I recently came across an old picture of the cutest baby I’ve set my eyes on. I knew right away it was unmistakably my buddy, the brilliant and funny Ed Quimson. How could it not be, his arms and legs resembled sausage links!
More than an esteemed colleague and a fellow chef instructor, Ed is an inspiration to me. No one else has been there, done that, taken the highs as well as the lows of life and breezed through the toughest tests with flying colors. Whenever I feel the occasional blues, I think of all the drama that this chef genius has been through.
A direct descendant of the opulent buena familia la Tuazon, Ed was born into a life of comfort, cultivating a taste for the finer things in life. But later on, a lot of things took place that had a profound impact on his life. He was uprooted from a life of luxury, was emotionally scarred at a young age when his parents separated, and he even worked as an assistant food manager trainee (a trouble shooter) in a luxury cruise liner.
He has undergone life-and-death situations under the knife as a result of serious health problems. But despite everything, his grand passion for life keeps him going. He is one of the most cheerful and generous persons I know. And when you give, you get back a hundredfold!
His heart for food is as big as the Titanic, but unlike the ship, the man is unsinkable. Despite a lack of formal culinary education, he has become one of the most celebrated chefs in the country. He attributes this to his grand matriarch Consuelo Tuason or Lola Tutung because of her fondness for burnt rice found at the bottom of the pot, and to his mother Betty Pardo de Tavera Gonzalez Quimson.
“The legacy that my grandmother and ancestors, who saw food as a key element that kept family ties stronger, lives on — not just in me but in my brothers, cousins and aunts,” says chef Ed. His family’s love for food and lavish gastronomic feasts are the focus of Paseo Uno at Mandarin’s Oriental Manila’s “Paso del Tiempo” (A Walk through Time).
Ed teams up with Mandarin Oriental’s master chefs to bring heirloom Filipino-Spanish dishes using his family recipes. This will give the restaurant’s discriminating patrons a taste of well-loved specialties by the eminent clan famous for siring some of the country’s catering and restaurant industry big names like the esteemed Via Mare maven Glenda R. Barretto, married to Pancho Tuason Barretto; Angela Tuason who set up the Home Economics and Cooking program for the Philippine Women’s University in Manila; Bubut Valdes Nieto, whose legendary chocolate cake captivated the American officers during her days. Louie and Marilou Araneta Senn, who kept the love for Spanish cuisine alive with La Tasca and San Mig Pub among others.
I had a chance to sample some of the family’s sumptuous Filipino- Spanish fare and I must say that it has Ed’s mark all over. The food is malasa (rich and heavy). If I were to choose my last meal, this would be the only way to go. A hands-down favorite among foodies present was the Lengua con Alcaparras and the “you can never say no” to dessert Dulce de Santol.
Paso del Tiempo is a travel back in time to recapture a period of glorious, slow-cooking food, which is an art sorely lacking these days. This food festival is supported by the Department of Tourism and is ongoing until May 31 at Mandarin Oriental’s Paseo Uno.