Cooking at home, at Mariners and JaimEliza

I am not a great cook and a seasoned baker. But I am an avid foodie, a culinary arts patron, a lover of good quality food, a gourmet at heart, and an advocate of healthy foods inspired by indigenous, local, and international cuisine. I am a food adventurer, and if my husband were to be believed, I could quickly concoct a dish of spaghetti and fried chicken that is more delicious than what one buys at the most popular fast food chain. My banana bread is one of a kind, and my Pandesal Marinero, with my baker Dodong, is one of the best in town; it’s the kind of pandesal that our Lola loved to munch every morning with her kape na tinutong na bagas.

If anything good came out of the years-long stay-home chapter of our life during the Pandemic, it was that home cooking and baking became the average fad during the lockdown.  Looking back to those days that stretched to two years, I knew that period was the best for local food retailers who were instant heroes for making instant food at home when food stores remained closed. Because it was the Pandemic, it was the time that rekindled my interest in cooking and baking healthily. I remember I began switching my focus from the usual traditional recipes to foods that use healthy, green-based, and even exotic ingredients. I joined healthy cooking online groups that engage in conversations about creating healthy foods and how to prolong the shelf life of foods in keeping with the COVID-19 times.

I must thank the Pandemic for bringing back home cooking or the so-called lutong bahay to the psyche in the family kitchen. Today, it remains the most popular social enterprise and livelihood project known for retail selling and marketing in the country.  The challenge is how to be different. I founded the JaimEliza store from the school canteens our Mommy Eliza first organized. It now aims to be a store with a mission, an integrator of community-made products, and promoting environment-friendly enterprises. The store is dedicated to the Mariners founders, Jaime and Eliza, who finished their BS in Business Management late in their marriage and hope to one day establish their store. She never did. She died on August 12 at age 94.

The beginning of my love for food

I belong to a family that enjoyed dining out every Sunday after church services. I imbibed the tradition for a different purpose: to taste fresh ingredients, new innovative dishes, and impeccable dining. I was exposed to cooking and eating in my childhood days with my Mommy Eliza cooking the family’s favorite Beef Stew cooked in her pressure cooker, her own Cocido, fresh lumpia, bulalo, and the all-time favorite Pancit guisado. She baked her chiffon and chocolate cakes. So it is no surprise that Mommy Eliza took to the school canteens as if these were extensions of her kitchen. Development of the Mariner’s culinary and hotel management programs was a priority.

Years back, one of Mariners’ most exciting culinary delights was when I witnessed the barista at work and play at the Legazpi campus mock-up Bar, where students learn how to make coffee and specialty beverages and juggle and flip bottles creatively. Many of them become successful bartenders onboard cruise ships and hotels. Students learn the art and science of food preparation, cooking, and serving. They learn about Philippine food history and that it is a product of centuries of past influences from the Chinese, Spanish, Indian, American, Muslim, Mexican, and European. Fast foods and Boodle fights learned during the war are now a traditional festive ritual at Mariners where food is spread out on a table covered with banana leaves, and people stand shoulder-to-shoulder to eat as fast as they can, the military way.

The Mariners Tourism and Health Institute (MTHI) Naga has inspired students to become among the best, now employed here and around the world. In every student cooking competition, they excel. Two Sundays ago, we cheered the Mariners Naga college tandem, who emerged overall champions again in the student category of the 7th Food and Beverage Exhibition that the Camarines Sur Chamber and Commerce and Industry (CSCCII) sponsors yearly.  

How can Mariners schools continue to upscale their food and beverage, hospitality management, vocational and technical, and entrepreneurship programs since the late Commodore Dante, the former Mariners President, established mock-up hotels for aspiring chefs and hospitality professionals? The following week, I led the strategic planning for the International Culinary and Tech Vocational faculty to aim for a more developed department. A Mariners project with the CHEd called the Social Enterprise Development (SED) Project has joined the plan. With the JaimEliza store, cooking, baking, and producing Kamjus, Picujus, and Captain’sCaptain’s Burger, the faculty hopes to partner for a more enjoyable and fruitful joint enterprise.

Food as an industry and source of comfort 

The food industry is a testament to resilience, constantly navigating the challenges of the supply chain, fluctuating prices, and changing consumer preferences. From restaurants and cafes to carinderias and turo-turo, each establishment has its own story of survival. Still, it is the carinderias and the turo-turo with lutong bahay that remain the popular choice ng masa with cheap pampabusog. In these challenging times, some thrive, some lose, and some break even. But the spirit of the food industry remains unbroken, a beacon of hope in uncertain times.

In a world of constant stress and work pressures, one thing that is sure to give comfort and unwavering joy is FOOD. Food is a source of comfort, a way to celebrate, and oftentimes, the only thing that seems to make us happy. There is nothing to cook for people experiencing poverty, and food is a privilege to enjoy. If you are one of those who think that “Food is the only thing that makes me happy,” you are not alone. We are all in this - whether poor or the well-off.