EP90: Part II Chef Maricel Gentil:Celebrating Filipino Heritage from Food Channel to PBS

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Welcome back to another exciting episode of Voice4 Chefs.

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In part two, we dive into Maricel incredible culinary journey.

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Experience her passion as she navigates the food channel and dazzles on Hulu and shares culinary delights with PBS.

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Stay tuned to be inspired by Maricel's flavorful adventures.

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I find interesting is you've been on PBS, you've been on Hulu, and you've been on the Food Channel.

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Oh my God.

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can you highlight a couple of these things?

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What was it like and how did you connect to PBS?

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Ow.

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That was the, that was an interesting question.

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It's always interesting how I connect with these people, right?

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So I was driving and somebody called, of which you could answer your phone and there says.

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The way he said it was, would you like to be on PBS?

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I said, you're such a scam.

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Boom.

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Hang up, call back again.

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I am really, seriously if you are I'm looking for chefs that could go.

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I said, I have no time.

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I'm driving.

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I said, hang up.

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And then the third time he called, still on driving.

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I said, okay if, you are insistent, I said, just send me an email so when I get back to my office, I'll call you.

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You sure?

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I opened my email, it's the producer for PBS.

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I said, oh my God, it's the same, it's just it's the real thing.

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Sure.

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So they interviewed me after that and then we connected

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Yep.

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and then all of a sudden, oh, okay, I could do this.

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And then we filmed that in my kitchen here The gentleman.

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Who hosted it.

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Oh

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He's an Emmy Award winner of award.

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That was his first season.

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Oh my gosh.

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That was his first season.

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And I just wanna share it to you.

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What he calls me the Asian Ina Gordon, because he met Paul and he says, the two of you are amazing how you work together, stuff like that.

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And he says, you're the Asian ina Gordon.

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And then he end up calling me my godmother.

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I says, you are my godmother because you always take care of me.

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He says and from that time on the next, the following year, he invited me again.

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He only invited two people from his first year.

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To come back to the show.

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Hulu is another thing too.

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It's just oh, what?

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It's the first episode for the what's that recipe?

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Rumble for?

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The Cake Boss.

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That was also another like call because who does all this?

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It's my husband,

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Oh sure.

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entering me to this.

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you in and you're

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And then I would come home and he would say did you get a call from PBS or.

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food network, like why would I get a call?

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Oh nothing, And then all of a sudden they would call me like, oh my gosh.

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Food network is huge.

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My God, they flew me to Phoenix, Arizona.

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So we were there.

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We were there for five days.

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It was so cold early in the morning.

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But

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cooked with Alex, right?

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yeah.

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Yeah, Alex was the host.

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Wonderful.

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And you're asking me what are those moments?

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Yeah, just a few to highlight a few.

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Yeah.

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So at the end of the show Alex and I were, talking, and then I said I didn't win that day.

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I was on top, but I did, I know the reason why I, and then, you know what she said to me, just  Maricel, just keep doing what you're doing.

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You're very good at it.

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That was like, oh my God, this came from a chef That like, okay.

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It was just I ran with it.

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I had the feeling that I was the winner, but.

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That saying to me is I'm thinking like, maybe I'm doing something right.

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Sure.

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like before I started my, business, I feel like I'm quitting my corporate job.

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Would I get the money?

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Would I, would people even listen to me?

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And then if years.

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Now this is what's going on.

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And I'm, me and my husband have so many goals for  Maricel Kitchen we're, trying to look for another location my new cookbook so excited about that.

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I'm so happy it's in, oh my God, so many things happening, Michael.

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I love It.

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I can't even tell you I said to myself, I'm 60, but I have more energy now.

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When I was 45,

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the same.

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I'm pretty close, but I'm very much that way.

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I have energy that goes beyond

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is just

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definition.

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keep on going.

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I said, who wants to retire?

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Yeah.

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when you're having so much fun?

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That's so great.

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it, it's a lot of work.

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Oh, I know.

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Sometimes I stand a 14, 16 hour day in the kitchen,

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Wow.

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and then you get up in the morning, you do the same thing, but it's just, I'm always ready to meet a lot of people.

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The

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So, that's Hulu and that's PBS and, a little bit of the food channel.

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yeah.

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Do you, was there anything that kind of didn't go right?

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In other words, I've interviewed a lot of chefs from the food channel, mostly Chopped, and they talk about you're doing a 15 hour day

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Yeah.

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exhausted and, you make mistakes

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Yeah.

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and, some of them are interesting.

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One, one chef.

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They actually roasted peppers, like roasted dry peppers.

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I think it was.

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It smoked out the whole kitchen, including the executives

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Hi.

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the staff, the judges.

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They were all coughing and they

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Yeah.

