Cooking secrets no more

There was a time when, way back in grade school, we would compare lunch boxes to find out what our moms cooked for lunch. There would be a collective gasp whenever a meal was presented to the rest, and with childlike excitement, we would all share — if not exchange — what was in our lunch boxes with the others. How many times we would trade our hotdogs with another’s luncheon meat, or scrambled eggs with bacon, or pork chop with fried chicken, we had already lost count. We just got tired of the same fare day in and day out. In our young minds, the food was tastier in the other person’s lunch box, and not a few of us would think how we’d like to change moms as well.

But things are different now, it seems. Moms today, given the hectic lifestyle most have as homemakers and career women, are pressured to be constantly on their toes — and toques — to be able to come up with creative ideas in the kitchen. Otherwise, their growing household would be forced to look elsewhere for their daily grub. As always, variety is the rule of thumb if housekeepers want to keep their kids — and hubbies — coming home every lunch and dinner time.

Knowing the challenges a young housewife faces these days, SAFI Heinz UFC, the country’s leading food condiments company, steps in to lend a helping hand with Kusinabilidad. Simply put, Kusinabilidad is a school of sorts for young wives who want to graduate from their boring two-week menu cycle and whip up a variety of dishes sans the kitchen hassles.

"A lot of young wives want to do well in this area, but are hesitant to try out new recipes for a number of reasons. It could be the complicated cooking procedures, or the availability of ingredients, and even the cost of preparing that dish. With time and budget constraints, their repertoire is compromised," observes Pam Lim, senior brand manager of SAFI Heinz UFC.

With the opening of the Kusinabilidad kiosk at the SM Megamall Food Court recently, moms won’t only get to try new tasty dishes, they will also get to try the same at home. Unlike other food establishments that go, "Keep out! This is a long-held family secret!" the Kusinabilidad staff gives you a wide smile and asks, "What secret?"

For every order of any of their dishes, a printed copy of the recipe is given out to customers. So, moms don’t only get to eat their portion, they get to cook it at home, too. And we’re not talking about fried hotdogs here, mind you. Using the company’s well-loved condiments, like UFC, Datu Puti, Mang Tomas and Heinz, the recipes can very well become comfort food for the whole household for generations to come. How does crispy tofu with garlic, ginataang manok at mangga, binagoongang lechon macao, chili lychee pork, chorizo and chicken pasta with tomato cream, Spanish-style bangus belly, Chinese adobo, eggplant garlic teriyaki, and shrimp and pork wanton sound? Good, huh? These and more are what make moms — and other foodies — troop to the Kusinabilidad Sikretong Sarap ni Mommy kiosk at the Megamall these days.

Don’t let the dishes scare you, by the way. Lim assures us the dishes are not complicated as they may sound. In other words, you have no-fuss but very creative dishes here, mommies. This is because the SAFI Heinz UFC research team came up with the four pillars of cooking these meals: time saver, budget saver, skill booster, and idea maker. Hence, these easy-step meals maximize all the ingredients in the kitchen, empower housewives to unleash their cooking skills, and give them ideas to add some zest to their personal concoctions.

"We developed the recipes with the help of chefs Gene Gonzales and Jill Sandique. With such an expert team, we conducted home visits and asked young housewives about their frustrations and needs as far as cooking is concerned," says Lim.

According to chef Jill Sandique, cooking is easy once you follow a sequence. "It shouldn’t be a bara-bara thing," says chef Jill, who is known to be a perfectionist in the kitchen. Having studied under culinary who’s whos, such as Sylvia Reynoso-Gala, chefs Nick Malgieri, Mary Cech, Peter Reinhart, Mark Furstenberg and master chocolatier Pascal Janvier, among others, she is the perfect Kusinabilidad commercial host.

"We needed someone who can execute our recipes well and chef Jill is the perfect person to do it. Housewives can relate to her, she’s very down-to-earth and leaves no stones unturned," says Lim.

This lady chef who, Lim adds, has "the ability to turn the simplest dish into a culinary wonder with minimum expense," is responsible for fine-tuning such Kusinabilidad dishes as the Mang Tomas eggplant garlic teriyaki and the Heinz grilled rib eye steak. Great-tasting dishes whipped up by a Blue Ribbon-holder from the prestigious Peter Kump’s New York Cooking School (now the Institute of Culinary Education), at a very minimal cost. Perhaps it’s her passion for cooking that makes chef Jill a good culinary troubleshooter, especially in these times when moms are having a hard time to budget their meals. Or maybe it’s her knowledge of chemistry — her pre-med course before she decided she’s better off dissecting a fish — that makes her such a whiz in the kitchen. Either way, the Kusinabilidad people got an asset in chef Jill.

Based on their research, one Kusinabilidad recipe’s average cost ranges from P80 to P100, which is good for five persons. Moreover, a Kusinabilidad meal purchased from its kiosk costs less than P100. Lim says that the dishes are blast-frozen immediately after cooking in the commissary and are promptly delivered to the kiosk. Unlike many instant meals and ready-to-eat canned goods, the Kusinabilidad dishes are not spiked with preservatives.

If you think Kusinabilidad only offers main dishes, we advise you to scoot over to the kiosk and also check out their desserts. We particularly loved the Datu Puti orange cashew cake — so moist and oh-so buttery. Don’t let the name fool you. We promise you won’t be puckering your face like Pugak in that Datu Puti commercial. Instead, you’ll be mmmmm-ing your way back home, clutching a copy of its precious recipe.

The Kusinabilidad scheme is, indeed, a welcome development in the culinary field. In a world where selfishness and underhandedness have become rampant, its promotion of values like sharing and extending a helping hand is worth acknowledging. There is hope for this world after all. And for young housewives as well.