Victoria’s secrets

Chef Maria Rosario Victoria "Vicky Rose" Pacheco seems to have all the right ingredients for a fulfilling life: A good job, a happy family and a mission that makes each new day as appetizing as her signature coffee pie.

Vicky Rose oversees the kitchen in three successful restaurants she runs with Ricky Gutierrez – Chateau 1771 in Ortigas, Portico and Sidebar in Malate and the popular Sentro in Greenbelt 3.

After finishing Hotel and Restaurant Administration at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Vicky Rose obtained a Food and Beverage diploma from the Hotel and Tourism School "Les Roches" in Bluche, Switzerland. She took her service practicum at the Noga Hilton International in Geneva, and her Kitchen Practicum at the Hotel St. Georges in Montana, Switzerland. She trained further at the Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne and at the Hotel Eurotel Riviera in Montreaux.

Her first job upon returning to Manila in 1988 was at the Chateau 1771 French Bistro, where she was hired immediately as manager/chef. Today she’s the Executive Chef/Chief Operating Officer/Managing Partner – and resident guidance counselor – of Chateau 1771, Portico and Sentro.

Each restaurant has a distinct menu – Chateau is no-borders cuisine, Portico is Oriental-Italian and Sentro serves Filipino food with a twist.

Vicky shares the secret of the restaurants’ good reputation: She uses only the finest ingredients and is not afraid to experiment in the kitchen.

As for the recipes, well, what do you expect from a granddaughter of "Mama Sita," yes, the woman after whom the famous bottled and packaged sauces are named. Mama Sita is the daughter of "Aling Asiang," the founder of the legendary Aristocrat restaurant chain.

"We have the recipes, but we treat them just as the skeleton of the dish. The recipe is just the base, and we do what we want to enhance it. My family is always collecting recipes and passing them around." Family reunions, recalls Vicky Rose, were gastronomic experiences, with relatives bonding over the latest variation of kare kare.

Her creativity with recipes is evident with the restaurant chain’s signature dishes. At Sentro, for instance, the flagship dish is corned beef sinigang (corned beef short ribs and boneless shanks in tamarind broth). Among the new items on the menu are tokwa’t belly (deep-fried maya-maya belly instead of pork, tofu cubes and soy/vinegar sauce), fried kesong puti (tastes like fried feta cheese) and upo squash soup (a chunky vegetable puree soup of squash and bottle gourd).

Vicky Rose follows recipes to the letter the first time, but the second time around, it’s definitely her ballgame.

Her famous coffee pie is one example of a recipe Vicky Rose "inherited," improved on, and made perfect. It has earned quite a mouthwatering reputation that on a trip to LA, Vicky Rose was told by a fellow Filipino: "You’re with Chateau... Chateau of the coffee pie?"

The original coffee pie was discovered in a Baguio coffee shop by a grandaunt, who concocted its recipe based on taste and passed it on to Vicky’s mom. Alas, though it tasted as good, it didn’t look half as good.

"Whenever my mom would bake it, it would fall apart!" recalls Vicky. Vicky refused to give up on it, so one day, when her mom Priscila was out of the house, she "sneaked into her cabinet, got the recipe and started testing it."

After three tests, Vicky, like a lab scientist, announced that her experiment was a solid success – literally and figuratively. (She even shares the ingredients with us: Cream cheese, butter, coffee and Ricoa cocoa for the filling. Flour, butter, cashew and cocoa for the crust. Cream and toffee for the topping.)

She isn’t selfish with her recipes, and she is even more generous with her time.

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Vicky feels that the secrets to lasting happiness isn’t just good food (coffee pie, for instance, has both coffee and chocolate, which triggers the release of the brain chemical serotonin, which in turn makes us feel happy). Happiness, she believes, comes from cooking up opportunities to make other people lead more fulfilling lives.

Vicky, a dedicated member of the Catholic group Singles for Christ, believes that she has a mission "to help other people help themselves be the best they can be, so that they, too, can be a good influence to others."

Vicky manages a staff of 150, and directly supervises a core group of 30.

She tries to spread God’s word not just by preaching it, but by living it – yes, even in the kitchen.

She counsels her staff, "even while they are chopping onions" on anything from love problems to money matters, from career anxieties to parenting woes.

"When they make utang, I already ask for their life story," says Vicky, who understands that people who go into debt usually have another problem bothering them.

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So what’s cooking in Vicky Rose Pacheco’s kitchen? Another new gourmet recipe of ampalaya, perhaps, or a more exciting treatment for maya-maya belly.

But what’s really cooking in there is coffee pie for the soul – prepared by Vicky, and served generously. No sales tax, no service charge.