Chefie’s World

It was a thousand days ago that Joseph, our Manila Bulletin coordinator of articles asked me to do a spread on Christmas cakes ranging from easy to a medium difficulty. Of course, since it is the season of giving, I didn’t negate his request. I came out with desserts all kitchen tested, scrumptiously tasted and more. I made for the easy ones; Strawberry Crisp and Pineapple Miracle since most of the layered cake where difficult to do for the first time baker. Then we made Pistachio Cream Cake, Chocolate Tablea Cake, Cranberry Cheesecake, Sticky Mango Pudding and Dulce de Leche Walnut Pie.
I am recreating the recipes that were featured there so that you can do the same in your home before Christmas or New Year. Enjoy and keep baking!

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I was in Davao since last Thursday to do a cooking/baking demonstration for Gaisano Mall of Davao. This was requested two months ago and it has finally materialized. You know it usually is before or after Chrismas am I in Davao…I love it…I really like going there except for…………Getting back to the real reason I was there, Friday was just for preparation of the recipe, ingredients and tasting portions to feed at least 250 people who would go and watch. The grocery has been having a display and promotion of Western American products and part of this was my demonstration. I did Rye Pecan Bread, Fruit and Oatmeal Cookies, Fig and Walnut Bars and Honey Corn Muffins, all with products coming from WUSATA which stands for Western United States Agricultural Trade Associations. Although the stage was quite high, I think I was effective in presenting new ingredients to be made in to popular or common baked goodies, variations were also talked about during the events. Since the mall had a midnight sale, we had quite a number of participants and wonderers ( wondering what was going on ) but still wanted a sample of whatever I was presenting. I was helped by four graduates of our Intensive Cooking and Baking Program in Davao who were very efficient, quick and industrious, super sipag, I didn’t have to detail them with the work they had to do. Also, the witches or should I say girls of CACS Davao were there…Tita Butz, Agnes the Witch, Jovie, Yaya Cita came to advertise and market the school. A fulfilling and tiring event just a few days away from the season of plenty. Enjoy the recipes!

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December 20, 2008

I received a text from ironchef jabes if it would be good for him to give my cell number to a kapuso researcher looking for a chef who makes healthy desserts. Of course, during the season of plenty, I obliged and got myself to confirm a shoot without asking permission from the school about it. This was a Sunday and the filming would be the next day. I only had four hours to research – healthy dessert for a talent who wants to eat less this Christmas season. I decided to use the desserts that I taught in a class two dozen full moons ago and it really did give me an idea to be a bit more creative.

It appeared last night and all I can say is I look just like Santa without the white beard but with no neck too. I was so fat on television….I felt blotted but anyway, I enjoyed making the variation para naman hindi siya corny….the main dessert shown was my Mango Fruit Snow but I actually made two more good tasting desserts with less calories, good for you ingredients and very textural so theirs a play in the mouth as they say.

Mango Fruit Snow is a light dessert with a mango gelatine base where meringues was folded in to make it appealing, its like ice cream for people with no teeth. Decorated with strawberries, kiwis and more mango. I am not using too much sugar but a bit of Splenda.

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I am in three food magazines this month, isn’t that a great Xmas gift to have? I am totally elated for these, with all the hard work that I had to do during the whole month of October after arriving from America, all the results are finally showing up. In Food Magazine, my USDA class was featured since it was a poultry class, a new take on what to serve this Christmas season is seen. I didn’t like my picture since it showed a very ugly profile, one with my bald spot together with my triple chin but the food looked great. Also, only one of the recipes is yours truly, all the others were part of my training from foreign chefs which is part of being a USDA chef-trainer. Chef Richard Reuben’s Turkey roll, Chef Andy Gold’s Duck Pate and Chef Pang’s Stuffed Turkey plus my Barbecue Cornish Hen were what I did. My most exciting magazine spread was the Potluck Party section in Yummy magazine, this was a very tiring shoot since had to do the food and take care of the photo session in Ate Cynthia’s house but all disappears when I saw the article, it had great looking pictures, appetizing dishes and gorgeous students. Enjoyed all the emotions showing in the picture especially my shot on the desserts, were you not craving for that mango meringue….Lastly, this one I haven’t seen yet but have a whole post about it….Flavors’ December issue has my Strawberry – Pistachio Cream Cake on the cover and 5 other cakes inside….one of my best dessert compilation is here. It made my week to be featured in three magazines this month. It has really enforced the beauty of what I love to do….Try to get the magazines, it has all of my best recipes compiled during the last 15 years….you know what made me feel so bad? On a visit to a bookstore, I saw an interesting book made by a school and when opened it I saw my Foccacia bread recipe on it, complete as original, no changes in amounts, ingredients nor procedure and the author stated that the recipe belongs to their family. It’s just so devastating that it happened while I was feeling the effects of the three magazine features. Har, har, it’s fine just goes to show how small the world really is….. Enjoy!

