- I wanna thank Billy Deck.

We're so grateful to him that we've got young entrepreneurs who are making it happen, like Billy.

Thank you, Billy.

From Dining to Entertainment and Culture, Billy Deck is revolutionizing the idea of community impact.

You may have seen him in shows like Criminal Minds, Empire, and the documentary Food Roots, but he offers more than Hollywood Verve to Nashville's nightlife.

A child of immigrants and alumnus of Harvard Business School, he brings world class insights and global flavor to his Sunday New Asian restaurants.

Billy, tell us about Sunda and what makes it unique in Nashville, Chicago, Tampa, and any other places you might be going.

- I think it's a combination of Southeast Asian traditional cultural dishes we grew up with.

My mom's from the islands of the Philippines, grew up in a Filipino household that also included a lot of other Southeast Asian cuisines and trained into our kitchen.

But also with Sunda, we take a modern approach.

It's called New Asian, so it's elevated ingredients and elevated cooking styles, elevated presentation, storytelling.

And so you get the best of both worlds.

- What inspired you to create Sunda?

- I remember as a kid when kids would come over, or if I had food in my lunchbox, they would kind of sneer or make fun.

And it was actually a really tough thing to endure because as a kid you, you're bullied around things that you grew up loving.

So it's confusing.

And I remember going away to college and then beginning to miss it.

And it's just so beautiful having been back and forth to the islands of the Philippines and throughout Southeast Asia my whole life since I was a kid, that I wanted to bring it to people in the mainstream.

- And so, like you mentioned, you have food from different Southeast Asian countries, but how would you say Filipino food is unique among them?

- One of the reasons I love Japan is the tradition, the way in which they've done things for generations.

It's so incredible.

Filipino food is quite the opposite.

There have been different countries that have occupied it over time.

There's so many influences.

You could have Spanish, you could have American, you could have Mexican.

You are getting flavors from like Malaysia and India and Africa.

And you're just wondering like, what is going on here?

This is really unique and it constantly allows you to be experimental as opposed to - Interesting.

some cultures where it's the beauty in their culinary genre is the tradition and the the sameness over generations.

- Billy, we're at the bar here at Sunda and you're gonna mix us a cocktail with a backstory.

Tell us about it.

- Yes.

This cocktail has actually gone viral on TikTok twice.

- Twice.

- People are freaking out about it.

It's based on the ever popular, especially now Espresso martini.

- Okay.

- But we've integrated a really unique ingredient from the islands of the Philippines that I grew up on, that people are catching onto and loving like crazy.

It's called ube and it's a purple, almost like a purple yam almost.

- Okay.

- And it gives off a really distinct color purple.

So you can, they're quite popular now.

Yeah, viral.

Okay.

And so you'll see it has a really beautiful color and - Oh, it - Does.

Texture.

And this is the Ube espresso martini.

And you have a job.

Sunda Ube Espresso Martini.

- I'm so excited - Now.

You can tell all your friends.

- I love it.

- You're addicted to Ube.

- Oh, thanks Bill.

Cheers.

I know a little bit about your background from having seen Food Roots.

Tell us about your Lola and how she has been such an influence in your personal and professional life.

- Well, I was lucky enough to grow up with my Lola, which is my grandma, 'cause my parents worked and she brought amazing talents from the Philippines.

She was one of the best cooks ever.

And so the dishes were quite delicious, exciting, inspiring in themselves.

But the one thing, and I kind of learned it throughout the documentary Food Roots and the exploration of learning the recipes of my ancestors, that she embodied something that is super special and inspiring to me, that has a lot more with care and comfort and delivering happiness to people in the way in which she and the culture does quite in a special way.

So I learned a lot about that, I guess on the front end.

So it's inherent in, in sort of my conditioning and upbringing and, and education.

But as of, you know, very recent with the reflection of the documentary, it really hit home that, especially in this crazy time and knowing that we're in hospitality, it reminds you beyond just business, that we play a tremendous role in delivering care and comfort.

You know, this is an entire industry, one of the biggest industries in the world, and it's all about feeding and making people whole, not just with food, but with love.