When heading north of Bacolod City, Negros Occidental, the road inevitably leads through Silay. It is a city that wears its history on its sleeve—or rather, on its facades. The ancestral homes stand as monuments, reminders of a sugar-laden past. But the true pulse of the city is found in the places where the people still gather.
To the casual traveler, Sir and Ma’am Restaurant is a convenient stop for a meal. To the regular, it is a reliable source of consistently good food. But to the family behind it, it is a living memorial to their ancestral souls. It is a testament to the loyalty that has survived economic meltdowns, personal grief, and the relentless pressure of a changing world.
The Sir and Ma’am story doesn’t begin with a corporate strategy, but with a man named Mario Torres and a humble eatery. Mario was a man of the people, and he was so cordial and respected that his friends simply called him “Sir.” When he started his small eatery in 1962, the name followed—Sir Eatery was a place where the food was hearty and the welcome was heartfelt.
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| Sir & Ma’am’s crowd favorites. |
However, the soul of the menu we know today was meticulously authored by his wife, Teresita. While Mario provided the welcome, “Tessy”, as she was affectionately called, provided the foundations of the heirloom recipes that blended traditional Negrense flavors with a maternal intuition for what satisfies the soul. Or, in this case, the tastebuds.
When Tessy passed away, the Torres family made a subtle but profound change to the signage. They added “and Ma’am.”
It was not a branding update, nor an overhaul of the Silay staple. It was a gesture to keep the mother’s presence at the table. It was to ensure the restaurant’s habitués that, while the matriarch of the kitchen had passed on, the family was still acknowledging the woman whose palate still governs the kitchen.
Everything is measured in modern culinary schools. Precision is found in grams and milliliters. But at Sir and Ma’am, the kitchen operates on a different logic—the Logic of the Palate that’s being passed on from generation to generation.
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| A Silay original since 1962. |
"We don’t use any measurements," Gloria de Oca, representing the second generation, explains. "We play by taste. Every time the food comes out to be served, we usually taste it first. And if it’s not right for our palate, we send it back.”
The preference for “Instinct” rather than “Procedure” is one that’s passed down like a ritual. From Tessy’s palate, and now to Gloria’s. That ritual is most evident in their Roulade (Morcon). In other parts of the country, it might be called Embutido, but for the family, in honor of Tessy’s memory, it is Morcon. It’s Sir and Ma’am’s prized dish, their source of pride.
The story of a family business is often romanticized as a seamless transition from one generation to the next. But legacy is rarely a straight line; it is more often a series of battles behind the scenes.
Between 2010 and 2015, Sir and Ma’am reached a fork on the road. To give in to the pressure of shuttering, or to use that pressure to strengthen familial bonds by continuing what became a legacy. The restaurant was facing “more downs than ups.” The weight of running the business had taken its toll.
"They gave us a choice," says Gabriel Alisla, representing the third generation. The family had considered closing down the restaurant. But Sir Mario and Ma’am Tessy themselves were firm on the family continuing what they had built.
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| A legacy worth sharing. |
“This is not something that we’d like to let go,” Gabriel says. “Yes, it might not be luxurious, but it’s ours. It’s the legacy that was given to us by my grandparents. And we would like to, even with hardship, continue it.”
If the food is the body of Sir and Ma’am, the staff is its lifeblood. There are 18 people who work within the restaurant, some of whom have been there for 30 to 50 years. They have seen the children of the Torres family grow up, graduate, and return.
"If we don’t continue this business, what happens to our staff?" Gloria asks. It’s these loyal men and women, integral parts of the Sir and Ma’am family, that are the motivators to keep the restaurant up and running. In a city of ancestral houses, Sir and Ma’am stands as a different kind of heritage: one that you can taste, one that supports 18 families, and one that continues to prove that the most enduring traditions are served on a plate.
Today, Sir and Ma’am remains a landmark. You can see it in the way the regulars walk in—they already know what they’re going to order, and they already know that it’s going to taste exactly the same as when they had it last.
How things are be the same as when Sir and Ma’am started in the 60’s, but as Gabriel says, “Legacy is not just about maintaining what they did before. It is also about preserving what they made and adding your own mark on what they have left behind for you.”
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| The Sir & Ma’am’ Family. |
The third generation “Sir” is on the path of adding his own mark to the legacy that his Lolo and Lola had started. “I would like that we grow this business so that it will be able to support the family and the people that have been working here for many, many years,” Gabriel says. “But we also want to innovate and see what we can do better.”
Gabriel envisions Sir and Ma’am reaching a bigger market. With the deliveries to Metro Manila and booths at the Negros Trade Fair, that vision is slowly coming into fruition. He also sees the business branching out into different food concepts – with, of course, the same Sir and Ma’am quality that we’ve all come to love.
For the Sir and Ma’am family, innovation isn’t about erasing the past. It’s about ensuring that it has a place in the future. It is the realization that a legacy is not a static monument to be guarded, but a living flame to be fed. The “Ma’am” of the house may no longer be at the stove, but in every seasoned slice of Morcon and every unmeasured pot of Dinuguan (Pork Blood Stew), her palate remains.
Article and videoscript by: John Mari Marcelo
Photos and videos by: UNIT A Creatives
