Jennibey and Donald Tenorio with their children Inigo (left) and Alyanna. Photo: Karly Achacoso.
Who are you?
I’m Jennibey Tenorio. My family came to Australia eight years ago. Prior to that we lived in Singapore for six years. When we were in the Philippines, I had a home business baking and supplying cakes while Donald, my husband, worked for a steakhouse. At the same time, I was faculty at one of the universities in the Philippines, where I taught baking and food preparation. Now at the cafe, Donald and I share the responsibility. We do the paperwork, kitchen, barista, baking, the whole works.
What is 10orio Kitchen? And how did it begin?
It’s an appropriation of our family name, Tenorio. So it’s 10 and then orio Kitchen. It started in 2017 when we moved to Australia. I started baking some Filipino cakes – the ube cakes particularly – and I would sell it to friends. Moving to Wollongong, we became more serious about the business and started introducing it to the Filipino community. We opened the cafe on 26 May 2022. For about four to five years before that we had already developed a clientele, so we thought that it was time to expand. At that time, there were no Filipino restaurants in Wollongong. So luckily, we were able to find this place.
Could you describe the flavours of Filipino fusion?
Filipino foods are sweet and salty. We have adobo, torcino, barbeque and then we try to make it more appealing to the local community. Presentation wise, we put some vegetables like spinach, tomato, which are very familiar and eggs. Then even the cut of meats that we use are more familiar to the locals also. For the tapas, we use beef brisket instead of the local steak, so we make it a bit different.
Who is your biggest culinary influence?
I’m a half Filipino and half Chinese, so I grew up in a family where everybody cooks and we love eating. So, for me, cooking and eating go hand in hand.
For those who don’t know, what’s ube?
Ube is a purple yam widely grown in the Philippines. It’s something similar to taro; we’re very familiar with the taro milk tea. It’s more of an earthy taste. It’s very nice. It’s flexible; it can be used for savoury but more often you use it for sweet. In the cafe, for the ube pastry, we try to have it most of the time but sometimes we sell out as it’s very popular. Some people who have been to the Philippines are very familiar with ube. Then some try it here for the first time. The good thing is that even locals appreciate the purple yam.
You serve a dessert called halo-halo. What is that?
Halo-halo means mix-mix. It’s something similar to bingsu, but in a Filipino way. It has sweet potato, a sweet plantain called saba and then we have it with jellies, tapioca pearls. It’s a mix of everything. What’s special about our halo-halo is that we make our own traditionally-flavoured ice, to make it a little bit more different from most of the halo-halo in the market.
What is your favourite item on the menu?
My favourite item, aside from the pandesal – I love the tapas. When we were conceptualising the menu, I really wanted to have beef brisket. So, I had to make sure it was really good to convince everyone it should be on the menu! Growing up, I loved kare kare, which is like a Filipino version of a satay. We make a fusion out of the traditional kare kare instead of using oxtail and some tripe, we use crispy beef ribs.
What are your top recipe tips?
Sometimes you just have to go with your guts in your creation and if it excites you, then it should be good. When I develop recipes, if it excites me, then most of the time it will be nice!
Three years since opening the cafe, what’s been a favourite moment for you?
Every day is special but probably when we celebrated our first year and we realised that people are starting to love our food. People were coming in from Sydney, even from Canberra. They would come in and say that somebody recommended our cafe to them, that’s always like a win for us.
Towradgi Beach Eatery by 10orio Kitchen is at Towradgi Surf Club, corner Murranar Road and Marine Parade, Towradgi, phone 0447 633 931. It’s open from 7:30 am to 2:30 pm, Wednesday to Sunday and from 8 am to noon on Mondays. The cafe is taking bookings for its Filipono night on Friday 27 June.
