Phillip Esteban

Phillip Esteban is an award-winning chef from National City who has traveled the world to hone his culinary art form. After returning home he has set his focus and attention on creating spaces for the community to gather around bold, authentic, and accessible meals.

Phillip Esteban’s professional career began with earning a degree in Culinary Arts from the Arts Institute of San Diego. Soon after, he helped open The Guild and began work there in his first sous chef position. This became the first of several occasions: Phillip served as the opening Sous Chef for Craft & Commerce of the Consortium Holdings group. Realizing that he wanted to pursue cooking at a higher level, he moved to New York City and he started working at Momofuku Ssäm Bar. He also continued his quest to train in a broad range of kitchens, which led to staging in many of NYC's most renowned restaurants. With both the culinary and operational experience gained from this exposure, Phillip returned to Southern California. His first stop was working at Nine-Ten in La Jolla, with Chef Jason Knibb. The opportunity to help launch The Cork and Craft was a perfect chance for Phillip to share his vision of not only a creative space but a nurturing and educational environment. In 2016 he won Readers Pick, Chef of the Year for San Diego and accepted the position of Research & Development Chef for Consortium Holdings.

He has now taken the leap to begin Well Fed, a modern take on Filipino Cuisine, anchored in his home town of National City. Coming home holds significance to Phillip, being able to foster a growing ecosystem within National City. The birth of WellFed has led to new growth of Open Gym, Craft Meals, Wordsmith, White Rice and Wildflour projects within San Diego. The transition of Open Gym to a Non-Profit has provided unique opportunities to solve food insecurities. Through these efforts, he has provided over 250,000+ meals throughout San Diego counties. Thus winning Chef of the Year for 2020 from San Diego Magazine.

The overall development and expansion, with creative team Open Gym, is to enact positive change in the creation of spaces to serve underrepresented communities that empower, uplift, and promote empathy.