What it’s like learning side by side with celebrity chefs

Practically every hour of the day or night, one can watch a variety of cooking shows on television featuring culinary experts from the Americas, Europe and Asia. Fans of these celebrity chefs are a multitude of people identified as “foodies.” The current generation of high school students today, no longer aspire to become doctors, lawyers, nurses, or IT experts but opt to follow the career of a chef, which may provide them the opportunity to work in fine hotels here or abroad as well as join luxury cruise kitchens, which is quite popular with tourists nowadays. This phenomenon has caused culinary schools to spring up everywhere, so that even regular colleges and universities have also added cuisine courses to their regular repertoire. Sad to note that oftentimes quality is missing among the faculty members, the kitchen laboratories are not properly equipped, and the cooking ingredients are on the students’ personal account. This kind of environment will not attract the truly professional chefs to teach.

The top chefs who provided learning and fun with foodies

Fans of the Philippines’ most acclaimed chefs can now personally interact with their culinary idols, learn directly from them, get to cook side by side with them, and best of all enjoy the dishes that they themselves created, with the guidance of these chefs. Enrolling in the Master Chef Series of the country’s most innovative culinary college, the ISTITUTO CULINARIO in Greenhills is just like attending a live taping of the most highly-rated cooking shows. The Saturday morning classes have gained a large following from foodies of all ages: homemakers, amateur cooks, college students and even teenagers!    

These exclusive culinary courses, launched in the middle of this year have had two very well-received and well attended sessions. Master Chef Series I featured Chef Fernando Aracama, master of modern Filipino cuisine, whose restaurant at the Fort has often a long line of customers requiring one to make early reservations. Proof of his skill are the breakfast, lunch and merienda items he puts out in the OB Montessori Greenhills school canteen ‘Citrio’ like Grilled Sandwich with Kesong Puti & Basil and Tomatoes, Minced Chili Chicken Rice Toppings.

With the theme “Spicy Singaporean,” Chef Alex Chiong of Heritage Hotel demonstrated the techniques of Asian specialties like Laksa and Hainanese Chicken. World Class Cake Decorating champion Chef Penk Ching, owner of “Pastry Bin,” introduced the science of baking and the fine art of cake decorating. This award winning lady has her own coffee table pictorial book.

Chef Juan Carlos de Terry, the “King of Spanish Cuisine and the proprietor of Terry’s Selection,” a delicatessen and restaurant at San Lorenzo Village in Makati, revealed his cooking secrets using his authentic Castillian ingredients.

French master chef Cyril Soenen, from the wine country of Bordeaux, worked first at the Ritz in Paris before becoming the Executive Chef of Manila InterContinental Hotel Albert Rotisserie for 12 years. He is now the Executive Chef of “Impressions” of Resorts World. As Chef Patron of Brasserie Cicou, the industrial partner of Istituto Culinario, it provides apprenticeship for its students.

Master chefs focus on the Yuletide season

Master Chef Series II just concluded mid November with Chef Massimo Veronesi, Chef and owner of “Va Bene Pasta Deli,” chose as theme La Festa di Natale (the Christmas Feast).

The series started off with Chef Buddy Trinidad, the rock star and pastry chef, the owner of “Park Avenue desserts,” who demonstrated skillfully the delicate details of pralines, molten cakes, and chocolate mousse. He made a hit with his students, all chocolate lovers.

Can one build a real gingerbread “Hansel and Gretel” cookie house? Definitely, with the meticulous and very well organized Chef Peachy Juban, who provided each students with her own tray of icing bags, cookie walls and roof, plus candies to glue together the house, so each one can concentrate on the difficult technique of flowing or solid ice fondant. Each student had a unique version of her gingerbread house, which drew so much delightful attention from people as they carried them home.

Chef Jackie Ang Po revealed the secret of holiday gift wrapping together with the technique of making Italian Christmas “panettone” rum ensaymada, turtle pie, almond bark and caramel popcorn.

What their ardent and casual foodie students thought of the master chefs

As a stay home mom, Ellen Abundo has attended not one, but five of the Top Chef series including those of Chef Terry, Chef Cyril, Chef Jackie, chocolate Master Chef Buddy Trinidad and Italian Chef Veronesi. And so she thought, “There comes a time when you have exhausted 1001 ways to cook adobo or pinakbet and you would like to attend these classes to find out if there is something more than our everyday pritong tawilis. Chef Aracama for instance innovated lumpiang ubud layering the guisadong ubud (slivers of the ‘heart of the coconut in layers of wanton wrapper) with garlic sauce — Napoleon pastry style. She also discovered from Chef de Terry that one starts using uncooked rice in the paellera to cook paella, stirring it constantly with olive oil until it cooks with additional water. Our traditional Pinoy way would cook first the rice then add the seafood mix. Finally she thanks Chef Buddy for her ability to “whip up and store her favorite batch of pralines” and noted that the so-called aphrodisiac chocolate is made up of only 3 main ingredients — chocolate, cream and butter. Investing in polycarbonate molds and stencils to create her holiday chewy chocolates is worth it.

