds a healthy kick of umami to a fluffy BBQ pork bao. Consider us converted. Petition to get this on the menu full time? by @budgie_montoya

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3 months ago

Miss Fortune 👋Kitchen mascot.Guardian of vibes.Destroyer of authenticity debates. by @budgie_montoya

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4 months ago

Late dinner at @bigjjseafood on the first night in HK.Of all the meals this trip, this one stayed with me the most. Not just because the food and wine were excellent, but because of the room.Every table buzzing. Conversations spilling over each other. Groups that sounded like old friends who had been meeting there for years. The lines between service and friends conversing blurred. Origin stories being told, dreams of what could be shared, heated “best place for…” debates breaking out between bites.A few off-menu treats appeared from the kitchen, the wine poured freely before any glass was empty, and the team showed the kind of hospitality that feels natural rather than rehearsed.One of those rare places where the energy of the room becomes part of the meal. by @budgie_montoya

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4 months ago

Recently, I've taken on a role as Head Chef for a new restaurant opening. The food is Cantonese and Hong Kong inspired. A cuisine I know very little about professionally and truth be told, my wok game is very questionable.Since then, I’ve been asked a version of the same question more times than I can count.“Are you Chinese?”“Are you from Hong Kong?”When I say no, there’s usually a pause. And then, “So why are you here?”Not everyone says it directly. But it’s there.Before this, I was in the hiring process for a French brasserie. I spent time in London and in Paris. No one asked if I was French. No one cared. I was just another cook doing the job.I’ve always seen learning as a privilege of this profession. You get to be a student forever. You learn new systems, new techniques, new ways of working. That’s the reward. Not the title. Not the position. Learning is what excites me.Before that, I was cooking Filipino food. My own.And even then, it wasn’t straightforward. Some people supported it. Some people didn’t. I was told it wasn’t like their grandmother’s cooking. That it wasn’t traditional. That I was changing something I shouldn’t be changing.Last year, I spent a lot of time trying to understand why this happens. I wrote about it constantly on my Substack. Sawsawan was about food, identity, and who gets to decide what is valid.I even coined a word for it. Diastronomy. Not as a trend, but as a way to describe something I was already living. Cooking shaped by migration, memory, and work. Not trying to replicate the past perfectly, but not disconnected from it either.Just cooking honestly. Learning honestly.But the pattern is hard to ignore.French, Italian, Spanish, or whatever Eurocentric cuisine you want to insert here, is treated as something you can learn no matter where you’re from.Cantonese cuisine makes people ask what gives you the right.Filipino cuisine, even when it’s your own, makes people ask if you’re doing it correctly.At some point, you realise the questions aren’t really about the food.They’re about who people think should be allowed to hold it.So I have to ask.What are you actually gatekeeping? by @budgie_montoya

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5 months ago

Monday 2 February - Supperclub Salon! Featuring… Chef, writer, community supporter and builder, thinker… and so much more! Ferdinand ‘Budgie’ Montoya His substack has been an eye opening highlight in my reading life. Here is just a few quotes from one of his latest pieces (I struggled not to just screenshot the whole thing!!)I love how much Budgie supports the ESEA diaspora community, how he pushes his thinking and research, and allows for multiplicity in his approach to identity. He is never afraid to be challenged. And, of course is food is delicious!!!Come eat Budgie’s food, and hear him speak about his writing and research!! Monday 2 Feb, at @spiritland Link to tix in usual place. Plus, follow his newsletter!! by @budgie_montoya

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6 months ago

@alpas_london Memory is not our limitation.Tradition is not a rule.We carry our roots,and move along our routes.Alpas.Free to be. by @budgie_montoya

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7 months ago