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I had a lunch date with Trica at Astralis the new satellite restaurant of Manila Diamond Hotel. It was planned the night before since there was nothing that important to do except for searching for corned beef spice. Tricia has been a friend for so long, after being a student for two main programs she asked me to be multi-task person for her wedding with a pastry chef who I also adore, William. I am even their son’s god father…how close can I get….the restaurant was utterly clean in interior, in smell and so with the other senses I have.

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Was in the Gavino’s, just loitering at the family room, watching TV when I saw on a cooking show, a chef making his bechamel sauce on a non stick pan with a stainless whisk ….there goes your chemically flavored white sauce… I can’t understand how a teaching chef who owns a cooking school can do this without taking into consideration the teflon that can be part of his salt and pepper.
Yes, I know how it could be a stress filled and tension mounting a TV show can be but you have a staff that can take care of that and you must have someone who is very detailed in stuffs like this.
Training under pastry chef makes you look at all the important minute steps involved in the whole cooking process that becomes part of you. Pastry or baking actually trains a person to become more organized and patient in the whole process of cooking. This has trained me as a chef and it has made me a better cook, thanks to Jill, Mark and Maryanne….as humble as I should be I still call myself a cook because the continuing education is still there and I guess, a chef can never be called a chef because of education or a statement of experience or should I say garnishing. A chef for me, hard to define, has influenced the cuisine of a country and how the people eat….

Just some thoughts….last night got to watch an American show where an artisan chocolatier is now procuring his cocoa beans from the Philippines, this excited me tremendously, finally a company has given proper stature to the good tasting, in-depth flavor and cocoa butter content of our beans. I have been researching from where but I doubt if I will ever be able to find out. Things like this take awhile….remember that we only recently found out that the vanilla bean we have been purchasing from specialty food store that we import from other countries actually is grown and dried in Bukidnon.
Work is coming up this Friday and it won’t stop till the middle of December, a new batch to teach and another 27 personalities to take care of….give me luck and pray for me………..LALA! By the way, I don’t feel Christmas at all, do you?

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One of the best food you should buy in Baguio is bottled purple yam or “Ube”, there are three food establishments there who make superior quality ones….I know some people who just love and adore its flavor and some who wouldn’t care to have it. I have an uncle who enjoys every scoop of ube ice cream, an aunt who gives us “ halayang ube “ every November 1, I don’t really know why, same reason why we have certain food on particular occasions in our lives….I love ube macapuno cake of Red Ribbon, there were times that I would finish a whole piece in one sitting then throw up because I was so full.
It has a taste that’s different from all. Anyway, I got three brands of ube jam that’s the modern name for haleyang ube in a bottle, Good Shepherd’s, Tantamco’s and PKNY’s.
The one from PKNY’s is supplied to them by a lady named Saning according to the waitress but I am not really sure. Well, after a week of staying in Manila, here are the results of my tastings, who won? No one! I enjoyed all three, thanks to Apple who I would share each bottle of ube every time I would open one. Ok, PKNY’s has whole pieces of ube still present and the taste was very evident, not too sweet but the texture was gummy, maybe it was overworked from all the mixing that happened. A bit more cream or evaporated milk might have changed this problem. Tantamco’s was very sweet but had a very strong caramelized sugar taste which greatly covered the ube taste, but I could say “parang may arnibal” in the mixture…..would go well with a halo halo with just monggo, kaong and nata de coco and tons of shaved ice. The creamiest one was from Good Shepherd’s and wasn’t as sweet but had a vanilla and floral taste, maybe they added some artificial flavoring in the mixture because it was very evident. Each had a distinct difference which I loved so I can’t give you a winner….I would love though to add some pandan or macapuno into the blend just for a deeper taste profile.
But I only realized that the ube cake of one bakeshop really has such an intense ube flavor since it uses the ice cream as an icing….and I remembered that one of my first, best and honored cooking teachers taught me that one too. Haven’t made ube jam or haleyang ube from scratch but once I make, it will be printed here…..

