A kitchen affair for Grace Lee

MANILA, Philippines - “Korean by birth, Filipino at heart,” is how 28-year-old Grace Lee describes herself. Grace recently received a diploma in culinary arts from one of Manila’s renowned culinary schools.

“Growing up I was always curious in the kitchen. I would ask my mom, Ill Lee Song, how to make this, how to make that. She would always patiently explain things to me,” Grace shares. “Of course, when I was younger, Mama didn’t want me to fry anything, or to be near the stove, so usually yung mga brownie mix lang, yung ready na.”

These days though, Grace’s culinary achievements have grown to include many dishes. Other than Korean cuisine, she loves Filipino and Italian dishes.

“When it comes to Filipino food, I love to cook what I love to eat. So I love making adobo, sinigang, pinakbet and ginisa na ampalaya with tomato or egg.”

Recently, San Miguel Pure Foods Company Inc. tapped her to host a new cooking show for GMA-7.

Dubbed Cooking With The Stars, the show, which airs every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 9:45 a.m. on GMA-7 with replays on GNTV every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday at 7 p.m. features media personalities solving everyday kitchen problems and preparing simple dishes that almost anyone can make, using readily available ingredients.

The program will also feature top chefs from the San Miguel Pure Foods Culinary Center, including chefs Maricel Manalo, Martin del Prado, Kai Verdadero, and Rene Ruz.

Grace says that apart from what she learned in culinary school, her experience working with San Miguel Pure Foods chefs have taught her that most of the time, you don’t have to have expensive ingredients to make absolutely great-tasting, high-quality food.

 “Our chefs think up so many things, like using pancake mix to make funnel cakes,” she says. “Nakakatuwa yung mga ideas, like yung pang-fry ng egg ginagamit nila to shape the funnel cake. Creative ideas like that are very interesting to me.”

Given the opportunity, she says she would like to help promote Filipino cuisine to the rest of the world.