Donita Rose’s culinary journey

CEBU, Philippines - “I love God, and I love food,” lists off Donita Rose, her eyes taking on a devious twinkle. “And then I love my son. In that ranking.”

It’s a Sunday afternoon, and the actress, host and former MTV Asia VJ just participated in a cooking demo at Ayala Center Cebu’s Active Zone Area, where she whipped up Crispy Pork Binagoongan and other dishes. 

She then headed to Laguna Garden Café with the team from Jolly Heart Mate Canola Oil, and here’s where we grilled Donita on her transformation from a mere foodie to a culinary diva.

“I just really believe that I have more taste buds than most people, because food drives me,” she begins.

“When I think of food, I already see what it looks like in my mind. I already know in my head what it tastes like. And if it’s not exactly the way I want it to be, then I am not happy. That’s the passion and perfection that drives me to become excellent and to enjoy what I am doing.”

Her parents loved to cook, but Donita only started her culinary journey in Singapore where she was based during her MTV stint. A culinary hub, it was in Singapore where she was exposed to different cuisines like Malaysian, Thai, Indian and other international fare. While she was becoming a popular personality in Asia, she also secretly fantasized becoming a full-fledged chef.

“Ang alam ko lang talaga noon is Filipino and American food. When I ended up being based in Singapore, that’s when my eyes were opened to the cuisines of the world,” she says. “From that time on, I felt that I really needed to somehow further my education in culinary.”

Her booming career then left no time for culinary school, so Donita did the next best thing to practice her kitchen skills: cook-offs with her two bestfriends!

“We used to hold Bible studies every week. Then we would invite certain wives to come over, and our catch was, ‘Donita will cook dinner for you.’ And then after eating, we would say, ‘Oh we’re having a Bible study. Baka you want to stay on and join.’ Inisip namin, mahihiya sila after kumain, so they will stay. The joke among us bestfriends was, ‘Who’s the better cook among us?’ So pabonggahan ng luto, but nothing serious,” Donita relates with a chuckle.

When her MTV contract ended, Donita says she actually applied for the Asian Food Channel. The bosses told her they needed a host with a Culinary degree, and so a heartbroken Donita was shown the door.

One by one, she and her bestfriends found themselves moving back to the Philippines for different reasons. For Donita, it was to grab an offer to co-host ABS-CBN’s “Umagang Kay Ganda,” a program she was part of for four and a half years.

Still in touch with her bestfriends, Donita learned that one of them was enrolled by her husband at the Academy for International Culinary Arts (AICA). That pal invited her as a guest to their Hell Week (“It’s actually called Restaurant Assimilation Week but because you will really experience what it’s like to be in a real restaurant, it’s like hell for the students,” explains Donita. ), and being in that environment gave Donita that needed shove to make her dream come true.

So along with her son’s nanny, they both enrolled at AICA (“Her grades are even higher than mine,” says Donita, glancing at her nanny.) and soon became certified Culinary degree holders.

The Fil-Am beauty initially planned to fulfill her externship in the United States, but she had problems securing a slot. She says, “There was this sanction between the major schools there and the hotels that they have other priority schools. So it’s hard to get in.”

Donita ended up completing her externship requirements at The Crowne Plaza Hotel Manila for a grueling six months. At The Crowne, guests who spotted the Audrey Hepburn look-alike would do a double take, and then would turn bashful that a celebrity was carving their ribs for them.

“They would always say, ‘Kamukha mo si Donita Rose.’ ‘Eh kasi ako po yun eh,’” she shares. “I went around to different stations, so it wasn’t like I stayed in one place the whole time. If I would be at the carving station for the Rose Prime Rib, parang kukuha sila ng plato, ‘Pahingi po.’ Parang nagugulat nalang sila. ‘What are you doing here? Why are you serving?’ Tapos nahihiya sila.”

Donita says she likes to go around and ask diners how the food is, especially if she made a dish for the first time. “Kasi proud na proud ako. In Seven Corners, they would have themes. For example, for the next month, magluluto ako ng Latin-American food. I didn’t know how, so every time I make it, sobrang proud ako. You wanna hear the real critique. ‘Hindi nga, yung totoo.’ Ako naman kasi, mayabang ako. I know if it’s good or not. If it’s not, I won’t ask.”

