There are cooking shows, and then there are cooking shows. You know a good one when you respond from the gut — when your stomach starts rumbling and the vibrant images onscreen get your mouth watering. If you’re lucky the host will be entertaining enough that you won’t be tempted to switch channels, and you know you’ve struck TV gold if, when the show ends, you can’t wait to run to the kitchen to try those recipes yourself.
That was my experience watching Curiosity Got the Chef, a local cooking show the Lifestyle Network produces for its daily bloc of food shows at 9:30 p.m. The host, chef Sharwin Tee, is funny, likeable and knowledgeable — he knows how to dispense a handy kitchen tip — but most importantly, he focuses on Filipino dishes and ingredients, putting his own twist but making favorites like sinigang and fish balls appetizing to all.
“Personally, that’s my cuisine,” Tee says. “I cook Filipino but don’t have enough heritage to talk about heritage cuisine, so I try to get the flavors of Filipino food that are already working but present it differently.”
Tee would like to be known as someone who cooks Filipino food that’s so accessible it will appeal even to foreigners. “Maybe they get turned off by how it’s cooked, so I change it a little bit,” he says. “I’ll make some starter dishes that are easy to eat even if you’re not from here, like adobo, batchoy, arroz caldo, pinakbet, then when they’re into it, we show them the heavy stuff.”
He believes that Pinoy food is delicious, can be modern and is at par with the world’s best cuisines. “We have more flavor, it’s just a matter of getting it across, getting people to taste it.”
He got his TV gig by winning the Lifestyle Network’s chef competition “Clash of the Toque-en Ones” (a pun on “token,” I’m guessing). He felt he had the edge because, as a Communications grad from Ateneo he knew how to act in front of the camera, and as the Basic Culinary Arts teacher at Xavier School he was used to cooking while talking and keeping an eye on his students at the same time. “Because the moment you’re not looking at them they’re playing with knives or running around.”
Tee’s initial concept for a show was “kitchen emergencies,” which evolved into the show’s current theme of common problems in the kitchen. At the start of every episode viewers pose a question like, “If I go to the market, what combinations can I find?” “What’s good to cook for a rainy day?” or “My friends are coming over to watch the game. What do I prepare?”
“It’s always a curious question that we try to answer by cooking,” Tee says.
The weirdest question he’s ever been asked is whether he likes hard-boiled or soft-boiled eggs: “I don’t know if they meant something else,” Tee laughs. “I replied I like soft-boiled egg with pork floss. You mix it together, serve it in a bowl, and it’s very good and very fast.”
From a young age he knew he wanted to be on TV. At six he saw an episode of Wok with Yan, and marveled at the way Stephen Yan held a live audience in thrall just by cooking. “So I said I want to do the same thing. More people start with wanting to cook first, but I wanted to host a cooking show first.”
Another chef idol is Anthony Bourdain, whose first book, Kitchen Confidential, was Tee’s constant companion while he trained at the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts in Canada: “I like that he’s very honest and tells it like it is — I try to channel a little bit of that also.”
As the pioneering cook in his family, Tee says the first dish he ever attempted was “very, very uncomplicated.” On Cooking with Nora Daza he saw Daza wrap asparagus in bacon. There was no asparagus at home, so he wrapped cheese in bacon, fried it, and ate it himself. “My first try everyone was afraid,” he laughs.
The dish he’s currently proudest of is something he created for a party: pork tenderloin stuffed with pork longganisa wrapped in pork bacon, which his friends named Pork Panalo. It’s now the dish they request most at his house.
When he’s not hosting the show and teaching at Xavier, Tee offers his services as a personal chef, both for parties and private lessons. He’s in the process of opening his own restaurant, but approaching it slowly to make sure everything turns out right. “It will be the same food I cook on the show, very Filipino but very modern with no pretensions.”
Coming soon on Curiosity Got the Chef is a special episode dedicated to Tee’s major influence, Stephen Yan. “He’s doing his own version of Wok with Yan because that’s how much he loves him,” says producer Charissa Pammit.
“I’ll be cooking with a wok the entire episode just like him,” Tee says. “The question will be, can I cook three different ways using one wok?”
Recipe File: Steak sliders with shiitake mushroom duxelle & blue pepato cheese
Ingredients:
750 g ground beef
1 onion
4 cloves garlic
1/3 cup oyster sauce
4 sprigs thyme
1 dozen small pan de sal
8 shiitake mushrooms
1 sprig rosemary
4 tomatoes
1 head ice lettuce
70 g blue Pepato cheese
4 tbsps olive oil
salt and black pepper
Procedure:
1. Saute minced shiitake mushrooms and 2 cloves minced garlic in 2 tbsps of oil. Season with salt, pepper, 2 sprigs thyme and rosemary. Cook for 7 to 8 minutes or until mushrooms form a pasty texture.
2. Combine ground beef, grated onion, 2 cloves minced garlic, oyster sauce, 2 sprigs thyme, salt and pepper. Mix well and test flavor by frying a small piece.
3. Shape the burgers into balls slightly larger than golf balls and flatten to form patties. Cook burgers on a sauté pan for two minutes on one side. Flip over and finish in the oven for another 3 minutes.
4. Slice pan de sal length-wise in half. Season with salt, pepper and 2 tbsps olive oil. Toast in the oven until brown.
5. Slice tomatoes and lettuce. Form sliders by placing burgers, tomatoes, lettuce, cheese and ragout in between 2 slices of toasted pan de sal.
Serves 6.
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Curiosity Got the Chef airs every Wednesday night at 9:30 p.m. on the Lifestyle Network (SkyCable channel 52), with replays on Thursday at 8 a.m., Saturday at 6 p.m., Sunday at 10:30 a.m. and Monday at 2 p.m.