Overseas Pinay Winner: Victoria Recaño's new court
MANILA, Philippines - Victoria Recaño is an Emmy award-winning TV personality who has interviewed everyone from world leaders and entertainment superstars to business moguls; those instrumental in either changing the world we live in today or shaping our ever-changing pop culture. The list really goes on and on but a few worth mentioning are Bill Gates, Barack Obama, George Clooney and Miley Cyrus. She has been charming audiences in front of the camera for over a decade now and is a household name not only in America but also around the world because of her most recent five-year stint as a correspondent/host for the Insider and Entertainment Tonight, the top syndicated entertainment news magazines in the world.
MANILA, Philippines - Victoria Recaño is an Emmy award-winning TV personality who has interviewed everyone from world leaders and entertainment superstars to business
Today, Recaño, in what she describes as her dream job, is the one Los Angeles turns to for their nightly news. Let us get to know this mainstream Filipina who is representing our colorful culture for the millions of people who are plugged into their television sets from around the world.
Recaño is a journalist with an innate ability to get the heart of every story. She possesses an unexplainable quality to make you feel completely at ease watching her, as if you are catching up with a long-lost friend. I was fortunate to have been introduced to Recaño and her husband Tom — well, over a year ago — by her former producer and our mutual friend, Richard Hall. Besides this woman’s journalistic passion for tackling a story from a new and creative perspective, I was surprised upon first meeting her that another passion of hers, equally strong, can be found in the kitchen. Something must definitely be said for a woman who can whip up a gourmet meal in no time and with what she has stocked in her fridge!
The Pinay In Victoria
Victoria Recaño was born in St. Louis, Missouri, which is located in Midwest America. She is half-Filipina, one-quarter Hungarian and a quarter German. Her father, Ricardo Quintos Recaño, unfortunately passed away three years ago but hails from Balanga, Bataan. Ricardo left the Philippines to pursue a career in medicine as a general practitioner and surgeon. He made sure to instill in her the Filipino values of the importance of family. Victoria is the eldest of two sisters and a brother and is in constant communication with her siblings up three to four times a day. She confesses that growing up she had a staple diet of Filipino foods that her dad used to cook like pancit, adobo, lumpia and torta — her favorite breakfast food. Her favorite childhood memories took place in the Philippines. It’s the distinguishable scents of the Philippines that make her nostalgic for the days when she used to pretend to be on the set of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom with her cousins on her uncle’s mountain in Bataan. She definitely understands her Filipino heritage because she proudly recognizes how her father’s hometown of Bataan played a big role in World War II, which made her trips back to the islands especially meaningful. Her father, she says, overcame incredible obstacles, like surviving the Bataan Death March and losing his parents right after the war. Recaño says he told her about sleeping on a banig (mat made of straw) growing up and how grateful he was to be generously supported by his brothers who sent him to the University of Santo Tomas. Recaño seems to know the true meaning of family. I ask her what Filipino word she uses most often and she flashes that million-dollar smile and sweetly replies, “Minamahal kita.”
A Dream Resumé
With high honors, Vic graduated college with a mass communications degree in journalism from Loyola University in Chicago. In high school she was bitten hard by the entertainment bug when at 15, she auditioned for a Disney show, a sort of precursor to American Idol where they were looking for kids who had the complete package: singing, dancing and playing an instrument. She bagged a spot on the show and hosted Disney Afternoon for three years (where she won two Emmys). After college, she came back to St. Louis and became a general assignment reporter for two years before moving to San Francisco at the tender age of 22. She could not even rent her own car, yet she was already anchoring an internationally syndicated cable show that broadcasted live to a global audience. Tech TV News was a show that specialized in computers and technology during the tech boom in the ‘90s that incidentally was also seen all over Asia, including the Philippines (which she perceives as one of the highlights of her career because of the simple fact that her relatives back in the Philippines could follow her). On this show, she spoke to Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Larry Page and Sergey Brin (the founders of Google), among many others. After four and a half years, she moved to New York to become a correspondent for a TV show called Inside Edition. Another opportunity opened up when the Insider, a spin-off of Entertainment Tonight, requested her to relocate to Los Angeles. After five years on The Insider, she is now with KTLA The CW as their main co-anchor for the 6 and 10 p.m. news.
Victoria’s resumé alone speaks volumes of her work ethic and perseverance. There is no denying that she has hit the jackpot in terms of being able to work in the biggest markets of some of the greatest cities in America. She knows she has been blessed with all these amazing opportunities. When I ask her what she feels contributes to all the success she has garnered she humbly states: “A positive attitude plays a really big role in achieving what you want to accomplish.”
Victoria With Barack, Tom And George
“I don’t get nervous when interviewing the biggest stars in Hollywood or the president of the United States. It’s when I interview the biggest chefs that I get nervous,” Recaño admits. She adds how lucky she is to have been able to work on The Insider, where as a journalist she was encouraged to think and come up with questions on her feet. She traveled with the White House Press Corp and Obama, not focusing on Obama’s political agenda but instead something much more personal such as his snacking habits on the road. This style of reporting is refreshing and in turn makes her audience get to see a different perspective and aspect of their current president. At the time, she had an insanely-jam packed schedule as she was constantly traveling, sometimes even to 13 cities in 12 days straight!
A self-described workaholic, Recaño’s interviews with celebrities and politicians on camera are exciting and heartwarming for the simple reason that she doesn’t ask the questions everyone else does. Victoria’s dad always told her to “always treat people the same, whether it’s the queen of England or the person that shines shoes.” Victoria says George Clooney is “sweet, funny and a true star.” Even Tom Cruise gave Recaño’s husband (also named Tom) some baby advice when she was working the red carpet while “expecting.” When I ask Victoria what qualities these celebrities that have catapulted them into stardom, she says, “Grace and humility makes a star. These are the qualities I am most impressed by.”
Family First
It was a tough decision for Victoria to leave The Insider not too long ago but she really wanted to spend more time with her new family. She gave birth almost a year ago to a beautiful baby girl named Maximilienne Elizabeth Burwell, who she fondly calls Emme (pronounced “M-E”). Her new job at KTLA affords her the luxury of spending mornings with her daughter and in between her 6 or 10 p.m. shift if she chooses. Victoria effortlessly juggles being a homemaker, mother and wife and, at the same time, a highly respected journalist with unending deadlines.
It is also worth mentioning that Heny Sison, who is arguably one of the best pastry chefs in the Philippines, is Recaño’s cousin. Victoria hopes that with her traveling schedule easing up, there will be more opportunities for her to pursue her passion for cooking and traveling back to visit the Philippines. A cooking show with Sison seems to me to be a possibility as she has yet to make her Philippines TV debut. Volunteering for nonprofit foundations in the Philippines is also very high on her to-do list. I have to remind her that she is among the few Filipinos who are working in the mainstream worldwide entertainment market and she brushes it aside, clearly unaffected by her fame, popularity and accomplishments. Victoria Recaño is proud to be a Filipina representing our culture to the global television market and one thing her heart truly desires is to spend more time back in the Philippines.
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For more pictures and information, check out Victoria’s website at www.victoriarecano.com.
