ABOUT THE CHEF
a native san diegan, phillip esteban graduated from the culinary institute of san diego in 2006 and began working at barrio logan’s former the guild restaurant & lounge. esteban joined the ch projects team in 2010 as sous chef at craft & commerce. his innate desire to continue learning led him to a position alongside tender greens’ pete balistreri where he spent the next five years traveling throughout southern california to assist in tender greens’ brand expansion. in 2012, esteban further enhanced his culinary experience in new york city at the legendary momofuku ssäm bar. for the next year, he spent time staging at new york’s most revered kitchens including thomas keller’s per se, michael white’s marea, daniel humm’s eleven madison park, and wylie dufresne’s former wd~50. esteban returned to san diego in 2013 and accepted a lead position alongside jason knibb at nine-ten prior to becoming the executive chef of the cork & craft in rancho bernardo in 2014. through his travels, he was exposed to the power of hospitality to act as a platform for community and a vehicle for storytelling. he saw an opportunity to marry his experience and draw from the memories, the flavors, the colors and the diversity of filipino food to explore his own story. through this journey, open gym was brought to life. open gym is a self-sustaining non-profit organization that provides meals, community programs and resources to underprivileged communities across san diego. while doing good and giving back was always part of the business plan for open gym, it was during the covid-19 pandemic that the full circle of esteban and his teams’ efforts was realized. the company quickly expanded its operations and launched a meal program preparing and delivering filipino silog (rice bowls) across southern san diego county. the success and demand for these rice bowls became an opportunity to open a physical location as a food stall within liberty public market, dubbed white rice. there are currently three white rice locations in san diego and is soon expanding to los angeles. open gym is also soon opening wildflour delicatessen in liberty station