Bettina Osmeña: Food tidings for Christmas

It’s beginning to taste a lot like Christmas in the home of Serge and Bettina Osmeña that’s filled with the romance and elegance of food, glorious food! It’s that time of the year when Bettina is busier than usual in her ever-bustling kitchen. We catch her preparing her foie gras salad, her big fat chicken galantina with its creamy homemade gravy, her perfectly baked salmon drizzled with homemade mayonnaise with a hint of maple syrup, and her vegetarian spinach cannelloni that even meat lovers would love.

“Christmas Eve is for the family — Serge and our kids Joey, Bea, Dani, and Andi — as well as my mom, brother, and sister,” says Bettina. “And for the past many years, we’ve had good friends Ramon and Frannie Jacinto joining us. As for Christmas lunch, my in-laws come over.”

Eat’s Christmastime!

The Osmeñas’ Christmas table is lined with a woven table runner that Bettina bought in Thailand but is actually made in Laos. Bettina collects a lot of tribal weaves from all over the world because she feels that “they speak to you in a silent language.” She loves going to flea markets and places where she can find these homespun items. The centerpiece is an arrangement of twigs, pinecones and Christmas balls, which Bettina interspersed with fresh flowers that she loves to have around the house.

The table is set for eight with fine bone Lenox china plates that Bettina had in Los Angeles when she lived there in the ’80s. On top of the plates are monogrammed napkins with the letter O embroidered on them. Spread on the table are wine glasses from Rustan’s, small candle holders from Crate and Barrel, and candelabras that Bettina got at Gump’s San Francisco in the ’80s.

“I recycle my Christmas decor year after year,” the down-to-earth housewife discloses.  “My husband likes the traditional red and green.  I probably just buy two new pieces a year and retire the same number every year.”

This model homemaker confesses, “I’m into interiors. I stay in my house a lot and would rather spend my time and energy creating a nice, livable space for my family. I have been married for 32 years so what you see in my house is a collection of what I have acquired over the same amount of time. This year, I lost three children — my son Joey got married last January and my two daughters Bea and Dani decided to move out and share an apartment. It’s just Andi, my youngest who’s a senior high school student, who’s with me now so Serge and I are sort of empty nesting.  And I am now in the process of cleansing. I have been cleaning out, editing, unloading my material stuff
for the past year. I feel so liberated parting with so much pre-loved items. Whatever you see in this house will eventually be farmed out to my four children.”

What you will see in this lovely home is a priceless collection of artworks that Bettina has acquired over the past decades. Bettina loves to surround herself with fine art and good food.

A never-ending love affair

Bettina’s love affair with food began long before she met and fell in love with Serge. She started cooking at 18, when she would whip up her sinful kare-kare and callos (her mom Chona’s recipe) for the family and during parties at home. She studied cooking under Lorrie Reynoso, then a fresh grad from Cordon Bleu, who taught her the basics of classical French cooking.

“Sobrang hilig ko talaga,” she gushes. “I was only in college, taking up Business Administration, when I put up my own small catering company. But I closed it down after a year because I went abroad.”

But that did not extinguish her burning passion for cooking. “I have been attending cooking classes for the past 40 years under so many teachers,” she says.  “I enjoy going to Reggie Aspiras’ classes.  She is such a passionate cook.  Beth Romualdez, one of my close friends, is also my mentor.  The creator of Rustan’s Gourmet to Go, Beth is a professional through and through.  She gave me a lot of pointers when I opened my store Gourmet Corner in San Antonio Plaza. Beth has published two cookbooks and is always sharing cooking tips and recipes with
me.”

Probably the best compliment Bettina has received for her cooking comes from her son Joey.  She relates, “When my kids were growing up, I would cook dinner for them every night. My son was just having dinner with us the other night and he was telling me, ‘Mom, you really spoiled us with your food. I compare all the dishes I eat outside to your version and yours is always better.’”