After her stint with Crowne Plaza, Donita packed her bags for Las Vegas where she focused on the hot kitchen of different cuisines like Italian, Japanese and even gourmet Filipino, catering to private events all over the city.

She was also hired by the world’s largest catering group, Compass Group, where she was assigned at the headquarters of Zappos and mastered Garde manger, which she says is her specialty.

“Garde manger is the art of cold food preparation,” she offers. “I did the salad bar preparation with a team, and when I would finish that, I did the deli. So I did gourmet sandwiches every day. Aside from the pre-made, merong on-the-spot talaga.”

“And then most women, they gravitate towards baking and pastries. It’s just less hard work. But I wanted to be different, so I focused on butchery. I was the only female working in the butchery department for a hundred hours!” boasts Donita, whose favorite food show is Andrew Zimmern’s “Bizarre Foods America.”

Cuisine-wise, Donita says her specialties are Filipino, Italian and French (“I can’t say I’m an expert, but this was my thesis, so certain French dishes I’m very, very good at. When I went to the States and had Boeuf Bourgoinion, I was disappointed because mine was better.”), in that order.

Given the chance, she wants to next master Molecular Gastronomy, or the science of food on a molecular level – the topic of her thesis which she defended for three hours.

“Molecular Gastronomy is just a very high end way of cooking. It’s cooking on a molecular level,” explains Donita. “You really have to study the science behind it. And the recipes are with the periodic table. So they really use the elements and stuff. For example, my first video blog in my website is liquid nitrogen ice cream that I made with my son.”

“We’re also teaching people how to make ice cream without a machine. Kumbaga yung liquid nitrogen is nitrogen that’s liquefied, the temperature is –323 degrees Celsius, kunwari. Sobrang lamig niyan, if it touches your skin, masusunog ka. Once you add milk and eggs and you’re churning it, you’ll see how it turns into ice cream.”

On and off, Donita pretty much worked for a full year in different restaurants in the US. And then another Philippine hosting stint called her back home. This time, it was for GMA-7’s morning program “Basta Everyday Happy,” along with Gladys Reyes, Alessandra de Rossi and Chef Boy Logro.

“We had this segment at ‘Basta Everyday Happy’ where we created eight recipes. This was last year during the Christmas season. They asked me to create eight recipes for them, which was left up to me to decide what to do. And because they gave me creative license, I wanted them to be super happy,” she relates.

Her recipes greatly impressed the segment sponsor, Jolly Heart Mate Canola Oil, that they wasted no time in signing her up as brand ambassador, a first since the brand’s inception in 1997. Among her duties is to come up with 12 recipes that are given her own twist, and to hold cooking demos in different regions.

Says Fly Ace Corporation Senior Product Manager Zen Prudentino: “I admire the way Donita connects to her audience with her lively personality. I was surprised to see her passion for cooking during our segments in ‘Basta Everyday Happy’ in December 2014 and it was then that I thought of her as a perfect embodiment of our brand's vision of getting Filipinos into healthy cooking. Masarap talaga magluto and nakita ko yung engagement niya sa tao. And she’s really nice.”

Now that she has a Culinary degree, will Donita give the Asian Food Channel another try? “Absolutely! But I was told that they don’t produce in Singapore, unlike before with MTV. We did the studio recordings in Singapore. Hindi na daw ganyan ngayon. The Asian Food Network is now produced by independent production companies.”

“Who knows, maybe with these videos that I’m producing…because normally I would write the script, I know exactly what I want. It has to be perfection. But then I told them, I think we need to scrap the idea that it has to be perfect. I want it to be fun. So I scrapped out everything, and I said, let’s just have fun. And my team is really fun to be around.”

“I got this guy, an assistant from AICA,” she continues. “I said, ‘Explain the fermentation process.’ He was stuttering and I laughing and making fun of him. Finally, he memorized the answer. So yung ganun? Because most people, unless they went to culinary school, you don’t wanna be super serious. You want them to enjoy cooking. Might as well make it fun, and make them want to copy you. So I want it to be fun, pero kahit papano, maganada pa rin yung outcome.”

These days, in between showbiz commitments, she still finds time to lovingly prepare heart healthy dishes for her family. Her ultimate dream? A cookbook and a restaurant, of course!

Visit Donita’s blog www.donitarose.com for recipes.