Helen really knows the way to Tito’s heart

First, a revelation: Do you know what Helen Gamboa always brings (or sends over when she can’t make it) to the barkada’s salu-salo (to celebrate no particular occasion but specially for a birthday)? Yes, food, glorious food straight from her kitchen, notably her lumpiang ubod. Helen prepares several trays of it that after having his or her fill, every member quietly approaches the buffet table with a styrofoam lunch box for the de riguer take-home.

“Dalian ninyo baka maubusan kayo,” Marichu “Manay Ichu” Maceda would playfully (gleefully!) remind everybody. “Ako nakapag-balot na.”

Like most Kapampangan, Helen is a good cook,  known to her family and friends as the ultimate Queen of the Kitchen — that is, besides the (one and only) queen of Sen. Tito Sotto, her better (well, her best) half for more than 46 years of blissful marriage blessed with four well-raised children (Quezon City Councilors Lala and Gian, Apple and Ciara) who have given them 10 beautiful grandchildren.

“Cooking is a passion that I got from my mom,” revealed Helen. “I would hang around the kitchen while she was cooking. When I serve food, it’s straight from the heart.”

And, if I may add, straight from her kitchen which is so spic-and-span (look, Ma, not the slightest trace of oil on the furniture and appliances) that it’s an ideal feature for a home-care magazine.

Anyway, viewers will have a front-view look at that part of the Sotto residence in White Plains, Quezon City, in From Helen’s Kitchen which premieres on Saturday night, July 1, at 8 o’clock on Colours in CignalTV. In this TV special, viewers will get a chance to see Helen create dishes that go beyond the average comfort food. She will share recipes passed from generations of her family, including those that she herself has concocted, all tried and tasted by her loved ones.

In the series, consisting of 13 episodes shot in two months at her kitchen (which she herself designed), Helen will share kitchen knowhow with her celebrity guests like Maricel Soriano, Carmina Villarroel, Eric Quizon, Pops Fernandez, Albert Martinez, Raymart Santiago, Ruby Rodriguez, Gladys Reyes, Donita Rose, Bibeth Orteza and Pauleen Luna. At the end of the show, just as she and other barkadas do after a salu-salo, Helen gives guests a specially-cooked dish as pabaon, the packaging of which is meticulously done by Helen herself so that nothing spills and the freshness of the dish is well-preserved. (After the presscon for the show, Helen gave the media guys carefully packed dish as giveaway. Burp!!!).

Just as she has been doing with Tito, Helen will surely win the viewers’ hearts through... how else?... their stomach.

“We make the show not just informative and instructive but also entertaining,” assured Helen who will revive her Bunny Chanel alter ego (remember her?). “I will show the viewers how to prepare my favorite recipes in a musical way. How? While cooking with my guests, we will make kuwento-kuwento at may kasamang kantahan. With Maricel, she asked me to sing La Vie En Rose. Pa-duet-duet kami. Ang saya-saya, di ba?”

Although everybody is duly addressed to, male and female regardless of status and socio-economic standing, Helen is inviting housewives to tune in.

“That’s why I alway say, ‘Para ito sa mga misis, sa mga housewife at sa mga tight ang budget.’”

Asked what Tito’s favorite food is, Helen broke into a girlish-slightly-nervous laughter, “All! Kabisado ko ang appetite niya.”

And much more! After 46 years, Helen knows not just Tito’s gustatory preference but also his taste in everything, including his wardrobe. Did you know that it’s Helen who prepares what Tito has to wear every day?

“I usually do it at bedtime,” said Helen (who, if you didn’t know, was a Miss Press Photography beauty before she joined showbiz). “I would prepare his get-up for Eat, Bulaga! and another  set when he goes to the Senate. I prepare everything, with his approval of course... his shirt, his pants, his hanky, his socks, even his underwear.”

Does she also trim Tito’s mustache?

Helen laughed. “Siya na ang bahala dun, hehehe!!!”

Four years into their golden wedding anniversary and the fire of romance is burning as intensely as it did during their courtship days when Tito felt like he was walking on tightrope under the eagle watch of Helen’s over-protective mom.

“The original Stage Mother,” Helen fondly recalled. So Tito and Helen eloped, only for Tito to return Helen to her mom after two weeks.

“I felt so guilty,” admitted Helen. “I thought my mom would die sa sama ng loob.” Two years later, the sweethearts were married in church. “Tito was very patient. He had to wait for two years before we could live together.”

But the courtship hasn’t stopped. When they bump heads (“Over little things lang naman”), Helen would seclude herself in another room until Tito won her back.

“He would leave notes all over, sa tukador and even sa cover ng toilet bowl, ‘I love you. Bati na tayo!’ Of course, that would soften my heart.”

And then, Helen would cook Tito’s favorite dish. Peacetime again.

In one of STAR’s exclusive interviews with Helen, she recalled how Tito once gifted her with a pair of lingerie. Imagine how Tito reacted when Helen, as she had gamely narrated, wore it and danced “like a Playboy bunny!”

Now we know that Helen really knows the way to Tito’s heart and it’s more than just through his stomach.

(E-mail reactions at [email protected]. For more updates, photos and videos, visit www.philstar.com/funfare or follow me on Instagram @therealrickylo.)