Jodi Sta. Maria learns fundamentals to back up her cooking skills

MANILA, Philippines — Jodi Sta. Maria has added another feather to her cap when she recently enrolled in a special culinary course at the Center for Asian Culinary Studies (CACS) in San Juan.

Shooting on the upcoming GMA and ABS-CBN collaboration series "Unbreak My Heart" had already begun with a trip to Switzerland in February, but Jodi has been able to squeeze an intensive culinary course into whatever free schedule she had to fulfill a dream.

She cooks, but she is not equipped with the fundamental techniques and the science behind what she is cooking — skills and knowledge that she has long wanted to gain.

Busy as she is, she finally resolved to harness the power of her free days into whole-day classes at CACS, where she was handled by the husband-and-wife team of Chefs Gino Gonzalez and China Cojuangco-Gonzalez.

Chef Gino, who was her teacher in all her cooking classes, created a customized class for Jodi because she had limited time to spend on her culinary course, as she was in between shoots. Her course was patterned after the school’s Skills class but was designed specifically for her and the two friends who joined her in the program so they could learn more dishes in a day than if she were to go solo.

Jodi had initially wanted to only learn cooking but, upon discussions with Chef Gino, realized that there would eventually be a crossover between cooking and baking. The actress also realized that she needed to be knowledgeable about baking to effectively “cross over” when cooking and baking finally meet.

More than half of her program was spent on cooking classes under Chef Gino, who describes her as a “very pleasant person."

"As a culinary student, she was very calm, always smiling and asking a lot of sensible questions about cooking. So if she did not know the fundamentals and the science behind what she was cooking before, now she is armed with the right tools/techniques,” shared the chef.  

After completing her cooking skills classes, Jodi was endorsed to Chef China, who handled the baking or pastry arts portion of her program. It looked like the actress enjoyed baking, after all, especially in the company of her always bubbly mentor, Chef China, who was once an actress herself until she found her true calling in the kitchen.

With several days spent on intensive baking, Jodi completed her culinary course and went back to the world of acting, equipped with better knowledge and skills that — who knows? — might also help her play the role of a chef in a movie or TV series. 

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