Cook it up with Rosebud

MANILA, Philippines - Rosebud Benitez has seen it all. At a time when her friends are just starting a family, the host of Q-11’s Quickfire (10 to 10:10 a.m., 11:50 a.m. to 12 noon; 6 to 6:10 p.m. and 7 to 7:10 p.m.) is cooling her heels at the mall with her two grown-up children. When her friends gripe over married life, Rosebud flashes a knowing smile and tells them she’s been through hell and survived to tell the tale.

Correction. She not only survived; Rosebud rose above the challenge to become a better person.

She’s no longer the timid wife afraid of fighting for her rights as a mom. Rosebud’s children live with her in her new Filinvest home in Quezon City, where she has two kitchens.

The first is for her personal use; the second for the school she plans to set up soon.

“I will start small, nothing complicated,” she says. “The longest class will be a week. Students with no time to go the deli or store to buy ingredients can get them in the school itself.”

Her cooking show is on its second year and will start a new season devoted to Asian cuisine next month. Thanks to the show, Rosebud has shed her anonymity — with no regrets.

“People just come up to in the mall,” Rosebud relates. But, she laughs, it sometimes gets to a point where she and her children can’t sit down for a meal in a restaurant without people looking at her and saying her name out loud.

Rosebud doesn’t mind. She knows it’s the price she has to pay for being public property.

That’s why she feels as comfortable in the restaurant as she does in the kitchen of her home, where Rosebud whips up a dish or two with her son and daughter. This is their bonding moment; a time to strengthen their ties without saying a single word.

Rosebud can be vocal under different circumstances, though. She protests at how fast her son’s feet grow and how often he needs a new pair of basketball shoes. She advises her daughter, a Legal Management student at the Ateneo, to take her time before settling down.

In return, the children will never be guilty of twiddling their thumbs when their mother needs them.

“They even take my temperature when I’m sick!” Rosebud relates.

So why ask for anything more? Rosebud has set aside her to-do list with the items “re-marry” and “give birth to twins” on it. She’s enjoying herself too much to rock the boat and risk making a mistake again.

So Rosebud just goes with the flow, feeling more like her daughter’s friend, not her mother, when she (Rosebud) treated her unica hija out after her high school graduation ball.

“I’m already complete,” Rosebud muses. “I can always turn to my gay friends if I need a little lambing now and then.”

Besides, why muddle things up when she and her ex-husband have smoked the peace pipe? He fetches the children from their new house at Filinvest and brings them to school. He also takes them out now and then. Rosebud is free to follow her heart whenever she wants to.

What she wants to do this time is to wrack her brain for ways to improve her cooking. Rosebud and friends check out new restaurants on the Net. She reads televiewers’ overflowing e-mail. Can she give a special diet for an autistic child? What’s a busy mom to do if she has to whip up a nutritious baon in just 10 minutes (the duration of Rosebud’s show)?

So many questions begging to be answered. Rosebud is ready to answer them all, knowing that people expect a lot from her.

“I’m the sole host of Quickfire,” she reasons out. “I get all the blame for what happens. In Ka-Toque (her previous cooking show also in Q-11 with other chefs as co-hosts), I can always put the blame on somebody else.”

But she’s not worried at all. Rosebud Benitez always faced challenges head on. If she survived a broken marriage and single motherhood, she can well breeze through tougher challenges. And hosting her own show for more seasons to come may just be the easiest one of them all.