One of the things he loves to do is to show people the traditions of both sides of his heritage. Going deeper than the well-known and easily-identifiable things like chicken adobo or oxtail and serving lesser-known items such as bikol or festival. Educating others about the differences between Jamaican ginger and those grown in the United States; or how Filipinos grind chicken livers into sauces for added depth of flavor. He wants people to understand and get used to these ideas. At the beginning of his career, when he first started working at French restaurants, he was always told he should never cook the food he grew up eating. He did not understand it then but eventually realized it was derogatory. It belittled his background and showed how little the workplace knew about him as an individual. In today’s politically charged environment where the rights of minorities in the kitchen are front-and-center, Chef Grant thinks there
His experience at the Smithsonian Institute was inspirational in more ways than one. He saw the beautiful interaction between food and culture every day. It also made him stop and realize that he did not know much about himself, his culture, and what he represented. As a result, he went back and started learning more about Caribbean food, African American food, Native American food, and Filipino food. He had to learn what made him who he was. During the pandemic, he started cooking for his family and sitting down for dinner with them every night. And he picked up the hobby of starting fires, learning how to burn wood and various types of coal. It brought him back to open-fire cooking and his roots in Pampanga, Philippines, where many of his uncles often roast entire pigs. It gave him the idea of starting Mahal Open Fire BBQ, which was literally born in the fire.
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