As for Ms. Caguitala, an Agriculture teacher, her dream is to be under the tutelage of Gingerbread Cookie House Master Chef Peachy and use the ‘state of the art’ equipment at the Istituto Culinario. “Such a lovely, bubbly person, who kept sharing her world experiences, laughing at her error and correction, oozing with joy and precision.

“After teaching us how to make the cookie shell for the house, she focused on the delicate technique of doing the royal icing and fondant that would frost the roof with ‘dripping snow’ and fondant to make the icy frame of the windows and Christmas wreaths. At first I was shaking using the tiny colorful decors, but I eventually lost track of time and finished last.

“Joyfully I carried my priceless fairytale cookie house right in the MRT and bus rides. Everyone around me thought how pretty it is and asked where I got it. At the Istituto Culinario and I proudly said I made it and even let the kids have some extra cookies. It became the centerpiece of our Christmas at home.”

Laksa, leche flan or creme brulee

After her Singapore tour, Cecile Suarez could not forget the taste of “Laksa”. It was Chef Alex Chong’s “Spicy Singaporean Course” which fulfilled her craving. She explains, “Laksa is a spicy curry-based seafood stew popular in Singapore and Malaysia, just as the adobo is the signature dish in the Philippines. (It looks like our yellow peanut-coconut gata based sauce kare-kare) Instead it makes use of the massala spice mix of red curry paste, ‘rempah’ paste, coconut milk and ‘belachan’ blended with lemon grass, ginger and shallots. How did Chef Alex deliver the course? “In spite of his accent, he relayed the lesson clearly. Very much at ease, we felt confident asking questions and he answered them all. I gained so much confidence that Laksa will become my holiday treat instead of the usual spaghetti I cook.”

Everyone thought the French ‘leche flan’ called “Creme Brulee” or burnt cream was a heavenly dessert. What’s the difference with our local ‘leche flan’? Chef Cyrille Soenen’s recipe and demo for a perfect Creme Brulee called for heating heavy cream (not simmer nor boiled). Egg yolks are whisked with granulated sugar first before the heated cream is gently added to the egg mix to prevent it from curdling the eggs — a process called “tempering.” Unlike our leche flan, which makes use of 5” long llanera, ceramic ramekins 2 1/2” circumference is used since its doubly-rich. Both flan recipes make use of steaming in ‘baine marie,’ and chilled two hours or overnight so that when the sugar top could crystallize, not burn, when torched. Caramelized sugar lines the bottom of our flan.

Amateur cooks deal with Tapenada and Coq Au Vin

Both Delia Santos and Marilie Thurman have a love-hate relationship with the kitchen, so they dared join the Master Chef session of French Chef Soenen. With a Ratatouille stuff toy as his mascot, Chef Cyrille delighted his students with the simple way of making toasted bread with Davao white cheese, chopped olives and capers. Voila it’s Tapenada (or bruschetta in Italian). Known for his creative food presentation, Cyrille would always show how to enhance the serving of the dishes. Both artists working in publication projects, Delia and Marilie discovered eventually that cooking is fun especially when they encountered the disaster of the Coq Au Vin.

Partnering with a more experienced cook, Molly, they proceeded to follow the French chicken recipe of Coq Au Vin (chicken in wine which looks like dinuguan). Marilie learned for the first time the proper way to cut the chicken into pieces and realized that one should always remove the skin from the garlic to enhance flavor. The recipe called for 4 T of red wine. Excited, Molly poured a whole bowl of the wine instead, Marilie realized, our dish became French Paksiw. Assisting Cyrille, Chef James came to the rescue revealing the secret French remedy — a dab of butter.

Cooking is fun but a true art

The Master Chef Series converted all the students to become aficionados in cooking. They were hiding a creative streak in their personality so that Delia concluded, “I discovered cooking is just as much fun as eating. Like painting it gives you a different kind of high.” For Marilie, “taking this class also changed my thinking about French cooking — that it is do-able for someone as untalented as I am in the kitchen.” Ellen Abundo, “I feel honored to be part of these classes. These master chefs spend precious time and effort to  generously impart their special skills and secrets.”

BRAVO TO ISTITUTO CULINARIO FOR PUTTING TOGETHER THIS FABULOUS LEARNING EXPERIENCE!