Chefs | Aleth Ocampo

Speaking of Aleth ...

Getting invited to dine at another person's home is priceless. To be allowed to not only peek but participate in someone's sanctuary is, for me, the greatest honor.


Even more so when you are allowed to join in on the celebration of a member of the family. So what a treat for me to have been invited to the home of Aleth Ocampo for the dinner celebrating her dad Bert Ocampo's birthday.

Now I've traveled with Aleth twice (Hong Kong and Japan) and crashed at Kuya Ambeth Ocampo's pad in Tokyo so it's not like I'm a stranger. But before this I had only seen her as the hostess with the mostest (she opens her home for private dining) and as the girly girl "teh" (sister) who gives tips on bags and make up.

Throwback: Setting at Aleth's Kitchen Private Dining when I hosted a margauxlicious dinner.

I had never seen her as doting mother or dutiful daughter. So it was a really lovely sight to behold, watching her cook her late mom's recipes with the help of her two gorgeous daugthers, Belle and Gab.

She dug up her mom's "baul" of recipes for this dinner. 

Among the treasures she dug up was this box containing index cards. Reminded me of my own mom's box of index cards filled with recipes, a laborious documentation which I can never understand ("Mom, it's called MS Word!" I keep saying). But I guess that's how kolehiyalas were trained back in the day when computers were just part of the Jetsons cartoon storyline and women were taught to be dutiful housewives!

 

To complete the set up we also got a glimpse of her mom's china.

While waiting for the room to fill (traffic was bad that Wednesday!), we munched on this appetizer of bruschetta with chicken liver pate, one of her mom's recipes. If you do this at home, remember to slather on the pate on generously, as Belle taught me.



With roots from Pampanga but kitchen training from France, Aleth of course first served soup and salad. But we could not wait to dive into the buffet, starting with the osso bucco. (It was an Italian inspired dinner.) The osso bucco is especially close to Aleth's heart because it was one of the last dishes her mom asked her to cook. 



The theme being Italian, there was also chicken cacciatore, eggplant parmigiana, and, for long life, spaghetti aglio e olio by Belle.





For dessert, Aleth made her mom's leche flan, following the recipe to the letter complete with dayap rinds. But younger daughter Gab also made a pound cake and a prune cake that reminded me of Becky's Kitchen's prune walnut cake! 

Wish I could share the recipes here but they are not for public consumption YET.

When it was time to blow the candles on the cake, a masterpiece arrived created by Anna (Aleth and Ambeth's sister) of OC's Kitchen: a Mini-Me of Nono! (Although for a second I thought it was ... Ambeth Ocampo! LOL. Like Father like Son? Hehehe!)

This miniature of Nono was the birthday cake. Created by OC's Kitchen. It's chocolate inside!

Aleth is now in the process of going through all of her mom's recipes, organizing them and learning them. These recipes are a true treasure and if you have recipes from your grandparents and parents, you should start collecting them too! 

She is definitely going to pass these recipes on to her own children. And for that alone, I"m sure her mom would be proud.  

Beautiful family.

The Ocampos

Little Miss OC & Aleth

And, ahem, of course I was part of the family picture!!