Donita Rose: From dishing up music to cooking

MANILA, Philippines - Picture MTV VJ Donita Rose Cavett (better known simply as Donita Rose) dishing up your favorite music, her smooth velvety voice floating on the airwaves. Now, imagine Donita Rose Cavett-Villarama, lovely as ever, sweating in front of the frying pan while cooking her own recipe, the aroma of good food wafting from her kitchen.

Yes, Donita Rose is back to her first love — cooking, but of course! “I started cooking at a very early age,” she relates how it all began. “Whenever there was a special occasion, my dad would cook up a big meal and I would help with the cooking. I would always save up my allowance whenever there was a special occasion to cook for my family members.”

When Donita moved to Singapore, she was home alone. “That’s when I really started experimenting with food and you know that Singapore is like a food capital,” she fondly shares. “I also wanted to venture out and learn other cuisines like Asian food.”

Before she moved to Singapore, she only knew how to cook Pangasinense and American food (her mom is from Pangasinan while her dad is American). “Ang alam ko lang sinigang, bagoong, tinapa. When I moved to Singapore and experienced Asian food, I said, ‘Wow! Asian cuisine is so extravagant, the flavors are so different!” she gushes.

Did you know that Donita actually first applied for a job at Asian Food Channel? “I auditioned and I didn’t get it,” she recounts without a trace of bitterness in her voice. “They said they needed somebody with a culinary degree. So I thought about that for a long time. I said one of these days, mag-aaral talaga ako.”

That day came seven years later, after she moved back home and got busy with her morning show Umagang Kay Ganda.

Armed only with a burning passion for cooking, Donita enrolled at the Academy for International Culinary Arts (AICA) in 2012 and thus began her exciting culinary journey spiced up with a stint in Las Vegas where she mastered the ABCs of the hot kitchen of different cuisines such as Italian, Japanese, and even Filipino, and catered private events all over the city.

This fine Tuesday morning at Epicurious in Edsa Shangri-La Mall, we’re ready to be dazzled by Donita’s cooking. In a one-on-one interview, she tells me, “I really love cooking. I’m very particular about taste. I’m very much about building up a flavor, the right balance, the right texture. Food is like science to me, it’s not just for the sake of eating. I like small portions, pero sarap na sarap ka. Actually, my culinary dream is molecular gastronomy (the science of cooking on a smaller scale, it seeks to investigate the physical and chemical transformations of ingredients that occur in cooking).”

And what inspires Donita in her cooking? “My stomach is my inspiration,” comes the instant reply. “Before I went to culinary school, my husband and I watched the cartoon Ratatouille and nabigla kami kasi parang ako yon eh —  it’s like when I’m hungry or when I think of food, whatever I’m in the mood for, I’m very Ratatouille. It has to be the right combination of flavors. The word is umami, a Japanese word normally associated with MSG but actually means the perfect balance of flavors that causes an explosion in your mouth.”

She shares these precious tips: “You have to learn the basics first. You start from the principles and then you go to the different cuisines around the world, and you find your niche, what you’re passionate about. For me, because I’ve always been on the bigger side, my journey is geared towards refined foods that are both flavorful and healthy. Recently, I also had migraine and tension headaches. So I had an ongoing battle with weight and migraine issues. And I noticed that the medicine I was taking was causing me to have more. So I’ve been doing a lot of tests, I took a food intolerance test and found out I was intolerant of things like dairy products, wheat (gluten), nuts. So now, I’m on this culinary journey to substitute the right kind of foods for my headaches, to create healthy meals.”

And Donita’s trusted partner in creating healthy meals? “Jolly Heart Mate Canola Oil!” she happily declares. “We use a lot of it at home and my 11-year-old son Joshua Paul is crazy about Buffalo wings, lamb, salmon, and steak. He also makes his own truffle omelette.”

Donita will be coming up with her own recipes using Jolly Heart Mate Canola Oil (for more of her recipes, check out www.donitarose.com).

The Jolly Heart Mate label was launched this year to emphasize the heart-healthy benefits of using Jolly Canola Oil. “We’ve been on the market for close to 20 years and recently, we found out that a lot of people buy Canola Oil because they associate it with being a very healthy oil for the heart, being low in saturated fat and high in monounsaturated fat,” asserts Lucio Cochanco Jr., Fly Ace Corporation president. “Plus, it has vitamin A, omega 3 and 6, and has a very high smoke point, which means it will not burn and food stays fresh and does not easily become rancid.”

“Donita is the perfect embodiment of our brand’s vision to get Filipinos into healthy cooking,” says Fly Ace senior product manager Zen Prudentino. “I believe she can inspire others to live a heart-healthy lifestyle by using a healthy oil like Jolly Heart Mate Canola Oil in all the dishes we cook at home.”

At the cooking demo, Donita treats us to her three heart-healthy recipes. There’s her oh-so-flavorful lemon cilantro salmon with mango avocado salsa. The salmon is first marinated with Jolly Heart Mate Canola Oil, lemon, and cilantro before it’s tossed in the pan to give it a crunchy look on the outside and a succulent taste in the middle. Then there’s Donita’s Veggie-good Crunchy Salad drizzled with Thai peanut dressing with hints of lime, vinegar, soy sauce, and honey. Finally, there’s Donita’s Honey, Lime & Sriracha Chicken Skewers. Triply yummy! Guests are triply delighted!

Donita is happy that her guests are happy. Indeed, she loves facing a mishmash of pots and pans as much as she does the cameras.