Chef Bruce Lim was born and raised in the United States of America. Yes, he carries with him a blue passport, but is not ashamed to reveal his real roots. Chef Bruce Lim is a Filipino, loud and very proud.

Graduating from top notch culinary Le Cordon Bleu in London, Chef Bruce managed to work his way inside some of the world’s best French kitchens for more than 10 years. He even worked under the tutelage of the fire-breathing celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay. “It was tough, but, hey, I couldn’t learn these things from anybody else.” speaking about his almost hellish training with world class chefs and establishments in London, England and the United States.

It’s his learnings from the robust culinary experience and fearless rediscovery of his homeland’s cuisine that continue to feed him the inspiration to challenge the culinary status quo. In contrast to his refined culinary backbone, Chef Bruce learned more about the wonders of Filipino cuisine in the boondocks. He shares that his best teachers of Filipino cuisine are the nameless manongs and manangs he’s met through his travels with his Asian Food Channel TV show, Tablescapes.

“I am the anti-(celebrity) chef.”, he candidly says. “I’m big AND fat.” But despite this, Chef Bruce evidently has a strong following from his local clientele, who were sometimes willing to wait for a month or two just to get a taste of his cooking.