Of Cooking and Loving It

*Preparing one of my specialties, "Embutido" for Christmas dinner*

I once dreamt of becoming a chef. I love to cook, experiment, try something new and different in the kitchen, and divert from common recipes. I love food art and I admire people who find passion in everything they put in the dinner table. Food Network is one of my favorite channels, Iron Chef is one of my favorite shows and I have foodnetwork.com bookmarked in my computers at home and at work. Sometimes when I’m in the kitchen cooking, I’d pretend like I was in my own cooking show.

I must have gotten this from my mom, who happens to be a very good cook. But for the longest time I thought that between me and my sister, I was the one who couldn’t carry out a task in the kitchen. My mom tried to teach us both, but while my sister graduated my mom’s cooking class with high honors, I flunked. Let’s just put it this way—everything my sister touched in the kitchen turned to gold, everything I touched turned to disaster!

One time we prepared dinner for a group of priests and seminarians—my mom assigned me the fried chicken—the easiest of all the menu items. I had a list of ingredients and the exact steps from the marinating to the frying. Well…just imagine how everyone who took a bite at my fried chicken turned red from coughing and choking. It was the saltiest fried chicken ever made and everyone who tasted it described it as “murag tinabal (salted fish)” or “something marinated in a whole sack of salt”. It was a traumatizing experience for me. Until now, I still cannot forget how furious my mom was and how she almost threw the entire platter of chicken in front of me saying “Bantay ka ug dili na nimo hutdon ug kaon ha! (you better eat all of that or else…)”

It was only when I moved to the US that I found cooking to be quite exciting. It started when I was a trainee where I lived in a corporate house with other trainees from the Philippines and China. We would take turns cooking and feeding fellow trainees. Some trainees were very good cooks so when it was my turn to cook, I would try the hardest to impress or at least not embarrass myself. That was how I learned and as time went by, I tried to get better and better at it and loved cooking in the process.

I don’t think I’ll ever be a chef. Going to culinary school is not in my agenda. But if I can turn a simple dinner to a lovely feast for my family, and I can entertain my friends with a sumptuous meal once in a while, then I am happy! For now, I’ll be the executive chef in my own kitchen where I have one big fan—the hubby who I fill almost everyday with good food and lots of love!

*Served for dinner last night - Herb-crusted Mahi-mahi with rice wine sauce*

*Vegetables is good for you, but this one is cooked with a little butter*