Ai-Ai is enrolled in CCA’s Diploma in Culinary Arts and Management program. The two-year program is "designed to develop the student’s culinary skills and competencies in planning, operation and supervision of an institutional or commercial kitchen".
The program includes courses in Food Safety and Sanitation, Basic Principles of Cooking and Nutrition, Cooking Methods, Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner Operations, Restaurant Service Operations, and–believe it or not–even elementary courses in French! A must, since many of the terms used in cooking, like saute, mise en place and others, are in French.
At CCA, Ai Ai attends classes Mondays to Thursdays. She’s just like a regular student, and classmates and professors treat her like one. She caused only a minor disruption when she walked into the classroom on the first day. Her classmates did a double-take and couldn’t believe they were seeing a celebrity. "Siya ba talaga ‘yon?" joked one of Ai Ai’s classmates.
The only concession made to her being a celebrity is her having to be absent from school every Tuesday, when she tapes for My Juan en Only. When that happens, Ai Ai takes extra classes on Fridays or Saturdays and sometimes even hires a tutor to help her. But otherwise, she acts–and is treated like–any other student. In fact, at CCA, she is referred to as "Ms. De las Alas". She also follows all school rules and regulations, such as not wearing makeup and donning the prescribed white chef’s uniform and toque.
Ai Ai’s reason for enrolling at CCA was to help her in her business, the Klownz comedy bar which has branches at Araneta Coliseum and Pampanga. She also bares plans of putting up her own food business one day.
"I also want to have a restaurant of my own," she says. "Yung lutong bahay, pero fast food ang dating."
How does she find school? She enjoys it, but the one thing she finds difficult is the memorization. At CCA, students have to learn and memorize various French cooking terms, the use of different kitchen tools (including a whole set of knives) and so many other things. The day we visited their class, their professor, Chef Mike Yap, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, was teaching them the right way to peel and slice an onion as part of their class on Basic Knife Skills. "Mas mahirap ito sa pag-aartista, lalo ang memorization," says Ai Ai with a laugh. "This is harder than memorizing a script. You can ad-lib a script. You can’t do that here!"
According to Ai Ai, she already knew how to cook before enrolling at CCA. The only thing she didn’t know was what certain processes were called. "I don’t know anything about the technical part of cooking. For example, is there a right way of slicing potatoes? At ang iba’t ibang klase ng paghiwa! " she says in that insanely funny way of hers.
Now that she’s enrolled in school, Ai Ai has to start all over again from square one–but she doesn’t mind. Sometimes, she even does her homework at the same time that her kids Sancho, Nicolo and Sophia are doing theirs.
Somehow, Ai Ai feels more fulfilled now than she ever did as a college student. Ai Ai took up Communication Arts at Far Eastern University (FEU).
"But this is different because now, I send myself to school. This is my money. Naturally, I value it. Ang sarap pala ng feeling."
Badon is one of the artists featured in Manuel Duldulao’s book, Twentieth Century Filipino Artist published by Manila Legacy Publishers (1995). A chronology of the artist’s life and works is presented in the book —from his first painting sold in 1977, done when he was still a student at the University of the East to his tenth one-man solo exhibit. He is now on his 28th solo exhibition. He also has had shows abroad.
By the way, I collect Badon’s works.