Like a lover who keeps coming back to memories of an old flame, I’ve sort of rekindled my relationship with Neruda lately. How he weaves words and creates imagery to breathe life into his poems is perhaps something that would keep us steadfast on the idea of love and loving. 

Sonnet XVII

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz, or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off. I love you as certain dark things are to be loved, in secret, between the shadow and the soul. I love you as the plant that never blooms but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers; thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance, risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body. I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride; so I love you because I know no other way than this: where I does not exist, nor you, so close that your hand on my chest is my hand, so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep. Pablo Neruda

Wrote this one late night at the big kitchen during a photoshoot when most of us were already in the brink of sleepiness. Writing this kept my mind awake (and amused) even without my caffeine fix. Inspiration taken from one of those conversations with Jeff, a classmate.

11:15 pm, Big Kitchen, CACS

Hindi iyon ang alam ko

Hindi ang tuko sa madre cacao

ang sumasagi sa isip ko

kapag binabanggit mo

ang pelikulang pilipino

na palabas sa nueve

tuwing katanghalian.

noong mga bata pa tayo

Iyon siguro ang alam mo

pero iba ang tumatambad sa alaala ko:

Na kalaban ni Darna ang giant palaka

habang ang kawawang ike lozada’y

walang awang tinusok ang taba

gamit ang kawayang matulis

ng mga patay na nabuhay –

at ang mestisong si Walter Navarro, ka-tropa

ng mga galing sementeryo,

sa pagkagilalas ng pagkamusmos ko’y

love interest ng Darnang inidolo ko.

Na Drakula si George Estregan –

matutulis na pangil, nanlilisik ang mata –

na kinakalaban nina Rudy at Lorna

gamit ang pananggang putol na kamay

ng Sto. Nino

sa dagat ng dilim at lamig ng Baguio.

Na si Rio Locsin

ay may kakambal na daga –

isang kwentong ni imahinasyon ko’y

di maintindihan noong ako ay bata.

Na si Al Tantay ang kasintahan niya dito

ay isang bagay na narinig ko rin lang sa lola ko.

Na may isang anak ng suhang

namukadkad ang kagandahan sa pagdadalaga

na nagging dahilan

para kaiingitan siya’t

gustuhing kitilin ang buhay

ni Elizabeth Ramsey, ang reyna.

Kaya’t pagpasensiyahan mo na

kung di ko talaga alam

ang sinasabi mong

pelikula ni Ramon Revilla.

Siguro’y abala lamang ako sa paglalaro

ng taguan,

tumbang preso o habulan

ng mga panahong

naging tuko si Ramon

sa mundong minsa’y pinapasyalan natin

noong mga bata pa tayo.

29 June ‘06

Thursday morning

I arrive in the big kitchen for another day of  work: prepping the dish for foodstyling and photoshoot. Today, I get Chef Gino’s mango-glazed pork recipe. I get the hunk of meat from the kitchen counter where all the pieces of seafood and meat are arranged. I am to cut the pork into big cubes with my newly-honed knife, marinate and deep-fry them. Debbie, a pal in the kitchen, volunteers to prepare the mise-en-place for the sauce: she measures each ingredient individually, puts them in saucers and places them all in a tray, all ready for mixing and cooking.

Mise en place: something that all chefs and aspiring chefs must always practice. Whoever invented it must really be a sucker for order, an OC — but an OC with a great sense of organization. I wonder if Careme started this thing or if it had already been practiced even before he was born. It’s an interesting aspect of culinary history: the beginnings of the mise-en-place. I wonder if anybody could be interested in conducting a research on that..

In between the choppings and sauteeings, we do a little banter and chat across our respective kitchen domains. I help Honey ( a girl from the newer batch) with her binagoongang baboy. Do we follow the recipe instruction and boil it till fork-tender? We are in doubt because there might be a chance that it might end up in our tummies during lunchtime. I text Chef Gino, who replies that it doesn’t have to be softened. “Boil it for only 10-15 minutes,” he says. So we boil it  with all the works: the anise, pepper, and other wood spices enough to make you salivate. But then our chef arrives, sees the stuff simmering with all the spices, and tells us,”Pwedeng hindi nyo na lagyan ng spices kasi pang pictorial lang naman eh.” Okay, bogus food again. Welcome to the world of food styling.

I remember Chef Toto coming to the big kitchen one food styling day, putting his hand on whatever looked edible but not without asking , “Safe ba to?”  Which means, is this dish free of food color, glue, paint and all those stuff your mother would keep in your pantry with all the Albatross disks, detergents and disinfectants? He further remarks, “Nakakatakot (dumampot) pag food styling eh. Lahat na lang, bogus.” Touche.

But that’s what makes the world of food styling more interesting. You get to play with food, something that the child in us would eagerly indulge in. As children, we were taught not to play with food. You play with food, you get reprimanded by THE ADULT. Yet, in the field of food styling, the food is treated as a toy, or more appropriately, a piece of art that takes in the whims of the creative mind – something that can be manipulated and dabbled with so that it not only becomes a visual, but a gustatory delight as well – at least, in the minds of those who would relish on the photos. Meat lacking in color?  Paint it brown. Sauce too thin? Add some gooey liquid to thicken it. Make a slurry. You don’t really have to concoct magical brew to obtain visual perfection in a dish. Just the food stylist’s creativity with a backing of science and of course logic, would do. Add to that the meticulous eye of the food photographer in charge. If we are lucky enough, we get to finish a shoot for a dish for an hour. However, being creatures of the kitchen who have learned to eat, drink and breathe food styling sessions during the last few weeks, we have learned to accept that it takes an average of  two hours to finish a shoot for one dish. Oh, we usually have nine or ten dishes each session. Still, we manage to smile.

We have a wonderful time cooking our staff lunch — gathering all the leftovers to create an exciting, new dish; the chopping of onions causing our eyes to blur, steam rising to our faces, the aromas of the dishes wafting across the entire kitchen; assisting our chefs for the shoot — pouring a bit more sauce to the saucer, chopping more parsley for garnish; sitting around waiting for the shoot to be finished, answering text messages from time to time if we are not so busy. During lunch, we still talk about food with our mouths and bellies full.

And so we cook. And watch. And learn. And life in the research and development team becomes all the more colorful and vibrant as our dishes because not only do we eat what we cook; we learn to treat the food with respect, as a piece of art that requires a splash of creativity, a packing punch of professionalism  and a sprinkling of childlike wonder. We learn that from the artists of the CACS kitchen – our chefs.