Bruce Ricketts Has Mastered Landing Straight Punches in the Kitchen

Our first time dining at Po & Pilar about a year ago was highlighted by warm Filipino comfort food typically served by your grandparents, with the soul aspect of the dishes cranked up to 11. We'd never expect a Shaolin metaphor alluding to sparring and the art of eight limbs as culinary philosophy.

The Makati-based, nostalgia-tinged restaurant's latest menu is born from the mind of Japanese cuisine master Bruce Ricketts.

His approach to cooking is probably one of the most unique mindsets we've seen from a contemporary Filipino chef: fusing his penchant for combat into the gentle art of preparing food in a very proper home-cooked meal. that may include a pigeon or two.

The chef's late father was a master of Filipino martial arts of Kali and Eskrima and even a large proponent in the growth of mixed martial arts in the Philippines way back in the 1980s. Everything in Ricketts' latest chef's takeover menu for Po & Pilar takes inspiration from the central idea of what he would serve his father if he were still with us today, which requires revisiting what he learned as a boy training to be a professional fighter.

ALSO READ:

Sneak Peek: Chef Bruce Ricketts' Taco Joint at Aguirre, Parañaque

Brunch, According to Bruce Ricketts

The man best known for his superb work at the Michelin Guide-selected Japanese restaurant Iai centers his chi in the lacquered pigeon and asado main courses within the latest concise tasting menu at his guest appearance at Po & Pilar.

"My dad has a thing for lechon in general. For him, if it's a splurge or an idea, it's a good day," the martial artist-turned-chef reflected in a media roundtable after we tried his latest tribute to his dad.

"So if it's a good day at the gym, we have a lot of school days, and there are a lot of memberships and sales for good. The celebratory thing was to eat some kind of lechon at home."

Bruce Ricketts

Bruce Ricketts' Cantonese Style French Pigeon

The French onion is cooked to meticulous lengths to the point of a paper-like skin quality and a smoky sheen that evokes nostalgic childhood snacks. Trust us when we say it reminds us of an elevated Tender Juicy Hot Dog on account of how savory it is.

It was really the cooked bird that anchored the lunch together: dry-aged, lacquered by hand, and finished with a hit of smoke. This is a far cry from the omakase stuff he would obsess over, Iai. If you squint your eyes, it does have the visual of lechon; hence, the anecdote.

Every version of the pigeon is also anchored on the lasting memory of a quarter kilo of lechon from Lydia's, which you can experience with a few stolen bites of skin from the pigeon.

The martial arts/combat connection is echoed when he says his patented move in this tribute is the aforementioned crispy-skinned pigeon, as he focused on getting it right instead of going for something experimental or with more bells or whistles.

"Of course, my dad passed away when I wasn't a chef yet. So I feel like if he was alive and I gave him this version, it would be one of those things where he sees it and he's like, the pigeon is still a bit raw. And he's like, it's like lechon. You know what I mean? So it's like a dish that can hit his memory and our memory together. But at the same time, I get to introduce what I've learned over the years since he's been gone," Ricketts recounted.

A popular unwritten belief in all combat sports is that nine times out of ten, a straight direct punch would also land on the target before a wide, looping, bent strike. Ricketts implements this fundamental understanding even in how he plates his pigeons.

"You can do a pigeon plated with so many components, but in the end, nothing's going to hit it the way the most basic pigeon would. It's like, at the end of the day, a straight punch is better than a curved one, a looping punch. That's my father's theory. At the end of the day, there are so many punches, but in the end, there are only two kinds. A straight punch and a bent punch. It's just the angle that matters.

You only need to show people, as a chef, what is necessary for them to enjoy the experience and the service.

Iberico Rib Asado

Next up on the menu is the Iberico ribs dish that is paired with his teppanyaki-style Wagyu fried rice. The rice pairing, which could already be taken on its own because of how much egg and how flavorful it is, was born out of his father's making this specific dish anytime the Ricketts household hosted guests, students, or anyone who needed something to eat.

"The fried rice, it's like when you eat it at the teppanyaki restaurant; they do the classic; it's got that flavor. The bell peppers, the carrots, the Kikoman, the eggs, the rice, and the butter. That was the fried rice that my dad does at home for visitors. If he likes his students, he'll make them fried rice," the chef reminisced.

The rich and dense Wagyu Fried Rice

Mango Sago

The ribs are traced back to a longtime ritual his father fostered: martial arts classes/gatherings in Luneta, then a detour to Binondo to order asado that was to be carried home to fold into the patented fried rice offering.

Ricketts had rebuilt the dish twice before ending up with Iberic ribs instead of a literal char siu, a decision rooted in partly flavor and partly logistics and ethos.

Bruce's dad hardly cooked, but he was always fascinated with Chinese and Japanese kitchens that largely shaped Manila's dining scene during the 1980s or 1990s.

Even the dessert we end on was a reimagining of the beloved mango sago snack at the popular Chinese-Filipino comfort food chain North Park.

In the end, it turned out that being raised by a pioneering martial artist sharpened Ricketts' knack for consistently landing big on whatever he does on the culinary side, one straight punch landing on the chin at a time.

"Sometimes I want to throw everything I have on the plate, but then sometimes it's really just that you really need to do one or two things that you've been working on for a longer time that deliver the knockout," the chef said.

Just The Way I Made It For My Dad with Bruce Ricketts was held on June 30, 2026, at Po & Pilar, Legaspi Village, Makati City, as the opening edition of the restaurant's new Just The Way My ____ Made It series.

The culinary black belt at work

READ MORE:

Sneak Peek: Chef Bruce Ricketts' Taco Joint at Aguirre, Parañaque

Brunch, According to Bruce Ricketts