There is a transcendent element to wanting anything these days, as though walking out the front door and grabbing what you want isn’t enough. You must pluck adeptly at the chords of the universe to produce a hymn, which is magnetized to what you desire. We call this manifesting.

Charmine Ann Go, 26, is one of those forces of nature who manages to engage both the profane and the sacred, running out her front door while the chords of her universe sonorously chime. 

Growing up in Cebu, Go describes herself as that kid who’d always have food for her classmates and teachers to try. That kid who kept my tummy filled throughout the warm, long high school afternoons.

Growing up in Cebu, Charmine Ann Go describes herself as that kid who’d always have food for her classmates and teachers to try. That kid who kept my tummy filled throughout the warm, long high school afternoons.

Go’s food, however, wasn’t the unsealed Mentos sachet pulled from the nether regions of a school bag I’d come to know (and live off). She gave out food she’d cooked. “I would try certain recipes and get feedback from my friends,” she says. “And also at times I’d ask them what they’d want me to make next.”

She wasn’t a picky eater; she describes herself as the opposite. Rather than avoiding food elements the way I rigidly did—pinching slivers of tomato off pizzas and tearing the jelly-like fat off bacon—Go approached food with a mature sense of curiosity. “I was always so fascinated with how mixing different ingredients makes such a great and flavorful dish.”

The power of focus is worldly manifesting

Go’s first steps out of her door were taken into an interdisciplinary studies course with a focus on business—a lunge she calls a “safe career path” with some flexibility. “Like many people who wanted to be a chef, I had to get a university degree as a fallback before [I] pursued the dream.”

“Working in the hospitality industry as a marketing officer, I always found myself executing the actual project instead of just making marketing plans,” she recalls. “I did the kitchen research and development instead of having the chefs in the kitchen do it.”

While she admits to not being an awardee student, her goals have already been sharply defined. “I did excel in organization work and project-heading events, but when it came to academics I was always so bad at it,” she recalls. “I never really saw the point when all I wanted was to cook.”

Right out of college, Go began work as marketing officer at Green Sun Hotel Management Inc. after a four-month stint as a business intern. Quickly, her willingness to get out the door and chase what she’d been manifesting throughout her educational career had her doing more than what was expected of her. 

“Working in the hospitality industry as a marketing officer, I always found myself executing the actual project instead of just making marketing plans,” she recalls. “I did the kitchen research and development instead of having the chefs in the kitchen do it.”

It was here where she rekindled the passion she’d been packing since childhood. She was going to be a chef.

Step one to cheffing: School again

“Sadly, in the Philippines you can’t really enter a kitchen and make your way up,” says Go. “Majority of the time you’ll need that piece of paper just to prove that you know the basics [whereas] in the US… you can start as a commis or a dishwasher and make your way up even to the highest position.”

This was how Go approached getting her diploma in culinary arts at Enderun Colleges: by calmly taking stock of the cards she was handed rather than pounding a fist at the poker table. 

“I studied my ass off for all our theory classes; I practiced preparing dishes in the [condominium]; I was also working a full-time job online as a product development head for a company in Amazon, and volunteered in the pastry kitchen.”

She does look back on her culinary education as a strong beginning for her career. “This diploma in culinary arts teaches you everything you need to know to start your journey in the culinary world,” she says.

She does look back on her culinary education as a strong beginning for her career. “This diploma in culinary arts teaches you everything you need to know to start your journey in the culinary world,” she says. 

“The only thing you’ll need before enrolling yourself to this is the drive and passion. It’s a very intense course and you will definitely fall in love with it because all the chefs are so passionate and accommodating.” 

She maintains that the chefs she met over the course of her Enderun stint are some of the greatest mentors she’s had in her still young culinary career.

And that’s saying a lot

After all, her resume has attracted a number of lines onto its pages: line cook at chef Daniel Boulud’s DBGB Kitchen and Bar in Washington D.C., and chef de partie at The Abaca Group and at The Social Company. 

Her first job overseas, which she began in May 2018 at DBGB kitchen, was a big step away from her front door. 

“​​​​Working in a different country for the first time, I definitely was homesick for the first month,” she recalls. “But it was weird because the moment I’d step into the kitchen [I’d feel] great. I guess it was the hours I worked, which was [from 2 p.m. until 11 p.m.] so I never really got to see people or make friends at the start.” 

The pandemic awakened an entrepreneur

Back in Cebu, a blooming wealth of experience tucked neatly under her chef’s hat, and with a pandemic keeping her at home, a business idea glowed warmly above Go’s head that she dubbed a “wake-up call.”

In May 2020, she started Lai Cha, a concept in which she would serve different items every week. But it was the popularity of her doughnuts that rocketed her demand and need for extra manpower—a gap filled by her two younger siblings.

“After a while, I really wanted to make birria tacos because no one was serving it yet at the time,” says Go. “We started serving [these] at Lai Cha but after a few weeks of always being sold out after 10 minutes of releasing order forms, we decided to open a small stall that was named Pinche.”

“After a while, I really wanted to make birria tacos because no one was serving it yet at the time,” says Go. “We started serving [these] at Lai Cha but after a few weeks of always being sold out after 10 minutes of releasing order forms, we decided to open a small stall that was named Pinche.”

While Lai Cha is “on a break,” Go manages Pinche with her brother’s help. She runs social media while her brother handles orders through calls and walk-ins.

And that’s because she manifested her Alinea dream

“It took a lot to get here, but my end goal was always to work at Alinea,” says Go. She’s been working with The Alinea Group—“one of the best restaurants in the world and the only three-Michelin star restaurant in Chicago”—for five months now, first as a commis chef, and now as chef de partie.

Getting to this point, like talking with a writer back in the Philippines between shifts at one of the best restaurants in the United States, wasn’t a one-email handshake. It was a five-year journey, a step out of a front door, and a manifestation.

“I started emailing HR back in 2017 but got no reply so I started researching different managers and messaging them my cover letter, spamming chef Grant [Achatz] on Instagram, trying out different emails and having them bounce back.”

“It took a lot to get here, but my end goal was always to work at Alinea,” says Go. She’s been working with The Alinea Group—“one of the best restaurants in the world and the only three-Michelin star restaurant in Chicago”—for five months now, first as a commis chef, and now as chef de partie.

She didn’t let the “nos” dampen her spirits, not even the soundless non-replies or the cold bounced-back emails. “One day I decided to message the executive chef of Alinea and I finally got a reply,” she recalls. “If it weren’t for Instagram or chef Douglas Alley’s reply and [help connecting me] with HR, I’d still be back home trying to figure my way to get here.”

“Passion. Grit. Hard work” reads Go’s Linkedin bio, and perhaps a credo for budding chefs reaching for their chords, chasing their cheffing dreams.

“[A piece of advice I’d give to budding chefs] is to go for it,” says Go. “Experience will always be the teacher and you are in control of creating that. Always make the best out of opportunities you’ve worked for because you never know what doors might open for you.”

Now quit reaching out above your head, and walk out your front door.