Nikko Cagalanan
Kultura | Charleston, SC
NOVEMBER 2024
When he moved to the United States in 2011, in 2011, Nikko Cagalanan started working at a nursing home in Massachusetts. He soon missed the home-cooked meals his grandmother would make back in the Philippines and set out to recreate those nostalgic, comforting dishes for himself. By 2015, Cagalanan had fallen in love with cooking and picked up a few back-of-house shifts in local restaurants. A year later, he left nursing and joined the team at Nosh and Grog in Medfield, Massachusetts before heading to Avenue, where he worked the cold station, learned to cook proteins, and developed a passion for the kitchen under the guidance of Chef Josh Foley.
In 2017, Cagalanan moved to Myrtle Beach and got a job at The Restaurant at Zero George in Charleston. He commuted two hours each way to the fine dining restaurant for several months before finding an apartment in the city. There, Cagalanan noticed an absence of Filipino food and started his pop-up, Mansueta’s Filipino Food, as a way to share his culture with the people of Charleston. He was welcomed by the city and eventually took over a permanent space. At Kultura, which opened in 2023, Cagalanan draws on the flavors of his childhood as well as his culinary education to create dishes like his sisig carbonara with roasted pork belly, soy-marinated mushrooms, calamansi aïoli, smoked trout roe, chile crisp, and scallions. Beyond the menu, he emphasizes the importance of education and community by hosting pop-ups, events, and collaborations with chefs throughout the city.
2024 StarChefs Charleston-Savannah Rising Stars Award Winner
