Lola Afric at 88

Today, Africa Valdes Reynoso turned 88. The other evening, her children gave a dinner in her honor, and the main course was a book summing up her love and life and 80 years of cooking. The food, plenty of it, and the laughter and ribbing and loving looks exchanged around the room were typical of the times spent around the celebrant. What a joy it must be for Afric – for that’s how she is fondly called; and she’s also called Lola or Lola Forbes (because she lives in Forbes Park which has always been open to friends and relations with the table laden with food) – to feel that those who love her associate her with food. Yes, rare is the heart that’s empty when the stomach is full.

The book, titled The Reynoso Flair, 80 Years of Lola Afric’s Cooking, and published by Edna’s ERA Publishing Center, is must reading for gourmands and gourmets, and aspirants to the good life. (It will be available, for sure, at book stores.) Dreamed up by daughter Edna Anton and brother Litos, the book project consists of loving stories about Lola Afric by her children and grandchildren, some of her heirloom recipes, and menus for carinderia operators.

Litos, who lives with his family in Cambridge, writes passionately about the Kapampangans’ and the Valdeses’ passion for good cooking. He recalls the magnificent feasts that Lola Afric created in her Forbes Park home, and his grandfather’s kitchen world in which revolved "an orbit of sugarland’s finest Kapampangan deserts". Litos remembers that it was in her kitchen that his mother Afric was to be found, "where the cacophony of sounds of Pampanga was to be heard… in (her) kitchen where she was always available to us."

Lola Afric’s favorite dishes are pulutok and bringhe. The first is a rich mix of pork parts in thick sauce, the key to which, she says, is proportion. The second is sticky rice cooked in coconut milk and ginger and chicken. The book’s creative team (Elizabeth Lolarga and Jocelyn de Jesus) write, "These are food from a girlhood that basked in good proportions of love and respect, and lots and lots of sharing."

A chapter talks of Lola’s having spent decades teaching her children and others and eventually delegating "remote control cooking" kitchen chores to her household staff of three. Lola Afric hardly cooks nowadays, but Edna says her mother still experiments with sauces and mixes from time to time in the privacy of her spacious dressing room. When the children were small, she had a small kitchen in her bedroom too, for her husband loved to eat, but there the kids spent a good deal of time. "I did complain about how that kitchen took away some of our privacy," she said with a laugh.

That kitchen turned out not to be a bad idea. Practically all the nine Reynoso children (six girls and three boys) learned how to appreciate good food and good cooking. Some of them became successful restaurateurs, and some, entrepreneurs (for Lola had also a keen business sense in addition to a genius for cooking.)

One is not surprised that she is Kapampangan (the tribe known for culinary excellence). She is the youngest of 10 children of "Apung Miliong" J. Valdes, a pioneer in the manufacture and export of rattan furniture in Angeles, Pampanga. Her father encouraged his children to engage in business, and Afric began selling mangoes. She got her bachelor of science degrees in home economics and education from the Philippine Women’s University in 1935 (her alma mater conferred on her its business and finance award during its centennial anniversary).

The Valdes mansion had been built by Andres Luna San Pedro, the only son of painter Juan Luna. There, Afric grew up into a pretty lady, with a host of suitors going after her hand. When the time came for the house to be refurbished, the architect recommended by a hardware store owner was Jose "Joe" Reynoso, a Pasig native and board topnotcher from the University of Santo Tomas who was then practicing in Baguio. Like a destined recipe, Joe and Afric fell in love, and less than a year later, they were married.

Afric’s first adult try at entrepreneurship took place after World War II, when she made tocino for relatives to sell in the province. Then she opened a small eatery on the mezzanine of a three-story building in Carriedo, Quiapo, in 1947 and immediately, her lugaw, arroz caldo and halo-halo became a hit among the Valleson department store shoppers. The demand for lunch, or an entire meal, had Afric expanding her menu and refitting eating space and getting new furniture. Her cook whipped up Hungarian goulash, and everything else she served, including her own recipes, was devoured by discriminating diners.

Afric was widowed in 1973 when Joe was struck down by a heart attack. She kept herself busy, opening a stall she called Sizzling Plate at the first SM in Makati, with Henry Sy’s son Hans, as her partner. At the time the steaks were a rage, but only for those who could afford them; hot plates were also new, and Sizzling Plate which served sizzling steak on hot plates at affordable prices, had diners forming long queues. Afric took care of training the cooks and personnel, and Hans did the hiring and firing. The partnership lasted 30 years, and has grown into 12 outlets, including one in Cebu.

Lola has passed on all her business secrets to her children opening their own food outlets. The eldest, "Leni," is a certified Wilton Method instructor, and when she’s in the Philippines, she’s very much in demand for cake decoration and sausage-making. Edna runs the successful Sizzling Plate in Baguio, and Tito, a farmer, put up his own in Legazpi City. Sylvia is famous for her culinary school that produces some of the country’s top chefs, caterers and home-based food entrepreneurs.

Lorrie, for the past 17 years, has been the chef instructor at the Art Institute of New York, one of the five biggest culinary schools in the US. At the family Christmas feasts in Manila, her assignment is to make the roast beef using US prime rib, so she brings home 12 to 15 pounds of meat.

Mia opened the first Sizzling Plate on Pasay Road. Cecille set up Patio Filipino at the Makati Commercial Center; she now partners with nephew Emilio Reynoso, and they operate seven branches in Metro Manila.

Nephews, nieces and grandchildren have set up their own businesses, the others might, too, when they grow older. For now most everybody is into cooking and baking - and eating. And they all have beautiful words for Lola Afric.

Daughter Lorrie says that throughout the feasting of the Reynoso clan, the center of attention is Lola Afric, whom Lorrie describes as "the catalyst, the reason for being. Her longevity is such a blessing. It has made us closer and keeps us together. She creates the opportunities for frequent get-togetherness at her open house."

Miguel "Mike" Anton, Edna’s older son, was given by Lola Afric an outlet, and with his lola’s initial guidance, made Pinoy Toppings at the Makati Fast Food grow to 10 outlets at SM malls.

Mike talks of his lola fondly. She is, he says, "an equal-opportunity person. It’s all up to us to make it work or not. Her love is also very unconditional," and while she may appear "too cool to care," she is actually, deep down, "always gentle."

Carlos Martin Antonio P. Reynoso, who runs a string of fast-food stalls, Martin compares his grandmother to an extraordinary rock. A friend from a pawnshop told him people are like rocks. "The dull ones you can find anywhere. And there are rocks that you call buhay na bato because there is life in them. I’ve always thought of Lola as a rare buhay na bato. She can disarm you and make you laugh and before you know it, she has your recipe.

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