To fully appreciate food, One must know how it is made

I may have grown up in a family of foodies, yet somehow no one knows how to cook or bake… I guess we were just content with the idea of eating good food. Throughout my younger years, we’ve grown used to eating out, a lot! - Continuously navigating through the city of Cagayan de Oro, in search of delectable bites.

With that as my childhood food experience, I’m proud to share that this year; I’ve decided to make a change!

Just 6 months ago, I’ve enjoyed my first baking experience, with the use of my very first gas oven. As interest in the kitchen heightened, along with a bit of courage and immense support from my sister, a random decision was made—to enroll in Heny Sison Culinary School. The aforementioned school offers a variety of courses, namely; “Lifestyle Programs” –diverse short term cooking/ baking courses that usually take 1 – 3 sessions, depending on its complexity; and “Professional Programs” – courses that usually take 22 sessions, as it covers a wider range of baking/ cooking topics (usually undergone by prospective chefs as foundation in pursuit of careers in the food industry). With intention of taking my interest in food seriously, though having zero knowledge on baking, I enrolled in the Professional Program under Essential Baking and Pastry Series. And mind you, the experience was an unforgettable one. I never thought baking sweet treats would actually bring me much joy…

In the past 22 Saturdays of taking baking courses… I realized that, I got more than what I expected, as not only was I able to learn the proper techniques on how to make breads, cakes, bars, cookies, and many more delightful pastries… but, I’ve also known great people whom I now call “friends”, together becoming part of the Heny Sison Culinary School family.

The experience itself may have brought forth feelings of insecurity and nervousness as I sometimes tend to make mistakes. However, practicing in a school with a warm and friendly environment, I’ve managed to enjoy the process of learning, with my fellow students and professional chefs.

The best part is—I am now able to do it at home, all by myself… driven with passion to continuously develop my skills in perfection of the craft.

July 14th marks the end of my course, my graduation.…

Here’s a glimpse of my 22 Saturdays:

And I will be off doing kitchen experiments and will soon be sharing them with you.

written by: Shobe

The Blueprint

If you’ve read the previous entry, you just witnessed the literary work of my sister. My ever so proud sister, who never fails to announce my achievements in public- usually WITHOUT consent.

“We should have this entry…” I pleaded… “just to… set boundaries”

In most cases, blogs are personal, solely written… But, in this case—“FoodiesFoodNotes” will set it a level higher, as two of us (my sister and I) intend to continuously post entries- though, abiding by a looong list of rules (just enough to hold back conflict, as I’m usually on the loser’s end) wink*

Here are the rules:

Rule number 1- “Thou shall never delete or edit another person’s blog entry”. For checking, each of us should have a copy of every entry in file.

Rule number 2- “Thou shall never re- blog the same topic, unless the additional information is substantial, thus worthy of another post”- this applies to restaurant assessments, tutorials, recipes, etc.

Rule number 3- “Thou shall respect each other’s perspective, taste and suggestions”- never post with comments on previous entries, unless for reference.

Rule number 4- “Thou shall seek approval from the other, prior to posting any entry”

*As for other rules- such would be discussed by the two parties (privately), hehehe!

For our dear readers: to identify who posted a particular entry, we will provide a signature, “shobe” (me) and “atchie” (my sister) - cited after each posting.

Over the years, we’ve travelled through different places- experiencing different cultures, and trying out different cuisines- where we learned a few tricks of the culinary craft. Throughout our journey towards discovering food, appreciation and fascination towards it grew into love. This love has now caused us to continually explore and enjoy food—with heightened desire to share it to everyone who loves food.

In Foodiesfoodnotes, we aspire to share everything we know about food—through recipes, kitchen tips/techniques, restaurant experiences, food discoveries - bringing you along with us on our gastronomic adventures. You just have to remember one thing-- "You could eat whatever you want, just don't OVEReat".

Herstory

"Some people like to paint pictures, or do gardening, or build a boat in the basement. Other people get a tremendous pleasure in the kitchen, because cooking is just as creative & imaginative an activity as drawing, or wood-carving, or music"- Julia Child

The words quoted by Julia Child is the perfect composition capturing the childhood my sister and I shared- and pretty much enjoyed!

Our interest in the kitchen started early, with me at age 8 and her at age 6, as we used to play cook-off competitions (now, famously aired as 'junior master chef')- usually having eggs as our main ingredient. Such fun!!! Seasoning the eggs with unknown ingredients was only part of the fun, the best part was getting to eat our very own culinary masterpieces- and having our parents eat them too! Well, I must say that-- throughout our cooking experience, we've never heard them complain... Maybe we're just that great at mixing stuff?! hahaha!

As years passed, our love for food deepened, yet our kitchen skills remained umm... satisfactory..? You need not guess that this meant we outgrew our childhood dreams of becoming chefs- I graduated with Economics and Finance as majors, while my sister graduated as a Software Developer with.. ahem! honors- Magna Cum Laude!

Love for "Everything Good to Eat" has been our childhood motto. However, with our frugal lifestyle throughout the college and working years, such motto was no longer practiced, nearly forgotten. Reminiscing those years,... happy memories were relived, bringing back our desire for good food. Thus, we've finally decided to carry on with our life's passion, that is-- To Live, Love and Eat!