INTRODUCTION

I’m Jeanie Anne J. Bretana. People call me as Anne or Jeanie.  I live in Iloilo but currently staying in Manila.  I’m 17 year old. I’m a shy type of girl. In school, I do love making scripts and directing a play. In house, I love playing with my dogs. I love watching movies, a romantic comedy one. I love to eat the foods that were made by my relatives.  And the most important is I love God and right now I’m an Ambassador for Christ in our hometown.

 I’m a first year college student of Enderun Colleges, taking a Bachelor of Science in International Hospitality Management major in Culinary Arts. For this semester, I have an English 101 subject. This subject helps us to develop our writing skills. Through making essays, we learned to be observant in everything. 

Interview with Chef Neslly Bretana

Chef Neslly Bretana graduated from American Hospitality Acamedy taking Culinary Arts and Entrepreneurship. She’s now a chef in Seagulls Resort in Townsville, Queensland.

How would you describe yourself?

Answer: I’m very a passionate, well rounded and goal oriented person

Where did you grow up? Can you tell me about your family?

Answer: Paranaque, my family loves to eat and they are also passionate about cooking, we rarely go out to eat so that we cook our own food, that’s how I describe my family

What university/college did you graduate from? What course did you take up and why?

Answer: American Hospitality Academy in Manila. Culinary arts and entrepreneurship for 6 months.

What is your goal in life?

Answer: My goal is to be able to have my own restaurant.

Why did you become a chef?

Answer: Because this is what I love to do and I enjoyed it a lot.

When did you know you wanted to be a chef? Who’s your inspiration?

Answer: Ever since when I was twelve, I started to learn how to cook

What is the feeling to cook food to your customers?

Answer: It feels great especially if they really love the dish and they got the concept of what you’re doing.

What is your weakness in terms of cooking?

Answer: Honestly, I don’t like to roast a whole chicken because it’s really hard to cook it so maybe , roasting.

Are there any foods you don’t like?

Answer: Yes. Ballot and Durian. It’s not good.

What is you specialty?

Answer: My specialty, a lot, but I’ll say Dinugu-an and blue cherry cheese cake.

While achieving your dreams, did you experience any trials in your life? If  yes, How did you overcome it?

Answer: Yes, the long hours of works, standing and also I only get to go home during night and my family is sleeping already.

What are the biggest learning being a chef?

Answer: To have patience and to be serious on what you’re doing while enjoying it.

Do you have any advice for those people who are inspiring to be a chef someday?

Answer: Be honest to your customers; don’t cheat them because without them you’re nothing.

Thanksgiving is love

How often do you celebrate and attend to different kinds of parties- wedding, birthdays, Christmas, and different kinds of events. Do you spend it often with your family and friends? Or parties for you are a no big deal? Whatever your answer is, going to a party is a good experience. No two or more parties are the same. Each is made unique. Of course, people want to have amazing, stunning, wonderful parties for it to be memorable.

In our family, we have our Thanksgiving party once a year. Do you wonder why we are having thanksgiving when is it not known and famous to Philippines? We call it Thanksgiving because we give thanks to the blessings that God has given us. But ours, we spend it differently. Thanksgiving to us is spent during the birthdays, christening, graduation party of the members of my family and relatives. Other than that, we spend Thanksgiving every Afternoon Sunday of March, right after Worship Service. By that time, the pastor in charge of the worship service will go to our house together with the members of our church, then we will pray together, sing together, have fun, and talk about religious views.

Attending to party and events is tiring but fun. We need to prepare different kinds of food because it is mostly what the party is all about, the decorations (as much as possible people want to make it unique colorful and different). Food and beverages are what people usually expect in a party (unless it is a children’s party, then children expects gifts, party poppers, prizes, and loot bags) we want our guests to be satisfied of what we serve and prepare for them. Back in Iloilo (my hometown), we usually make 15 kinds of different dishes because our house is always welcome to everyone. Most foods that we serve are Patotin, Valenciana, Dinuguan, Puto, Leche Flan, and many more. But we always make Patotin or in English Stewed Whole Duck. Patotin is always present in whatever occasion we have. The ingredients of Patotin are ginger, lemon grass, duck, pineapple chunks or slices of tuba. Patotin is the specialty of our family, and it is unique and very different from the other Patotins because we have a secret to it that will make it delicious and one of a kind. We only serve Patotin to our relatives after the guests are gone.