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get through that whole thing and then

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Oh

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over or something.

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And I thought that was so unique.

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But is there

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yeah.

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That's, what happened to me in Food Channel with the Food Network.

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On the third thing, I fell, I tripped on something.

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was in Arizona, right?

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Yeah, this was in Arizona.

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We tripped and then of course my eggs flew like And, lemme tell you, Alex was the first one to run and help me.

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I says, forget about your eggs.

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She says, forget about your eggs, you'll replace it right away.

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At that moment I felt geez, then I don't get this anymore, and stuff like that.

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But.

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I find that whole experience to be a learning experience and it makes you humble.

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It is just but all throughout I felt so good though, even though I didn't win that Of course you always say I, should have won because a lot of people when I came back to East Brunswick, can we call Food Network because you should have won blah, blah, blah, blah.

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Oh, okay.

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I said, no, it's okay.

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It's okay.

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it's a Because with what the comments they said during the competition, that's good thing for me already.

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That already told me that I did a good job.

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Yep.

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I don't have to prove myself further because I think from what I created in a, small amount of time, not a lot of people could do that.

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Lemme tell you that because you could do your brain, get yourself ready still, whatever is in that cart, you never know and is.

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You got to keep on changing, right?

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Yeah.

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I'm So like, oh my God but I still find that as a wonderful experience.

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I won't even say that.

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It's a failure.

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I learned so much from that.

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And let me tell you what Alex told me was such a wonderful ending of my day.

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As I've said, I know where I am.

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I know who I am.

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Either people would like me or who I am, I'm not gonna change,

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Right.

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that's just me it's.

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No, that's fantastic.

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And there was another one too, about Buddy and your family.

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It was like a competition between families.

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Yeah.

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Can you tell us a little bit about that show?

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That is amazing.

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I, think with that show, it came out to be, I was like a little or authoritative mom or something.

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my gosh.

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My, my son's friends were like.

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Oh my God, your mom is so mean to you.

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Because I said, oh, just do it.

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Just do it.

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Of course I want to win.

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Of course we want to win and stuff like that.

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But that was good because it felt as a family, we did something great, and we didn't practice with it.

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It, those are the things that we do every holiday.

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Okay.

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Those are the recipes that we do every Christmas.

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Love it.

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You know, we do half and half, half Filipino, half Italian.

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paul's Italian it.

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Oh my gosh, I love it.

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what we put in that show.

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like showing my Filipino traditions as well as showing my Italian traditions for my husband, because both kids, I have two sons.

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I want them to learn.

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Both have both traditions.

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So we, I'm.

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I'm always, every Christmas that's what we do.

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So that's what we shared in that show.

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And thankfully we won.

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Even Buddy says oh my God, this is now my new way of cooking hot chocolate.

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Yeah.

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Ham, is to die for.

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So can you tell us just, so that people may not know what, did you make?

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I know hot chocolate was in there.

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I made the traditional ham.

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I, then I did candy dms, and then I have my Filipino egg rolls, right?

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And then I did the bahala, the Italian bahala salad and the fruit salad.

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Yes, the Filipino fruit salad, the de fruit salad out the Filipinos.

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So in two hours we made five dishes.

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And then you have to decorate the, table setting,

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but you're competing with one other family.

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Yeah, they own resturants Restaurants too.

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They own two restaurants.

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Okay.

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I think they're Spanish or something.

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A lot of things didn't work out on their part because the flan didn't work out.

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Sure.

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I just enjoyed that show and buddy a good Italian guy is so friendly.

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PBS, you get to be friendly like Bookie.

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To this day, he came to visit for my book signing.

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He sounds like an incredible person.

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He is my godson now.

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I just, I was so impressed.

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I was just so impressed with the connection between you and him.

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I could sense this beyond just professional, it was like family kind of feeling.

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It became like a family.

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I could really sense it.

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Treat him like a son to me.

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I know.

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I just like to, entertain.

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I like to care for people.

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To take care of people.

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Especially feeding I like, because it's a Filipino hospitality.

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When you go to the Philippines.

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You enter someone's home, Did you eat?

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Come eat.

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It's more about eating right away, not like, how do you do we don't do that.

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Come on let's eat, let's go eat that, that, that's what they eat.

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Eating.

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It's very important in Philippines.

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I love that.

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And you've been called korean Seafood Ambassador.

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That's another story.

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Did you know that we're doing this for the 6th already with the food?

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every year they come to me they, want me to teach introduce Korean seafood to non Koreans.

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All right?

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So it was amazing when the president called me.

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And they asked me if I could come up with a recipe.

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And I said sure.

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But they said to me before we do that, we would like to go to your place and we wanna taste how you cook.

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Oh my God.

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I felt what would I make?

