MENU: Myrna Segismundo

MENU
A Ticket to Good Taste

By Margaux Salcedo
Inquirer
Last updated 09:11am (Mla time) 07/29/2007

MANILA, Philippines—Doreen Fernandez should be honored for reshaping the Philippine culinary landscape in the ’70s and ’80s to embody a greater appreciation of Philippine food. But for my generation, the thank you’s go to Doreen’s friends, the select few who keep the light of Doreen’s brilliance burning and who are continually working to pass this light on to the next generation.

Among these friends is a culinary genius named Myrna Segismundo.

And I’m not going overboard with the word “genius.” She is one of today’s most respected chefs, as evidenced by the company she keeps: She is part of the Philippine Kulinarya Team, a select group of chefs including Glenda Barretto, Claude Tayag, Margarita Fores, Conrad Calalang and Jessie Sincioco, that has been burdened, or challenged or honored, depending on how you look at it, with the gargantuan task of standardizing Philippine cooking to meet “world class” levels. She also holds the luscious title of Director of Gastronomy for the Manila Ladies Branch of the International Wine and Food Society, of which she is a founding member, with the late Doreen Fernandez being founding vice-president.

The genius lies in her journey. Myrna Segismundo is not a formally schooled chef. She graduated with a degree not in Culinary Arts but in Hotel and Restaurant Administration from the University of the Philippines. And though she paid her hospitality management dues at a number of prestigious hotels in New York City from the time she acquired her BA, she never worked as a cook or as a chef in any of these hotels. She managed the coffee shop at the Sheraton and worked the front desk at the Waldorf Astoria.

She did, however, devour the Big Apple and its amazing dining environment. She educated herself by experiencing the best of the best cuisines, gaining great advantage over schooled chefs by acquiring and honing something more important than technique: taste. Today, she would advise aspiring chefs not to limit themselves to the confines of their cooking schools because, she says, “travel is the best teacher.”

The chef in Myrna Segismundo was born when she signed on as general manager of the Sign of the Anvil, the corporate dining restaurant of then-PCI Bank on Dela Costa Street in Salcedo Village. She was “suddenly at the helm” of operations, with the inclusive duty of designing a menu. Instead of cowering at the challenge, she took it full on and, in her words, “ouidoed” her way to becoming Anvil’s executive chef. Like a real captain, she gathered her team and dictated her action plan: “We will be honest with each other and have no pretensions. You tell me what your teachers taught you and I will tell you, based on what I taste and by going back to the books, whether what you are serving is cooked correctly and tastes right.”

Her action plan proved that honesty is indeed the best policy. Needing a benchmark against which to gauge her Anvil-acquired cooking skills, she joined Chefs on Parade, the Asean’s biggest and oldest culinary competition. She may have surpassed even her own expectations as she won the competition and kept winning year after year after year, establishing her place in the industry not only as an efficient hotel and restaurant manager but also as a chef to contend with. Today she remains the highest-ranking undefeated restaurant awardee of Chefs on Parade.

When Equitable Bank merged with PCI, she was invited by the Lopezes to open ABS-CBN’s own corporate dining restaurant. She accepted and has been 9501’s managing director and executive chef since.

9501 is an exclusive restaurant that showcases Myrna Segismundo’s talents both as restaurant manager and as chef. Located on the 14th floor of the ELJ Communications Center (or what we simply know as ABS-CBN), it would be a restaurant with a breathtaking view if Quezon City had a breathtaking skyline. At any rate, the food more than makes up for the third world environment beyond the glass walls because the cooking, as well as the restaurant’s interiors and service, is nothing short of first rate.



The day I interviewed Chef Myrna, whom I fondly call The Legend (to her exasperation, as she humbly insists “I’m just a Tale!”), she simultaneously had another interview with Malaysian-based American writer Robyn Eckhardt (eatingasia.typepad.com), who was doing research on lechon (Filipino-style roasted pig). I was therefore fortunate enough to be served a dish from a special menu that is signature Myrna Segismundo: Roulade of Boneless Native Lechon in Duck Liver-Red Wine Sauce. This dish is reflective of what Segismundo stands for: something rooted deep in Filipino culture using techniques that are used in four-star kitchens around the world for a dining experience that is high brow yet close to home. In fact the entire menu is consistent with the theme. The starter, Lapu Lapu and Sea Scallops in Green Mango and Tomato Sinigang Sauces is deceiving: you can taste the hints of sinigang but cannot see it on the elegant plate of matchbox-sized fish and scallops. The chicken molo soup that followed the scallops was served in a coconut shell, with the coconut meat still intact and ready for scraping. As the denouement dish, Kesong Puti was baked and served with pili nuts. For dessert, a classic turon with banana and langka (jackfruit) was served with cheese ice cream. And did I mention that the lechon tasted just as it should, with the salty, crunchy skin enveloping the juicy pork meat underneath, except the roulade camouflouged the classic favorite’s otherwise barbaric nature?






This menu changes every three months. Having the same clients day in and day out forces the corporate dining chef to be creative, to invent and to reinvent. “What better way to flex your muscles?” she asks gamely. She generously shares the secrets of her success: First, an intelligent approach to cooking. Segismundo emphasizes that she “did her homework.” In fact, she has taken Master Classes in Cookery and Food Styling in New York. Today, she improves her techniques by mastering ingredients, underlining the importance of knowing “that this olive oil tastes better than the other,” reading specialized books such as her current reading on trends in making sauces. The second and more important secret is passion. “There are some chefs who are schooled but are all structure, all formula, but no soul. You must remember that a lot is based simply on your recollections of what tastes good. Dining is not about flexing your muscles alone because then you lose the soul of the food.” Her advice to today’s aspiring chefs and restaurateurs: “Begin with the classics, then bring out a little of yourself and put your signature on it. And apply it to your culture because you have a social responsibility to uplift your own, whether it be regional or otherwise.”

This recognition of a social responsibility, aside from her obvious excellent taste and techniques, is what makes Segismundo one of the most valuable leaders in today’s Philippine culinary industry. With food writer Michaela Fenix, they began the Doreen Gamboa Fernandez Food Writing Award, encouraging a love for slow food and regional cooking not only among adults but also among the younger generations; an appreciation for Philippine cuisine that is, by means of the contest, annually documented in beautiful prose. Doreen Fernandez would be proud and the succeeding generations grateful. (I know I am—it’s this competition that got me into food writing!)

Unfortunately, ABS-CBN has Chef Myrna all to itself as 9501 is not open to the public. Fortunately, Chef Myrna has a heart of gold that goes beyond a recognition of her cultural responsibility. For the I Can Serve Foundation (www.icanserve.net), a breast cancer advocacy group, she has agreed to serve some of her signature dishes at a Food Festival that will be open to the public on August 11-12 at the Rockwell Tent (the complete list of participants is in (margauxlicious. blogspot.com). Don’t miss this weekend opportunity to taste some of Myrna Segismundo’s creations. Proceeds of the event will go to the foundation, so you’ll be hitting two good deeds (yes, treating yourself to Segismundo’s cooking is a good deed) with one ticket—and all in good taste.

Myrna Segismundo is also part of “Chef TV,” a food show on ABS-CBN that is organizing Food Showdown 2007, a cooking competition inspired by Chefs on Parade and Iron Chef that will be open to student and professional chefs alike. Contact Ms. Mira Angeles at 411-1434 or 415-2272 loc 2331 or email cheftv@abs-cbn.com for details.