Selena Gomez serves Pinoy food in quarantine cooking show
MANILA, Philippines — Selena Gomez makes the kitchen her stage as she displays her culinary talent (or lack of it) in the unscripted quarantine cooking show, Selena + Chef.
Filipino viewers can watch how the American pop star learns and serves a variety of cuisines starting Aug. 12, with two seasons of her Max Original series airing simultaneously on HBO Go. Virtually lending a helping hand to Selena are different culinary experts, including Filipino-Amercian chef and TV host Jordan Andino who teaches her how to prepare and cook Chicken Adobo with Jasmine Rice and Turon.
Like many people during this time, the 29-year-old turned to cooking to cope with stay-at-home orders due to the pandemic. “And that’s really how this series itself was born,” Aaron Saidman, Selena + Chef executive producer, told The STAR in a recent virtual interview. “(It’s) out of Selena’s desire to learn how to cook, finding herself in the kitchen probably more than she ever thought she would, like the rest of us, and finding that she wanted to learn how to cook better and make more delicious meals.”
Saidman had previously worked with Selena to produce a six-part documentary series about undocumented families in the United States facing deportation. But when COVID-19 hit the US, the singer-actress “wanted to do something creative, and felt a real need to learn how to cook better, because that was the reality she was facing, as were millions and millions of Americans and I would imagine millions and millions of people all across the planet.”
“That was the original idea, like hey, can we partner up again, but this time, let’s do something that is fun and escapist, but also has some utility to it? If Selena can learn how to make these meals, some of them are quite complicated, maybe the viewer at home can also and so there’s good takeaway there,” Saidman added.
It’s public knowledge that Selena has an autoimmune disease, Lupus, but the production team didn’t run into any specific issues with the menu in relation to her health condition. “She was able and totally fine to eat everything that we had sort of set up for her to cook,” Saidman said.
“She was very involved and collaborative in sort of what the recipes would be. The chefs had the idea for the meal, of course, but Selena knew loosely what she might be making, so we made sure that she was okay with eating the dishes in advance.”
As in the teasers for the show, the struggle in the kitchen was real for Selena. Besides the logistical challenges of having to film in the midst of a pandemic, Saidman also noted that the recording artist just moved into a new house right before shooting the first season in May 2020. So, the series would show that not only was she learning new recipes and getting “schooled” by all-star chefs, she was also adapting to an “unfamiliar territory” that is her home.
Saidman added, “Because we were filming during the early days of COVID, no one else could really be in her kitchen that she was quarantining in. She really was forced to do (the cooking) by herself. And when you’re working with an expert chef, often, if they’re on a set together, and they see you struggling, they’ll just take over and you’re all the more happy to let them take over.
“But because we were shooting it remotely because of the pandemic, she really had to do every single constituent element of preparing the meals by herself. And that gave us a great creative opportunity to watch her struggle and achieve in equal parts perhaps. And that’s the fun part of the series.”
Nevertheless, he recalled feeling genuinely nervous for Selena every time she had to cut anything, turn on her oven, put something in a hot pan or use parchment paper.
“I would say it’s a toss-up — my anxiety level between whether she was going to cut herself or burn herself was roughly equal between the two. We were worried about that. A couple of close calls. We did get her a fire extinguisher for her home; she has not yet had to use it in the midst of making the show,” Saidman mused.
“But joking aside, that really was our approach to producing (the show). We set up an environment where she really asked to be the chef herself. She’s getting expert instruction from a master chef and we’re gonna watch that play out organically. And that’s where, I think, the authenticity of the content really shines through. And Selena is just very real and very down-to-earth, and relentlessly and effortlessly charming. And I think that that really comes through as well.”
That also came through in the latest trailer for the show where, after she whipped up the Chicken Adobo, Chef Andino’s lola appeared in a video call to critique her rendition of the popular Filipino dish.
Selena asked, “How do you think it looks?”
Andino’s grandmother responded, “It’s OK,” to the laughter of Selena and company.
Saidman talked more about this episode during the virtual roundtable in response to a Filipino journalist’s question, saying he couldn’t wait to know Filipino audiences’ reaction though he didn’t know how authentic Selena’s version would be. To recall, the adobo made headlines recently after the Department of Trade and Industry’s move to come up with a “basic traditional recipe” for the international promotion of the dish.
The Selena + Chef executive producer noted that for the recipes on the show, they simply followed the recommendations of the guest chefs. And in this case, it was Chef Andino’s “interpretation” and “spin” on the Chicken Adobo that they presented in an episode of Season 2. He said, “They’re the experts. So we defer to them (chefs). We just try to make sure we have a variety across all different episodes.
“I happen to love Chicken Adobo. We have in Los Angeles, we have a decent-sized Filipino community and an area of the city called Filipino Town. And so, I had many different varieties of Chicken Adobo just as a resident of Los Angeles, and my producing partner’s wife is Filipina as well. And I’ve had some of her family’s cooking. So, I was excited about producing that episode. Now, I’m nervous for you and your fellow countrymen to see that episode. But I look forward to their feedback.”
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