Watching TV got Sharwin Tee to cooking

MANILA, Philippines - Watching Wok with Yan got Chef Sharwin Tee to cooking. Nothing unfortunate happened to him as the proverb/idiom suggests. Instead, Sharwin had found his passion — and lifetime profession.

”It’s a long-standing love affair,” shares the host of Lifestyle Network’s Curiosity Got the Chef airing Wednesday nights at 9:30. “I watched my first cooking show when I was six. It was entitled Wok with Yan… For me, it was the start (of my interest in cooking). I saw this guy cooking live every Sunday. You could see people who were amazed of (his cooking). I was thinking, ‘How could this be? You entertain a large group of people by just cooking.’”

Aside from Wok with Yan, Sharwin religiously followed locally-produced shows such as Cooking It Up with Nora (Daza) and Cooking It Up with the Dazas (topbilled by Nora’s children Sandy and Nina). “As I got older, I had become interested not only in the show, but also in the food,” says Sharwin, who considers Nora Daza’s cookbook his unofficial Bible, especially now that he is into the food business. “No one (in the family cooks),” he says. “I’m the first.”

Since cooking seems to be a child’s play and fantasy to many, Sharwin studied AB Communication at the Ateneo de Manila University.  

“When you grow older, you tell yourself it’s time to get a real job — enough of kiddie fantasies,” he says. “So, I dropped the whole cooking thing. During that time, there was no culinary school to go to (here). HRM (Hotel and Restaurant Management) was not available, except in UP (University of the Philippines). It wasn’t a viable option then.”

Sharwin’s enthusiasm in cooking, however, never waned. He went to Vancouver to study at the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts.

“The classes would be about lectures and trainings,” he recalls. “We didn’t do other subjects. (I took up) a six-month professional course. We worked in the restaurant. The school also doubles as a restaurant.”

Sharwin learned the nitty-gritty of cooking from chopping to making stock and stewing from his French professors. “Whatever recipe you come across, you can do it now because you’ve learned all the techniques.”

After his gastronomic sojourn in Canada, Sharwin had a short stint at Makati’s Tower Club, where he prepared food for the rich and the famous including then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. From there, he put up his one-man-show personal catering business which can hold intimate and group parties.

“I bring everything to you — I bring the waiters, the plates, the cutlery, the food, the stove,” Sharwin says. “I cook everything wherever you want.” He can customize the menu based on one’s preference and lifestyle and does personal chef services. “(Families) hire me to cook their food for one week.”

Thus collaboration and creativity are inherent to Sharwin. This must be the reason why he topped the Lifestyle Network search Clash of the Toque-en Ones. And the prize was the show Curiosity Got the Chef, which is now on its third season.

“It gave the show its identity,” Sharwin says of the catchy, literary sounding title. “It’s not just a generic cooking show. Now we’re the cooking show known for quirky recipes, colorful kitchen, colorful food. It’s more on the curiosity angle.”

Curiosity Got the Chef has become Sharwin’s platform and venue to “push Filipino food. At first, we wanted to push Filipino food out of the palayok (claypot), out of the dahon ng saging (banana leaves). Let’s make it more modern.” Every episode is a challenge for Sharwin to whip up traditional recipes his own.

Sharwin is also fusing Asian flavors and using local ingredients. The latter, he believes, makes his followers motivated to cook. Living up to the “quirky” mantra, the ever-smiling chef reigns in his kitchen using the “same ingredients but I change the cooking techniques or I do the reverse. I use the same techniques but I add new ingredients.”

How is it hosting his own show?

“I’m having a good time,” Sharwin replies. “They just let me be me… I want to keep things light and simple. I don’t want to come across as an authority figure (telling my televiewers) you must do this, you must do that. Sometimes, they take it when I make a mistake. Everybody makes mistakes. I wanna keep things light. I encourage people to (cooking). That’s the goal of every cooking show: You want people to not necessarily cook your recipe but to get back to cooking. It’s a good way to bring the family together.”

This is what really got Sharwin to be the chef-host that he has become today.