Daniel Cancino was born in Hong Kong and moved to the Philippines when he turned 6. In 2001, Daniel and his family moved to Vancouver B.C. for hopes of better education and opportunities. Eventually, they moved to Toronto where Daniel attended high school. He took a dishwashing job at 16 where he gained interest in kitchens, and fell in love with professional cooking. Afterwards, Daniel attended George Brown Culinary School and worked at globe trotting kitchens around Toronto such as Pangaea, Thompson Hotel, Union Restaurant, and Hudson Kitchen before taking his first head chef position at Lamesa. After receiving glowing reviews (Globe and Mail) and accolades at Lamesa, Chef Dan decided to take the next step by departing and opening up Mineral Restaurant in 2020. His goal is to express his Filipino Canadian roots and European training into the cuisine at Mineral (“Top 3, best new restaurants” - Toronto life, “Top 20, best restaurants” - PostCity).

‍