Liberty Ilagan’s new ‘baby’

It’s been over 30 years since the charming Liberty Ilagan last graced the silver screen, but she has apparently not let her creative talent go to waste. Where before she entertained people through the art of acting, now she focuses on entertaining others through the restaurant business.

"In the book of my life, being in the movies was just one chapter," Liberty, the daughter of the late legendary director Gerry de Leon, relates as this writer enjoys lunch with her and her lovely daughter Soeng Ongpauco, 22, in Liberty’s latest "baby", the Ihaw-Ihaw Kalde-Kaldero Kawa-Kawali at Awitan Kayo Restaurant in Makati Avenue cor. Valdez St., Makati City. "After that chapter, I’ve moved on to the next chapter of my life."

It’s a chapter that’s she’s enjoying so much, it seems, for Liberty not only busies herself by "designing" her resto’s food presentations, she also designed the interiors herself. With the predominant colors of lavander and orange and its striking modern Filipino native design, the resto reveals much about its proprietress who is perenially vibrant and upbeat. Liberty’s smile and disposition – which made her the movie fans’ sweetheart from the time she was 15 – are still there, as sweet as ever.

In between attending to her restaurant and being a mother to Love, Happy and Soeng ("I’m proud to say that all my daughters grew up to be responsible"), Liberty is also a doting grandmother who enjoys writing poems. Liberty had even once composed Bughaw na Buhangin which was recorded by Pilita Corrales and Ric Manrique.

"You see that banana tree?" Liberty asks, pointing to one standing nearby. "I designed that myself. I made the leaves from cans, while the bananas are carved wood I got from Baguio. I used to put actual banana trees in the past but they’d wilt so I came up with this one."

This restaurant, Liberty shares, has been around for only two months now, but it has attracted – like the Ongpaucos’ Barrio Fiesta chain has successfully done in the past 50 years – Filipinos and foreigners alike with such favorites as the Ihaw-Ihaw Special, Pritchon Legs, Bakang Maanghang, Steamed Lapu-Lapu with Garlic Sauce (a favorite of Amalia Fuentes), and the Barbecue Festival. Liberty adds that the resto has also been doing well as a venue for special occasions like weddings, baptisms, and debuts.

More than anything else, Liberty concedes, the resto is doing well because "It serves good food. We owe it (the emphasis on serving good food) to Mama Chit Ongpauco, who founded Barrio Fiesta."

Another of the resto’s main attraction, of course, are its singing cooks and waiters. During our lunch there they were clad in native costumes, dancing and singing everything from Filipino folk songs to pop hits.

"You know how they got started" begins Soeng. "In l989, my dad, Rod Ongpauco, heard a pantry girl singing in his restaurant. So he would ask her to sing while he would eat. Then he told himself that if he enjoyed listening to her, maybe others would enjoy it, too."

From then on, a requirement for the cooks and waiters would be to have a good singing voice. Liberty’s showbiz friends like Pilita Corrales, Martin Nievera, Pops Fernandez, Kristina Paner, Tobert Natividad, and Janno Gibbs, among others, trained the cooks and waiters on singing and performing for free, and the rest, as they say, is history. The singing group has even come up with five albums produced by REO Records.

So if you’re hankering for great Filipino dishes served with great entertainment, go straight to Makati Avenue’s Ihaw-Ihaw Kalde-Kaldero, where you’ll have the Liberty to do so.

(E-mail the author at [email protected])

(For inquiries on Ihaw-Ihaw Kalde-Kaldero, call tel. no. 8994020/21. The restaurant is open from 12 noon to 2:30 p.m., and from 6 p.m. to 12 midnight. Enjoy a 20 percent discount during Happy Hour from 6 to 7 p.m.)