We all know that preparing meals at home is good for our health and wallet. Laging pasok sa budget dapat.
If there's a dish that I could cook easily with minimal free time, it is sopas paspas (chicken macaroni soup) as my children called it. When they are sick and would like to have a sip of hot and creamy soup, they will request for my sopas and a yang chow (fried rice with bits of bacon or tira tira left over food, my version). Its their comfort food.
Every parents has their specialty food that their children love. You know you are good at what you cooked when your family asks for it every now and then.
Just like Chef Lau, I never used any MSG or broth cubes until this day.
I am after the health of my family. A pinch of salt and a dash of pepper is all I need to wake up the taste of any dish that I am cooking. I am also for organic food, if given the budget.
When I got an invite to Chef Laudico Guevarra's Restaurant. I said yes right away. Chef Lau is an inspiration to each and everyone when it comes to whipping up dishes. FWD partners with Chef Lau with The Culinary Bucket List winners of the FWD Life Philippines’ (FWD) Bucket List campaign last January 31 at Chef Laudico Guevarra's.
The bucket list winners were asked to bring their signature dish, to be heated, finished, and presented to Chef Lau at the restaurant a la MasterChef.
Chef Lau also prepared his Tausug dish called Chicken Pyanggang , a chicken delicacy marinated in burnt coconut and tossed with vegetables.
What do celebrity chefs Ina Garten, Mario Batali,
Claude Tayag, and Gaita Fores have in common? (Well, aside from their obvious
success in the food and restaurant business.) All of them didn’t get their
start in culinary school and are all self-taught savants and mavens in the
kitchen. This only proves that, sometimes, you don’t necessarily need a degree
from the finest, most expensive culinary school to make it in the food
business.
Chef Rolando Laudico, for one, albeit graduating from
the prestigious Culinary Institute of America (CIA), believes that anyone with
the burning passion, business savvy, endurance, and, most important, creativity
has what it takes to take their humble dishes from their kitchen counters to
the tables of their very own restaurant—if they work hard enough for it.
In fact, the Philippines’ rock star chef and former
host and judge of MasterChef Pinoy Edition, started his career in the food
business washing dishes and chopping ingredients before saving enough money to
get into the CIA in New York. “We all have to start somewhere,” says Chef Lau,
as close friends in the industry like to call him.
And from there, Chef Lau went from dreaming of
starting his own restaurant to opening dining concepts that had made him, quite
literally, a household name in the local culinary scene—Guevarra’s by Chef
Laudico in San Juan and Chef Laudico OK Café in Pasig.
As for the winners of the FWD Life Philippines’ (FWD)
Bucket List Contest, they all started in their own kitchens—attracted by the
lure of slowly melting shallots and caramelized pork belly or perfectly fluffy
cheese omelets—cooking their much-loved specialty dish for friends and family.
On their bucket list: Learn to create dishes that will someday wow the world.
And FWD Life Philippines and Chef Lau himself are helping to make that happen
for them.
In August 2017, FWD launched the Lifetime of
Possibilities social media campaign to challenge the public to live life to the
fullest, say yes to every possibility, and start working on their bucket lists.
The pan-Asian insurance company—with offices in Hong Kong and Macau, Thailand,
Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, Japan, and the Philippines—partnered with
experts in different fields: Coach Jim and Coach Toni Saret for Fitness, Doms
Lim and Perci Intalan for Filmmaking, Casa Escondida Anilao Resort & Dive
Center for Scuba Diving, and Chef Laudico for Culinary to help them take their
first step to achieving their bucket list goals.
Thousands heeded the call, posting pictures of their
own #FWDBucketListMoment on Instagram and joining the contest on Facebook. Prizes
are actual experiences of taking that first step to fulfilling their bucket
lists, whether it’s a one-on-one with a chef, a filmmaking workshop, a fitness
session, or a trip of a lifetime. This is because FWD wants people to really
experience life and celebrate living. They can live the life they’ve always
wanted and treat every day as a new adventure because FWD has their backs,
covering them for a lifetime of possibilities.
The Culinary Bucket List event was held at Guevarra’s
by Chef Laudico in San Juan, the bucket list winners were asked to bring their
signature dish, to be heated, finished, and presented to Chef Lau at the
restaurant a la MasterChef. After the
presentation, the winners had a chance to pick the brains of the rockstar chef
and get valuable tips about home cooking, as well as starting their own brand
as “chefs,” over a hearty Guevarra’s breakfast.
The exclusive mentoring with winners was then followed
by a media event, where Chef Lau presented the new and improved signature
dishes of the winners, before presenting his very own FWD Dish, a brighter and
more vibrant twist to Chicken Pyanggang, a Tausug chicken delicacy marinated in
burnt coconut and tossed with vegetables.
“When I was asked to create a dish that’s surprising, innovative, and different like FWD, I immediately thought of Chicken Pyanggang, which I tried recently during a trip in Mindanao,” Chef Lau says. “Cooking chicken in burnt coconut in itself is very surprising and very unique to how Filipinos are used to eating poultry. To take that Tausug dish and make it more vibrant is even more interesting and refreshing. It’s pushing the boundaries of flavors and spices, the way FWD is encouraging people, like our bucket list winners, to push their boundaries and go out of their comfort zones.”
Culinary bucket list achieved—and on to more! When
will you?
To know more about FWD’s bucket list adventures, visit
www.fwd.com.ph, Like Facebook/fwdlife.ph, and follow @fwdlife_ph on Instagram.
#FWDLifetimeOfPossibilities #FWDBucketListMoment #GetReadyToLive
