The heart of cooking with Annie Guerrero
November 21, 2001 | 12:00am
A passion for the culinary arts, the desire to impart knowledge and an entrepreneurial spirit. These were the ingredients parlayed by Annie Pascual-Guerrero into a successful chain of restaurants, Cravings, The Orange Place hostel and the Center for Culinary Arts Manila, a school affiliated with the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, Canada, that graduates professional chefs.
When CCA celebrates its anniversary on Nov. 29, one of the highlights of the occasion will be the launch of Annie’s latest book, Cooking With Love Cherished Recipes from the Heart.
She is specially proud of this latest undertaking. In Annie’s own words, ‘The book is a natural outcome – the completed dish as it were, garnished, seasoned, carved, laid out on the platter, ready for the feast – of my happy memories of cooking, the "ingredients" that went in the making of it: the sizzle of oil in the heated pan; the explosion of spices and sauces on eager tongues; the colors and textures of fruits and vegetables freshly picked, peeled or sliced; the hot, cold, sour, sweet, salty and bitter of dishes patiently prepared, lovingly served and as lovingly savored."
The book contains treasured family recipes, those that Annie learned in school and from friends as well as those which she invented and improved upon. The dishes, all kitchen tested, run the gamut from salads to desserts. "The recipes are good for groups of six or eight up to 12 and 15," said over lunch the other day at the Cravings Center on Katipunan Ave., Quezon City. In conceptualizing the book, Annie took note of the fact that Filipinos usually have big families, they also love to dine in groups.
Cooking With Love is spiced up with helpful information on kitchen basics like the choice of equipment, utensils, ingredients, cooking techniques and a very handy conversion table.
Annie’s tips, short pieces culled from the author’s stock of valuable cooking secrets, provide the punctuation to each recipe. Some examples: "I have a special preference for Japanese mayonnaise because its quality is closest to homemade. But when using commercial brands, I add one teaspoon on non-dairy creamer per cup of mayonnaise to lighten and improve the flavor; chicken stock may be substituted with chicken bouillon cubes at a ratio of one cube per one or one-and-a-half cups of water; a whole rack of meaty baby back ribs will be more enticing if you’re cooking for company. Just score each section of the ribs for easy serving; if green tart apples are not available, use red apples marinated in a teaspoon or more of lemon or calamansi juice."
Annie’s success in the culinary field was inspired by her mother Susana Pascual, whose reputation as a good cook was well known in Malabon, the town where Annie’s family originally hails from. At the urging of many, Mrs. Pascual conducted cooking classes at the family residence. "Graduations were always held at the Pascual orchard, in fact we still have a copy of the certificates of attendance she gave out," recalls Annie.
According to Annie, she was introduced to the culinary life at the early age of five. "The kitchen was my playground," she says. "My memories of those early days were that of pots bubbling gently over the stove, Hotpoint of course, which was the popular kitchen appliance brand in those times."
A character Annie fondly remembers from her childhood days was Tikyo, the Pascual family’s Aeta errand boy. "He was the one in charge of stirring the cake batter, while I did the counting. Sometimes, we got carried away and overdid the number strokes. If he beat in a clockwise direction, he would beat the batter again in the other direction, thinking that the error was undone. The results were of course disastrous," laughs Annie.
Annie took up Home Economics at the University of the Philippines and took up masteral courses in nutrition from the same institution. She later enrolled at the Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley, California and Hyde Park, New York, USA.
Annie’s first venture was Canteenela, a 50-seater eatery along R. Papa Street in Manila. It was an instant hit among students and residents in the university belt.
Soon after, she was being tapped for catering services. One big order she remembers was that for lunch and dinner for 8,000 supporters of an election candidate. Since there were just a few people in her staff, Annie had to close the canteen whenever they catered big events like the one mentioned above. "It came to a point when regular customers kept knocking at our doors and were disappointed that we weren’t open on certain days," remembers Annie. "I eventually closed the outlet but retained its name for business purposes."
She founded Cravings in 1988 and it has since spun off other ventures such as the earlier-mentioned Orange Place, CCA and Cookers Concept, an outfit devoted to food research and development.
Cooking With Love follows the publication of The Cravings Cookbook, a compilation of personal recipes by friends of the restaurant. The likes of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, former President Fidel Ramos and his First Lady Amelita, Cecile Licad, Llita Logarta generously shared their favorite recipes knowing the book project was for a worthy cause.
Proceeds from The Cravings Cookbook helped provide endowments for the Ateneo Scholarship Foundation which provides scholarships to deserving students who can’t afford the rising cost of an Ateneo education.
In keeping with that same spirit of generosity, Cooking With Love will help raise funds fund for scholarships, this time at the CCA. The book is published by Anvil and will be available at all leading book stores.
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