This chef in Marikina invests in learning—and herself
Chef Czarina Sevilla knows a thing or two about innovation. In her latest venture—a quaint restaurant in Marikina called Czarina’s All Day Filipino Dining—she partners with her chef husband Marvin to come up with a menu that presents Filipino dishes in a fresh perspective. Think unexpected twists on classics like kare-kare, okoy, or even a latte.
An attentive front of the house greets you as soon as you get out of your vehicle and guards you from the sun with an umbrella. She escorts you through a courtyard with tables under blue and white woven parasols to your table. You can already tell that Sevilla’s a cheeky one with playful puns, such as her section that sells take-home bread and snacks she labels as “Paczalubong.”
Patience, discipline, and a little magic
The truth is, it seems like Sevilla’s been trained her whole life to finally run her own restaurant. “Ever since I was a child, I wanted to be a chef. I was in Grade One when I would get the food scraps from the kitchen and pretend to cook them,” she recalls. “When I got old enough to go to the market, I learned how to tell the good vegetables from the bad. So bata pa lang ako, alam ko na kung maganda yung quality ng vegetables or fruits.”
She eventually found her way to the pastry world. “That’s where I fell in love with food. Pastry teaches you patience, discipline, and a little magic.”
During the height of the popularity of the viral Dubai chocolate, Sevilla had the idea of making its flavors more accessible to Filipinos by turning it into a donut. It later found a new iteration as a cake—layers of chocolate sponge and a layer of crunchy kataifi and pistachio. This cake soon go on to become a viral sensation on its own.
But since pistachio is such a premium ingredient, she was doubtful at first whether people would buy the cake. “Nagulat na lang ako one time when my store called me and told me that they needed more cakes when we had just delivered them a batch,” she says. “So we’d have to deliver again and again.”
A balancing act
When planning for Czarina’s, she partnered with her husband. She shares, “My curiosity led me beyond desserts. I wanted to understand the savory side, too. Lucky for me, my hubby Marvin happens to be amazing at that. Our skills balance each other out.”
Though this is the couple’s first venture into a full dining restaurant, she previously founded an avocado soft serve business called Avocaderia, which has over 240 branches nationwide. Though Sevilla didn’t grow up in Marikina, this is where she and her husband decided to start a family. “Marikina already has a proud culinary history. It’s known for family restaurants that feel like institutions,” she explains.
“When we thought about opening a restaurant, it made sense to build something rooted in that same spirit of community. We wanted to be part of that movement—to add our own chapter to the city’s story of good food made with heart,” she adds.
Filipino food with an elevated twist
Czarina’s carries two versions of kare-kare. Czarina’s Pistachio Kare-Kare is a signature dish that substitutes the peanut sauce with the nut of the hour—pistachio. “Pistachio has this beautiful richness and balance. It’s indulgent without being heavy, sweet but still refined. Pistachio just makes me happy,” Sevilla says.
The other version fuses three Filipino favorites together in a BBKK: Binagoongan Bagnet Kare-Kare. Crispy pork belly bagnet is paired with a sauce mix of shrimp paste, coconut milk, and their pistachio kare-kare sauce. The coconut milk contributes little to the dish and seems a bit misplaced, but the creamy pistachio kare-kare sauce spiked with the bagoong is a great bed for the morsels of crispy pork bagnet.
For appetizers, there is the Mini Okoy, a vegetable fritter that incorporates mushrooms, mixed seeds, sweet potato, and Baguio beans, and is paired with a side of avocado hummus. While the avocado hummus registers like a guacamole, a side of spiced vinegar still remains the better condiment for this fried snack.
The menu is quite expansive and goes beyond Filipino food with pizzas and pastas. Sevilla’s love affair with pistachio makes its way into their Pistachio Cream Pesto & Shrimp Pasta—spaghetti tossed in pesto, topped with a quenelle of pistachio cream and an unlikely row of thinly sliced sweet mangoes.
Desserts are Sevilla’s main purview, where her passion is seen the most. She introduces the Flantastic Swirl, a leche flan soft serve in a sundae glass with sweetened saba, nata, and tapioca pearls. An assortment of cakes is also available, with the Patis Caramel Cake catching most of the curiosity. “This is our little wild card. We use patis—the fish sauce—in the caramel. Just enough to give it depth and saltiness. It’s unexpected, but it works,” she claims.
It appears that one of Sevilla’s best traits is that she’s not afraid to venture into the unknown and the new. “If you don’t innovate your product or even yourself, hindi ka magiging successful. Do not stay where you are because everything changes. Nothing is permanent in the world,” she continues.
“I invest in education talaga,” Sevilla ends. “I’m currently taking my master’s. No matter how busy you are, make time to learn every year. Education and learning should never stop.”
