CEBU CITY, Philippines – A graduate of Cebu City’s Department of Manpower Development and Placement (DMDP) employment program has made it big in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Aljun Rabaya, a native of Talisay City, now works as Executive Chef for the prestigious Tanaka of Tokyo Restaurant that is based in Honolulu in the last 10 years, said Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña said in a Facebook post this afternoon, February 10.
Osmeña said that Rabaya used to work as a waiter at the Marriot Cebu City Hotels before he left the country.
“His (Rabaya’s) late father was an electrician who never got to fulfill his dream of becoming a chef. So now, he (Rabaya) is living his father’s dream for him,” Osmeña said on FB.
Feeling proud of a fellow Cebuano’s achievements, Osmeña said that Rabaya was offered a promotion to become Corporate Executive Chef-in-charge of all three of Tanaka’s restaurant branches in Hawaii, “but declined because he loves to cook and does not want to trade his cooking table for an office.”
Osmeña said that he is looking forward too the fulfilment of Rabaya’s dream to open his own Japanese restaurant when he returns to Cebu.
“It is difficult to appreciate how hard those who are overseas work unless you’ve done it yourself. But it is because of people like them that Cebu becomes a better place because of the ideas they bring home with them,” the mayor added.