Learn from the cooking masters at the eat Dining Festival

It is hard to fake it when it comes to good food. Taste is a tricky matter. You cannot fool the taste buds by styling food attractively to make up for humdrum flavors. As part of its 25th anniversary celebration, Philippine STAR, with The Ayala Malls and BPI, and with the participation of Samsung, is holding cooking demonstrations throughout the country.

By inviting well-known and talented Filipino chefs to share their cooking know-how in various Ayala malls, the activity highlights the idea that with enough confidence and skill, simple ingredients can be transformed into superb dishes. Indeed, what the late American jazz composer and bassist Charles Mingus said about music could just as well apply to food: “Creativity is more than just being different. Anybody can play weird — that’s easy. Making the simple complicated is commonplace — making the complicated simple, awesomely simple — that’s creativity.”

For Claude Tayag, the path to becoming a true gourmand is the same as the road to becoming a wizard in the kitchen. He advises playfully, “Keep an open mouth.” But he elaborates more seriously, “Do not fear the unfamiliar. Try what is new and uncommon and strange. This will enable you to gain enough stock knowledge. It will allow you to acquire a big database, so to speak, when it comes to flavors, textures, and aromas.”

That one is bound to encounter something unsuitable (or even downright abhorrent) in the course of the travels of the palate is all part and parcel of the entire experience. “That is just fine because you can spit it out or choose not to eat that particular food item again,” says Claude. “But the important thing is to be fearless; to constantly experience new things; to try.”

The constant search for something new is a way of living that Claude Tayag applies in his multifaceted career as painter, sculptor, furniture maker, chef, food entrepreneur and STAR Lifestyle Section columnist.

“Art and cooking are just extensions of what I am. You could describe all the things I am involved with as ‘doing things in many languages.’ I make a conscious effort not to be pigeon-holed in one medium. There is a constant educational process; a constant search for new things. Do not limit yourself so that you can go far,” continues Claude. ”In cooking, learn the basics of flavor. Just like in the field of painting where, if you do not master the basic techniques, you cannot credibly create abstracts; you will have difficulty putting an original dish together if you do not know the characteristics of each ingredient that goes into it.”

He claims that the term “burnout” is not part of his vocabulary. “Pressure doesn’t happen because I am doing many things; because I continuously explore; and because as an artist, I do not limit myself to one medium.”

Currently, a new medium that Claude is exploring both as an artist and a gourmand is food photography. He relates that this happenstance came about unexpectedly. As the artist among chef-colleagues who put the Kulinarya book of proudly Pinoy cooking together, he was designated to style the food. In turn, this encouraged and reinforced his interest in food photography. “One should keep exploring.  In cooking — as in all fields we are involved in — we should not set limitations on ourselves because there are so many possibilities; so many things to do.”

Claude’s Dream dessert made of delicious pandan-flavored, green gulaman topped with buko ice cream has always been a personal favorite. But by serving his recipe of STAR Lumpia three ways (hubad, fried, and deconstructed with fried molo wrappers,) Claude demonstrated that familiar Filipino recipes can be made interesting and new again with enough inspiration and imagination.

Reinvention is a key factor in coming up with unique dishes. Chef Shirly Mae Galvez of SumoSam demonstrates this by creating Japanese dishes with a twist. For a recipe called Sausage Yakisoba, for example, she incorporates chorizo Filipino with ramen noodles, oyster sauce, and hondashi, a flavoring element made with katsuoboshi (pink flakes of bonito tuna) and dried kelp.

“The public benefits from cooking demonstrations such as this because they are able to see how things are done in the restaurant,” she says. “They see that plating and presentation are just as important in creating a dish.”

She relates that early exposure in the kitchen (her mom taught her how to cook ginisang sayote) was where it all started.

“Passion and talent are important factors that will promote creativity in the kitchen,” says chef Shirly. But she agrees that adequate training is just as important. “If you really want to succeed in the culinary business, there are good schools where you can learn the proper techniques.”

However, she warns aspiring chefs that being in the kitchen is far from glamorous; that the heat from the stoves and the pressure to come up with dishes quickly combine to make you hot and sweaty. And while making a living out of a culinary career is for dedicated professionals who are unmindful of the pressure and discomfort, everyone has the capacity to cook good meals every day. For her second dish, chef Shirly presented an easy-to-prepare salmon with wasabi cream.

“Anyone can cook but not everyone can bake,” says baking maven and STAR Lifestyle columnist chef Heny Sison. “Baking is an exact science and one must have the discipline to follow measurements as indicated by the recipes. You must pay attention to the smallest details.”

As the founder of the Heny Sison Culinary School, she firmly believes that, “becoming a chef is an experience and you can’t be one overnight. It takes time, passion, experience, and love for what you do.”

What is her advice to aspiring chefs?

“Finish a degree before you go into the culinary,” explains chef Heny. “This is not only so that you will have something to fall back on should the culinary not work out, but more importantly, finishing a degree allows you to develop a certain degree of maturity.”

Chef Heny earned her philosophy and economics degrees before beginning her baking career.

She continues, “A culinary career is difficult. It entails hard work and long working hours. You may have the business capital to think that you can go out into the world armed with your culinary degree, but a sense of maturity makes a great difference. It helps you deal better with people.” Believing that a good cook is only as good as his last meal, chef Heny “teaches to share.”

At the TriNoma cooking demo, the audience enjoyed both learning to cook and sampling her recipes of choux puffs with mushroom filling, penne pasta with basil and walnut pesto and strawberries in marsala with honey and mascarpone cream.

The next EAT cooking demo will be held at Market!Market! with Shirly May Galvez on Sept. 23,chef Heny Sison on Sept. 24, and chef Claude Tayag on Sept. 25.