Australia, Hong Kong, Poland, France, Malta — after seven years working on a cruise ship, Manuel Ruiz felt he had seen much of the world and learned all he could as an onboard cook and pastry chef.
Settled in Philly since 2018, he’s now manning Manny’s, a pop-up serving the Peruvian meals he grew up with. On the menu: ceviche, aji de gallina, and arroz con pollo or camarones, alongside a rotation of local dishes and, occasionally, sandwiches like a butifarra — brined and achiote-marinated pork with pickled onions.
“Traditional Peruvian flavors; that’s what I want to bring to everyone in the city,” the 36-year-old told Billy Penn. “It’s one of the top cuisines right now around the world, [though in Philly] there aren’t that many options.”
Ruiz will be adding his efforts to the scene this summer with ongoing pop-ups at South Philly’s Brewery ARS — including one this evening — and an appearance at Cartesian Brewing in August.
Born in Lima to a family of cooks, Ruiz developed an early interest in food, intrigued by differences between his father’s north-regional cooking and the culinary styles in central Peru, where Ruiz grew up.
After graduating from Lima’s Culinary Institute and studying industrial baking for an additional year and a half, Ruiz found work with Princess Cruises. A series of six-month stints at sea with no days off “taught me how to push myself,” he said, “and go beyond just doing my job. I wanted everything to always be good.”
Seeking a new challenge, Ruiz applied for an opening at Philly’s Four Seasons Hotel, where he met kitchen colleagues Daniel Griffiths, Sam Kalkut, and Jake Loeffler — who would go on to grow their panzerotti pop-up, Paffuto, into a brick-and-mortar in December.
“That’s how everything got started,” Ruiz said of the help offered by the Paffuto trio. They put him in touch with South Philly’s Hale & True Cider Co., where Ruiz launched Manny’s last September, and introduced him to the crew at Herman’s Coffeewhere he held his second pop-up. Since then, he said, “it’s been flowing.”
For Manny’s, Ruiz typically offers a trio of meals per pop-up. Most recently, that’s included a snapper-based ceviche (onions mixed in, as done in the north Peruvian state of Piura, where his father is from; in Lima and other regions, they’re often added as a garnish), and staple dish aji de gallina — pulled chicken in a creamy aji Amarillo sauce with olive and hard-boiled eggs over rice.
The recipes are all traditional, the techniques sometimes experimental. Veggies usually cooked separately for arroz con pollo are instead blended, with a bit of lager, to make a green cilantro paste. A salsa madre is similarly made for the arroz con camarones, with tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, fish-bones and -stock, all later mixed with white rice and shrimp. Dishes range from $10 to $17; most are $15.
While he’d like to grow Manny’s into something more permanent — “It’s always a dream to have your own spot with your name, and let people try your food” — Ruiz is hesitant to overbook the pop-up, which he’s currently balancing with a full-time chef job at The Hart of Catering on 21st Street. For now, the focus is on fine-tuning his menu, and bolstering a Peruvian presence in the local culinary scene.
“I really like the fact that Philly is a food-lover’s city with people who are open to try all kinds of food,” he said. “It means more opportunities for a chef to grow.”
Manny’s will be at Brewery ARS from 5 to 9 p.m. today and July 11 and July 26, and at Cartesian Brewing on Aug. 15. For more information, follow @mannysphl on Instagram.