November 9, 2008

We ate dinner as a family today….the Gavino and Javier Family – all complete, the 12 of us. Remember the picture in Japan with nephews and nieces plus a set of two couples, that’s Kuya Titong and Ate Cynthia, Kuya Teboy and Ate Althea….we all met in Choi’s Garden, the former Country Waffle in Annapolis. The restaurant looks like a studio right out of the movie, Get Smart with James Bond sidings as well as modern Chinese and super baduy chandelier that sparkles to the max, even the stair railings were glass, what can you say? The food was generally good, my Chinese students told me that the pigeon was good but be careful with the msg which I didn’t feel the effects of after having a 10 course dinner. I enjoyed the shrimp roll which was wrapped in bihon and then fried – hard to eat but great for presentation, the squid and mushroom stir fry was different but excellent in taste and texture, their yang chow had lots of “sahog” and tasty but a bit oily for my tongue and for my face….the second way for the Peking duck, the minced duck meat with lettuce wrap was awesome, never had anything as good as this, had smoky, burnt flavor. Other dishes we had are tried and tested ones that are also offered in some Chinese places like steamed prawns and lapulapu …Food is always the best when you share it with the people you love…I was just happy sharing a Coke with Ate and having my nephew, JL having fun with my Yaya jokes, seeing my eldest niece, Karla who I don’t see as often as I should….This was one of those nights I would not trade for anything other.

Asianong Pastel

I made this dish for a leading condiments company but I have modified it a bit for better flavor and flair….

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I just took a four day vacation with the Gavino family to Baguio City. It was a peaceful, restful and no stress weekend with family and friends, Vlad and Teresa Reyes. JL, Joey and myself left early Friday morning at 3 am and got to the Pine City at 7 am, that was fast since there was no traffic and we took the new Tarlac-Subic Expressway. Got there just in time for breakfast with Kuya Titong, Ate Cynthia and Sarah who got their four days before us. After breakfast, took a long nap since there was very little sleep for us before the trip. After which, picked up Vlad and Teresa in the Victory Liner Stop, they took the premium airconditioned bus that I took last year when I did a demo in Baguio with the whole USDA team. I noticed that the city is really getting polluted with such a big number of jeeps, tricycles and buses going around the city, it was just normal to have a city that smells this way. That’s the reason I love staying in Baguio Country Club since I do feel the old Baguio here with all the pine trees, blooming flowers – they have milflores all over the driveway and all the good comfort stuffs that make it our vacation destination years ago. I realized there is not that much good restaurants to eat here or I was just too lazy to go around….What’s new that I got to see there….here’s a list:

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Before the brouhaha over the Bourdain arrival, I had to do photo shoots for the Christmas edition of two magazines, one I got to take pictures of, the other I totally forgot since so much of myself was part of the whole event. In other words, I just didn’t find the time to remember to get my camera.
For the other magazine, it was six different cakes and desserts that would be part of any Christmas gathering. I envisioned a repertoire of different sweet things that can be made by professionals as well as housewives. I had some real interesting cakes and a spoon dessert I made from scratch which will throw you off your seats. The desserts were; Pistachio Cream Cake with Mixed Berry Topping, Orange and Currant Bundt Cake with Candied Orange Peel, Dulce Manga, Japanese Cheesecake, Caramel Chocolate Meringue Torte and Praline Potato Torte. Are you getting hungry to eat or you just want a recipe?
I tend to be very straightforward again, at times to an advantage but at most time, not….. I have been scolded by a lot of people due to this. Aside from this, one of my recipes in Yummy Magazine, the Popcorn and Shrimp Salad was reviewed by a fellow blogger. Do check it out. And I would like to thank them for just having me in their blog.
The other shoot was a potluck party scene with nine recipes I made and wow, I was so exhausted with that shoot. I had to ask six of my students to be part of the whole look with matching clothes and entertaining personalities. I loved the recipes I made since they all came from the old files I have which was used for my 1990’s catering gigs.
Here are some for you to enjoy, cook or bake and share with friends and family.

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