I love how we celebrate different kinds of occasions. We make it memorable and fun. Each of the occasions we have is spent uniquely. After all, a good food is a start to a great occasion. It also ties strong bond to families and relatives.

Tang Iced Tea

The new Tang Iced Tea is here in the Philippines. It attracts the viewer’s and it gains its own popularity, for people to know and buy the product more. In this commercial, there was a son and his mother dancing. And after dancing, they feel thirsty and decided to drink Tang Iced Tea and break the ice. After drinking they danced again because they feel refreshed. This commercial is great because all of us, when we are tired we want to drink cold drinks that will energize and awake us, and this Iced Tea commercial “Break the Ice” is one of the best examples. Here in the Philippines, it affects a lot of people because, of course, the climate that we have is hot and we want to refresh ourselves. It’s really effective especially when it’s hot. You feel that your body feels cold and energized.

Something New and Colorful

Aren’t you tired of eating the same brand and flavor of ice cream? Well, for me, yes! I am tired and I want something new, something fresh and something that will alter my mood every time I eat this kind of ice cream. When I first heard and saw the “Pinoy Sorbetes” ice cream in the advertisement and TV Commercial, I really want to try it as soon as possible. I was very eager and excited. Maybe because I really like Pinoy foods and I know it was made by Filipinos.

In the “Pinoy Sorbetes” advertisement, you will see a lot of people chatting in a party until Pokwang pop up and introduced “Pinoy Sorbetes” that cause them to become more active and aggressive. In short, it increases the mood of the Pinoys/ Filipinos. Like in Iloilo, Mang Inasal sells Pinoy Sorbetes just for Php 10.00 double scoop and it is really satisfying. Pinoy Sorbetes is the best.

Still a Media

When was the last time you read a newspaper and why? To keep you updated? For me, yes it is. Everyone wants to be updated with his or her interests’ right? And people want to know what is happening to their country or the latest gossips and new trends. Today, we are now in a high technology and we have lots of new different kinds televisions, radios and even have a good access in the internet world, we can’t deny that print media is still a media and a source of information.

          Print media is one of the common ways to communicate. but nowadays, it’s rare already, because of high technology. Like in the internet, open your facebook account, and there you’ll see ads of different companies. Many people are still using newspaper and magazines as their source of information because of some reasons. Like the old people, they want to know what is happening in the world, or the businessmen they want to know the stock exchange, and what is the latest product they can offer to people. One is the readability, its 28% slower to read a text on screen than on print. Basically, print media such as magazines and newspapers are still used as a media but not that usable back in the times of our grandparents. Print media is where people began how to know to communicate like in a report, the first print media is the one the Egyptians put their alphabets on clay tablets and become their communication. Print media helps a lot of people in terms f distribution of information. Print media, basically, is in print or a text in a hard copy. It’s still used in this world as media and used as communication.

Brother's Burger is in!

Every time people are stressed, bored or hungry, they would always make a stop into a fast food and grab something to eat. I’m sure you have done this. Burgers nowadays are one of the best foods that satisfy the hunger of the people. But we want something new, right? McDonalds, Jollibee and Burger King are just some of the biggest fast food chains that sells burger. But try something new, different and real, and feel like a queen or king of burgers. I’m referring to a Brother’s Burger, one of the best burger experience that I ever had here in Manila.

When I was walking along in High Street, just the back of Serendra in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City, I saw a signage “Brother’s Burger”. Together with my friends, were able to make a grab of burger in Brother’s burger. Brother’s burger with a blue color sign that has “satisfy your urge” at the bottom of it. Prefect! This one is new. I really wanted to eat a new burger aside from burgers of McDonalds, Jollibee and Burger King. With 200 pesos in cash I was able to eat their best burger with a soft drink and if you want you can have salad and their desserts too it’s not that big compare to burgers king burger but when you eat it, you can feel the best cooked beef burger. Waiting for 10 minutes to serve, you will not be bores because of their monitor that advertise their new food products. Their burgers are really good and  will really satisfy your urge. Try it and in with the new. Nothing will lose on you if you’ll try. I tried it, so about you?