Judy Ann on meeting Gordon Ramsay: ‘I will hold on to that feeling of joy & excitement for a very long time”
On a stage where she was among four contestants competing for Gordon Ramsay’s sweet verdict on their halo-halo, Filipino superstar and chef Judy Ann “Juday” Santos was star-struck. She was almost melting like the shaved ice in her halo-halo confection onstage at the Newport Performing Arts Theater.
“It was both crazy and nerve-wracking, it was happiness and excitement to be in the presence of Gordon Ramsay,” she said in a text message. “’Yung moment na kaharap ko siya, parang hindi pa rin totoo. Parang feeling ko, prank na hindi. But that feeling…I will hold on to that feeling of joy and excitement for a very long time.”
For the halo-halo showdown, which took all of 10 minutes, Juday’s special but not-so-secret ingredient (not now, anyway) was sesame polvoron.
“I have for you sesame polvoron halo-halo with some nata de coco. Nata de coco is like coconut juice that’s fermented. I used coconut milk and evaporated milk for the ice and some leche flan,” was how Juday described her halo-halo. The award-winning actor also caramelized plantain bananas in butter and added them to the mix.
“It’s good. It’s really good. I love the black sesame seed,” said Gordon after a taste of Juday’s halo-halo.
According to her friend Bum D. Tenorio Jr., “Every first Sunday of the month, Juday invites friends to their house in the south to have breakfast after the Mass. The breakfast extends to lunch, then to dinner—with Juday lording it over in the kitchen. Happy tummy. Happy friends.”
Juday, whose husband Ryan Agoncillo and daughter Luna were backstage, didn’t win the halo-halo challenge, with Gordon declaring winner Danica Lucero, a student at the Center for Culinary Arts, Manila. Danica’s secret ingredient was minatamis na kamias (kamias compote) to contrast with the sweetness in the halo-halo.
“As we call it here in the Philippines, asim,” Danica told Gordon, who urged the students in the audience (all major culinary schools and colleges were represented in the big Newport Theater) to “get dangerous” in their culinary pursuits.
“Get dangerous, get creative. Everything we create doesn’t work, right? Customers vote with their feet — they don’t ring you up and say we’re not coming back, they just don’t come back. So, stay ahead of the curve and that kind of insight on the social media platforms and the critiques help you stay in front of the competition,” Gordon, a family man whose children include a police officer and an aspiring chef, said.
In the open forum, he advised another student chef, “Get comfortable, being uncomfortable. Don’t get too comfortable between the ages of 18 and 26; you have to be the most energetic sponge.
“Never take any job for any salary or any increase in salary because it’s not the money you need — it’s the knowledge you need and so you just have to keep on going up and down,” he added. “And when you start down again in the next kitchen, you just learn so much more rather than going in a higher position… It’s about the education.”
The ‘Sleeping Beauty’ of Asia
The British celebrity chef, who chose Sisig as the best dish he’s had recently, believes Filipino cuisine is the “Sleeping Beauty” of Asia.
“There’s a fascinating young kid in Melbourne — he’s blowing up on the Internet. He’s a Filipino chef. All the rest of his family, his grandma, the rest of them are involved in this restaurant Serai. We had the Sisig Taco. He took all those crispy pigs ears and put them inside the taco. Just like how exciting is that?”
“I said it before, Filipino cuisine, for me, is like the Sleeping Beauty of Asia. It’s now prominent and it can give Southeast Asia, you know, a big kick up the ass and really become one of the frontrunners across Asia. There’s no reason why it can’t. And to be part of that and to share it with the team, honestly, it’s a dream. It really is a dream. “
For starters, the Fish and Chips in the Gordon Ramsay Bar and Grill in Newport mall uses lapu-lapu.
“Over the last five to 10 years, I think Filipino cuisine has had a hold among global cuisines. Some of the best restaurants in New York are headed by amazing Filipino chefs. London is awash with Filipino restaurants.”
Gordon proudly recalls that when his restaurant in Manila announced it was accepting reservations, there were over 10,000 bookings.
“We started this project just over two years ago with the amazing Kevin Tan. So, the amount of work and efforts he did as he’s gone into this is really extraordinary,” recalled Gordon, who de-stresses by joining triathlons twice a year.
His first engagement of the day after arriving in Manila at 5 a.m. early this week was to have breakfast with the staff of Gordon Ramsay Bar and Grill.
“They’ve done such an amazing job. It’s very hard opening a restaurant that is fully booked from Day One. What they’ve achieved and how hard they’ve worked — some of them are traveling four-hour round trips a day to go to work. That means so much for me because it reminds me of myself at 22.”
Gordon Ramsay seems intent on being Prince Charming (well, not once did he lose his temper during his hour-long appearance and halo-halo showdown) and waking up the “Sleeping Beauty” of Asia.
“I can confirm as from 6:30 tomorrow morning (Jan. 21 in Manila), we are looking at potentially three new restaurant sites here, extending the group and looking at some really fun exciting stuff to come. Maybe, a future Hell’s Kitchen restaurant as well.”
“Sleeping Beauty” is sure to wake up to a culinary heaven, even if in Hell’s Kitchen Manila.
As Judy Ann said in her IG account after her brief encounter with Gordon Ramsay, “How many times have I pinched myself to prove it wasn’t all a dream? Pero totoo, eh!” *
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