A store is born

And now, Bettina shares her passion for good food with everyone through her store Gourmet Corner which opened at San Antonio Plaza, Forbes Park, Makati City (mobile number 0998-5696849, visit www.gourmetcorner.ph) two months ago.

“It’s a one-stop gourmet convenience shop for all the best products sourced from small entrepreneurs around Metro Manila and the provinces,” says Bettina. “I like to help my co-entrepreneurs, like housewives who make cookies or who have specialties. These women always had to depend on bazaars before to sell their products. Now, they have a place where people can get their products seven days a week.”

Bettina says she’s a bazaar veteran, too, which is why she’s familiar with a lot of her chefs who all used to join bazaars, too. “I told them I’d carry their top sellers. So, I have people like Johanna Garcia, Tippi Tambunting, Marco Rodriguez, Vicky Garcia. I carry longganisa from Vigan and also from Cabanatuan, which is a super bestseller. I also have smoked chicken longganisa that I bring in from Baguio Country Club. I’m constantly sourcing. One of my top sellers is Marty Cojuangco’s chicken tocino and bacon that have no nitrates and MSG. Marty, autistic son of Choy Cojuangco, makes these himself and because he’s allergic to preservatives, his products are preservative-free and they really, really taste good!  I’ve also got Corner Tree Cafe, our partner for vegetarian food, and Edgy Veggy for gluten-free vegetarian food, so I have something for everybody. I have from healthy to deadly! I believe I have put together in my Gourmet Corner the best of the best.”

Bettina recalls, “Recently, I was putting my pasta products in my vegetarian freezer when somebody told me, ‘Please change your pasta, you have to get egg-free pasta.’ So, I shifted, but actually there’s no difference in taste and consistency. Now, my pasta is truly vegetarian, like my spinach lasagna and mushroom truffle cannelloni.”

In her deli section, Bettina’s got truffled siomai and truffled hakaw. Then she has her tapas, five kinds, one of which is from Bambina de Leon whose tapas boast a 50-year-old heritage.

Bettina is certainly proud of her assorted offerings that range from appetizers, soups, and delis, to chicken, fish/seafood, pork, beef, pastas/pasta sauces, vegetarian, dips/spreads, gluten-free.

“I’ve also got Michelle Dinglasan-Tomacruz who supplies me with Moroccan food, which is doing very well,” Bettina adds.

Bettina offers assorted sweet treats, too, like Maricel Cunanan’s ensaymadas, which Bettina buys by the box  (12 pieces) but sells by the piece, and Florabel Co-Yatco’s cookies and other goodies. One of her customers ordered 20 packs of five of his favorite native goodies to give to 20 friends for Christmas. “Yes, you can customize your orders,” Bettina tells us. With the mad shopping rush, Bettina must be heaven-sent!

She points out, “We’re constantly adding things and deleting things that are not moving. But the mainstays comprise about 85 percent of our menu.”

At home, the Osmeñas prefer to eat simply. A breast cancer survivor, Bettina’s diet now consists of 60 to 70-percent vegetables. She has stopped eating white rice; her everyday rice is either brown, red, black or adlai or quinoa. She has also quit smoking.

As for the former Senator Serge Osmeña, Bettina says her husband has always preferred Pinoy food. (Truly, a Pinoy at heart and taste buds, Serge went on exile with his family after martial law was declared. And so did Bettina who hails from the Lopez clan — the Lopezes having fallen out of grace with the dictator Ferdinand Marcos. But Bettina and Serge did not meet during the great escape in 1977; they met in 1984 and got married in 1985.)

“He just loves kare-kare and binagoongan, but since he’s become health-conscious, he now avoids these fatty foods,” says Bettina. “Now, he’d rather just have a bowl of alugbati with some ground meat while watching Senate hearings on TV.”

But while Bettina will just have some fruits for dessert, Serge would indulge his sweet tooth with ginatan or Polly’s chocolate cake fetched from the gas station in Magallanes or brazo de mercedes or leche flan.

Surely, in the home of Serge and Bettina Osmeña, Christmas is spent with lots of good food, love and laughter.