Jon jon Rufino: Man on top

It is not easy to find a handsome young man who can cook well.

Harder still to find a handsome young man who can cook well, write well, and is a good businessman, an ace tennis player and yoga expert besides.

"I’m just a yoga enthusiast," corrects Jon Jon Rufino.

Okay, he’s also humble. That’s the trait hardest to find. It comes with his genteel Old-World manners, his well-enunciated, carefully chosen words and his relaxed style of dressing.

Even his home – located at the penthouse of a towering residential condo built by the family enterprise – is a breezy place with a wonderful view of Metro Manila. Here you can easily relax and feel at home. His place is a mix of Orientalia (Jon Jon loves everything Asian) happily put together by his cousin Tessa Prieto-Valdes, but unlike most "interior-designed" homes, this one doesn’t look contrived. Guests naturally flock towards the living room where there is an opium bed with soft throw pillows and a most relaxing crescent chair, a gift from dear friend Tim Yap. Quite an intriguing chair, which was originally based on a design by Michelle Sison. Tim demonstrates how you sit down and once you even put a foot on this angle or that, you discover yet another relaxing pose. Very Tim Yap. Never a dull moment, I tell you.

That comfy room with a view is the only room in Jon Jon’s place that is airconditioned. "I had it airconditioned for friends," he explains. Because if Jon Jon had his way, no room should be airconditioned. Aircons emit CFC (chlorofluorocarbon) which contributes to the thinning of the ozone layer, right?

That is the environmentalist in Jon Jon Rufino, who also happens to be a diving enthusiast. It was seven years ago, on a diving odyssey in Anilao when Jon Jon turned vegetarian. The desire to see all the beautiful fish in their unspoiled underwater habitat, Jon Jon decided, was enough reason for environmentalists like him to pursue a mission with a passion. He almost threw up when, upon reaching the shore, he and his diving group were being served the same kind of fish he had "befriended" underwater. He swore never to eat fish – nor meat – again.

His crusade for a better environment is what drove this Business Administration graduate of UP to take up his own mix of post-grad studies at Stanford University in California – Chemistry and Advanced Physics, together with Religion and yes, Advanced Tennis – which he is starting this week in California.

No, he’s not taking up any more cooking courses. He did so a year ago in Chiang Mai, and from then on, he obviously learned to innovate and invent dishes on his own. His Tom Yum gets an extra zing with the use of some "secret" ingredient (no commercially processed spices for him, he uses only natural ones). His pasta with assorted mushrooms is a favorite of his friends. His mushroom risotto is heavenly. But surprise – this vegetarian cook has the heart to cook meat dishes for carnivorous friends. "I just sort of follow recipes and let the guests add spices and condiments according to their taste," Jon Jon explains.

So will this publisher of Pen & Ink also publish cookbooks? Will this cook also open a restaurant of his own?

No way. That would certainly take away the fun and spontaneity out of cooking.

Besides, he doesn’t need the money.

When did you learn how to cook?

Jon Jon Rufino: When I turned vegetarian eight years ago, our family cook, Cipriano, was not pleased. He specializes in heavy Spanish and Filipino food, and not only did my diet severely limit his style, it also gave him additional work. In order to eat more healthful meals, I started preparing dishes without using butter, salt and MSG. After a while, I enjoyed eating my dishes more than his. To his credit though, most of my friends cannot get enough of his siomai and fettuccini.

What inspires you to cook?

I enjoy having friends over. There is something about slaving over a hot stove for a few hours, and then basking in the appreciation of my guests. Most of them understand the effort involved in preparing a full dinner from scratch. Also, I can get kuripot at restaurants. Many times I feel that I can do something similar for much less. And, of course, there aren’t many places here that serve very creative vegetarian meals.

What is your idea of a perfect meal?

I love having just three or four friends over, sitting across from me in the kitchen, ready with plates as I prepare dishes one by one and serve them hot from the pan. I think the kitchen counter can be a very intimate place. Company and conversation, much more than the food, define the occasion.

What are your favorite restaurants, local and foreign?

Value for money, nothing beats the New Bombay Canteen. Once every few months, when I get a craving for kare-kare, there is Bodhi and Evergreen in the foodcourts. On the other end of the spectrum, I quite enjoy People’s Palace, Papparazzi, Tivoli Grill and the L’Opera group of restaurants. Although not particularly vegetarian, they have enough choices to make a greenie like me happy. I never go to the Boracay without eating in True Food. And Gaita Fores is the best caterer. I have to exercise double the day after one of her events.

In San Francisco, I love Greens, and Madrid has a surprising number of delicious vegetarian restaurants, not the stereotypical cheap back-packer fare. Clinton Palanca and Tito Jun Bayot introduced me unfortunately to the three-star French restaurants of Pierre Gagniere and L’Esperance, where I had a veggie lauriat to match their degustation menu.

If you had to eat only one kind of cuisine the rest of your life, which would you choose?

It would have to be Italian. Although I enjoy the pomp and presentation of French and Japanese food, no other cuisine is as encompassing as Italian, especially with vegetables. As much as I’d like to be patriotic, Filipino food is the least vegetarian food I’ve come across. Even simple vegetables are cooked in pork fat.

Your preferred last meal?

I guess I’d like some eight-course extravaganza by a great chef, incorporating every conceivable vegetable, from asparagus to yams, with at least one dish covered in white truffles. Since it is my last meal, I don’t care if some of the dishes are soaked in salt or dripping in butter, unless that’s the reason it’s my last meal.

The best cooking lesson you learned?

I get great recipes from my aunt, Susie Ortigas. And as far as courses go, I had a very enjoyable trip to Chiang Mai where I spent a week learning about Thai cuisine.

What makes your cooking very Jon Jon Rufino? Do you invent dishes?

The only thing my dishes have in common is that they are not high in fat, salt or artificial flavoring. If a dish needs salt, I’d rather incorporate something salty, like capers or tamari sauce, over using salt. My mother often complains that compared to what she is used to, my dishes can be bland.

Every cook in this country has to invent dishes because of the difficulty of getting some ingredients. Also, one adapts known recipes to suit his tastes. Most of my Thai dishes I’ve had to "reinvent" to make vegetarian.

For a lovely dinner table for 10 by Jon Jon, who are your choice guests?

First my favorite dinner guests in alphabetical order:

Felix Barrientos

Pia Bayot

Amanda Carpo and Howard Vitas

Mike Chan

Clinton Palanca

Manolo Quezon

Luigi Reyes and Camille Cruz

And Tim Yap

If you are talking hypothetically, meaning any one in the world...

GMA

Jean Michel Cousteau

Dr. Sylvia Earle

John McEnroe

Steffi Graf

Howard Hall

Martina Navratilova

Don Mc Lean

Gore Vidal

Edmund White

Then again, it would be a waste to have them all together. I’d rather dine with them one by one.

Is ambience important?

Absolutely. You have to provide at least a comfortable environment. I love eating by candlelight. And music can help to stir the hunger. Last year for her birthday, my cousin Tessa Valdes hired an opera singer to serenade her guests while we had vegetable samosa, mango chutney and roti. If on the other hand you have nothing good to serve, music and décor can make a mediocre meal more palatable. Think of all the hyped-up restaurants, full of people, with nothing special on their menus.

Do you live to eat? What food items can’t you live without?

I love eating, but I’m not actually attached to any particular dish in the same way that I cannot function a day without an hour or two of tennis, yoga, running, or diving.

Your best advice to people who want to learn cooking.

Just do it. Start with simple dishes, and progress at your pace. Cook what you want to eat and you’re sure to have at least one happy customer.