The perfect kitchen hostess

MANILA, Philippines - Her gift of gab has brought Issa Litton to male-dominated fields of basketball, mixed martial arts and racing and to her comfort zone of fashion. In the midst of these, Issa shifts gears from describing the court/field action as it unfolds before her eyes or sharing her take on what’s hot and what’s not.

Issa never thought of sinking her teeth into food and eating her cake, too as annotator of Q-11’s Kitchen Battles airing Sunday nights at 7:45. Prior, she hosted Secrets of the Masters.

“The thing is, it is 30 minutes and it’s real time. What I only do is to talk for 30 minutes times three. That’s an hour and a half straight on top of my intro and extro,” shares Issa on how different Kitchen Battles is from her previous shows like Living It Up. “I’m the meat of the show. You want to know what’s happening. It’s one thing to see it. It’s also another thing to learn the different styles from the cutting styles to the methods and techniques of cooking.”

The short course Issa took at CCA was helpful in understanding the playing field of cooking. When Secrets of the Masters was coming to an end, Issa saw the window to study. As an annotator, Issa can’t help but talk about cooking procedures replete with cooking terms. Her background in sports has helped her talk easily about the kitchen action blow by blow.

“Maybe my background is sports from racing to PBA. At least I know what it is like to host without a script — say how it is and say how it is happening,” says Issa. “With Secrets of the Masters, I had the front row and a single seat right in front of every master chef in the Philippines. How can you not pick up knowledge? How can I not know that this is done this way and that is done that way?”

That makes Issa the perfect hostess of the lifestyle show.

But what is challenging in her new hosting stint is Issa doesn’t know “what they (the chef warriors) are cooking. There’s no briefing before the show.

“How could I know? The chefs don’t know what to cook until it is revealed,” she says.

As you and I know, the chefs will come up with recipes on the spot using the star ingredients and cook them in 60 minutes. The dishes will be judged by Zoren Legaspi, Chef Sau del Rosario and a guest based on taste, originality, plating and presentation and creative use of star ingredients.

Tonight, chefs Dante Sam and Arnold Bernardo will compete. Each one whips up three dishes with pork loin, clams and sago as ingredients. They used Datu Puti sauce to create tasty, scrumptious food.

“What I do is ask about the secret ingredient and what the chef will do with it,” says Issa of her job. “Then I just talk and interview the chef. And I’m honest. I don’t pretend. If I don’t know what it is, I ask Chef Sau.”

To be always on her toes, Issa watches cooking shows either on Q-11 or Lifestyle Network. It helps her pick up some terms and learn cooking styles. That’s why Issa sounds like a chef on the show. But her curiosity and openness to learn make Issa survive the kitchen battle unscathed.

“I wouldn’t last this long if I weren’t having fun in the hosting field,” says Issa. “I walk away a winner for every show I have done. I have learned so much. And it always does open new opportunities for me.”