CEBU, Philippines - Chef Vic unassumingly goes around his assigned station in his own kind of gait, looking into every chaffing dish that is either half full or half empty, depending on how one looks at it. Just one meaningful flick of his head and a kitchen staff comes running to check what it means. No words, and not much of it, a simple gesture is more than enough to convey to his staff what needs to be done – and pronto!
This is routine to this new chef fondly addressed as Chef Vic by his kitchen staff and hotel personnel of both Crown Regency Hotel & Towers and Club Ultima. He is Erlito
Brigido Victoriano from Casimiro Village, Las Piñas City who recently found a base at the Crown Regency.
Chef Vic has been in the culinary arts business most of his life. He was only 18 years old when he tried the kitchen as a workplace. He started out as a working student for he took up Dentistry back in 1965. But as fate would have it, Dentistry needed fulltime attention and his being in the food industry just couldn’t allow him to devote more time to his studies. Realizing this, he decided to quit from school and devoted his time to honing his kitchen skills. Armed with only a kitchen knife, knowing that this gadget almost never leaves the hands of a chef, he tried to learn every bit of new knowledge from his mentors. At 24 years old and with a family to fend for, he decided to leave the country after he was offered to work as a chef in Tokyo, HongKong, Singapore, Pakistan and Dubai.
Armed with a very strong background of 14 silver and gold medals in various Culinary Arts Competitions along with outstanding references from established contacts in the industry, he’s welcomed to work in the most prestigious hotels in Manila. Until one day, he finds himself owning, managing and directing the Multi-Awardee Culinary Training Center in Las Piñas City, which his youngest son, Erlito Jr., continues to operate to date.
His prior employment at the various 5-star hotels in the Capital Region while indirectly managing the family-run culinary arts school led him to a resort in the Visayas where hegained another employment as an Executive Chef. This somehow paved the way to his joining the bandwagon of Crown Regency Hotel & Resorts here in Cebu City. Asked why he continues to work when he apparently does not need one anymore is probably the right and wrong question. He quips, “I may seem not to be in need of a paying job but my mission to teach those who still want to learn keeps haunting me. I simply want to share my expertise, and still, I want to learn some more about cooking. The kitchen area just has so much to learn from!”
Chef Vic is happy to be part of the Crown Regency chain. Here, he is able to train the existing kitchen staff and he is truly glad to have passed on to them the skills he has acquired through years of hands-on experiences in the culinary industry. The vast international style of cooking whatever food ingredients are available in the kitchen is what he describes as Filipino Ingenuity. He teaches his staff, “Don’t look for what is missing. Make do with what is there. Whatever ingredient you see, you can use it in some way. Rev up your brains and think. Put your heart into what you do best. Be original.” He stresses with a grin.
As for buffets, he teaches his staff to keenly “observe which food is consumed first. Maintain it. If the food is hardly touched, change it! This is the secret of buffet presentation.”
What could be Chef Vic’s vision? “I want to see myself grow with Crown Regency Hotel & Towers and Club Ultima. I know that the company is basically new in the industry and I still have so much to do in these establishments, in the same way that the hotels have still so much to develop. I want to eventually see the hotels becoming a one-stop destination where rest, recreation, lifestyle, health care and fitness, entertainment, fun, gourmet and shopping are all found in one place. This is where it’s all leading to anyway and I want to be a big part of this development - for Cebu, for its people and for the nation.”
Have a bite of a variety of dishes courtesy of Chef Vic at the Sparkz Restaurant on the 37th floor mezzanine, at the Wang Shan Lo for Chinese buffet and dimsum selections on the 20th floor of Club Ultima, at Kotie Restaurant for Japanese preparations on the 17th floor, at Mr. Grill for straight-from-the-grill delights on the 21st floor and at the Café Glo for Breakfast Buffet, Merienda Buffet and of late the Shabu-Shabu Special on the 2nd floor of Crown Regency Hotel & Towers. For more information and reservations, please call 418-8888.