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with Korean Seafood

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So, now we're dying to know what did you make?

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I did scallion pancake, seafood pancakes,

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I love that.

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The fishcakes that we have, the broth, I made the broth with that.

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They love radish and stuff so I did that.

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So it's really five dishes.

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And when they were like tasting it, I'm like, oh my God please.

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And Mr. Who is the, sidekick of the president.

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It's just like you cook better than the Korean people we know in Palisades.

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They said to me.

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Oh my gosh.

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So that started the deal.

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So the very first one was we did invite 30 people to do to this cooking class.

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In fact it's always in our in my film when we do this when they introduced me and stuff like that.

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What an amazing production.

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Oh my God.

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We rented

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one of the studios in Upper North Jersey and Wow.

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Incredible.

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And we're having one coming up in September.

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I'm gonna be making fresh abalone.

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Oh

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So those are the things I'm gonna, and I make it congee

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Okay.

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Okay.

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congee with that.

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And then it is.

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I could taste it right now because I, love Abolone.

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This is our sixth year with the K Seafood.

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It's the Bureau of Fisheries in South Korea.

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Got it.

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interesting.

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Yeah, I was reading a little bit about that that's pretty incredible.

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We haven't even had a chance, and we have to get this in.

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Tell me please, about your cookbook, the idea of it, happened?

00:14:21.557 --> 00:14:23.086
Just let's hear.

00:14:23.187 --> 00:14:27.567
At first I said, when my husband tells let's, do a book, I said what?

00:14:27.777 --> 00:14:28.886
Who would buy my book?

00:14:28.917 --> 00:14:30.027
I said, who am I?

00:14:30.027 --> 00:14:31.197
I'm just like a little.

00:14:33.101 --> 00:14:33.432
Yeah.

00:14:33.476 --> 00:14:35.486
I even have a copy for you like this, right?

00:14:35.741 --> 00:14:36.371
I love it.

00:14:36.402 --> 00:14:37.721
Oh my gosh, I love it.

00:14:39.706 --> 00:14:44.126
of course a portion of the book is Filipino cuisine.

00:14:44.182 --> 00:14:57.142
In fact we're, thinking of writing the second cookbook, which is just all Filipino food because this one has Filipino, Cantonese, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, and Korea.

00:14:57.741 --> 00:15:07.672
I love all those food so I did at least twelve dishes per cuisine, and just give you a good picture of what a pantry would look like.

00:15:08.451 --> 00:15:09.682
For an Asian thing.

00:15:10.042 --> 00:15:18.111
And what's best is we did a QR code on the recipe so that if you want a detailed explanation.

00:15:18.162 --> 00:15:21.042
I got such good reviews too about the book

00:15:21.162 --> 00:15:21.851
Oh my gosh

00:15:22.961 --> 00:15:25.961
And, it's, you could have really actually buy from Amazon,

00:15:26.812 --> 00:15:27.231
We'll have a link in the show notes.

00:15:27.241 --> 00:15:32.761
Yeah, we got into Amazon and the purpose of this book is.

00:15:34.366 --> 00:15:48.197
I, can't say I'm the best or the perfect cook right there, or chef, whatever you wanna say, but I just wanna share that you can't, you don't have to be intimidated to, to cook Asian food.

00:15:48.616 --> 00:15:49.547
It's simple.

00:15:50.177 --> 00:15:55.756
It's simple, basic ingredients that you need to know and that you could follow the recipes easily.

00:15:56.866 --> 00:16:03.197
And then I've seen so many re you know, reviews saying wow, this is my BFF in my kitchen.

00:16:03.197 --> 00:16:05.466
Now the cookbook is my BFF.

00:16:05.606 --> 00:16:06.417
Asian cooking.

00:16:06.927 --> 00:16:08.187
I made it simple.

00:16:08.591 --> 00:16:08.812
Wow.

00:16:09.386 --> 00:16:11.576
Easy to read, easy to follow.

00:16:11.576 --> 00:16:17.986
The pictures are right there so that you know what you're expecting what would it look like when you're done cooking?

00:16:18.557 --> 00:16:21.736
'cause I've seen a lot of cookbook that it's all words, right?

00:16:22.307 --> 00:16:23.116
No picture.

00:16:23.611 --> 00:16:23.902
Sure.

00:16:24.376 --> 00:16:29.567
Sometimes if that's your first time cooking it, you have no idea how it looks like.

00:16:30.317 --> 00:16:34.907
But with my cookbook, you actually would see, oh, that's how it should be.

00:16:35.731 --> 00:16:35.881
Mm-hmm.

00:16:35.881 --> 00:16:36.142
When

00:16:36.142 --> 00:16:36.792
you're done with it.

00:16:37.876 --> 00:16:38.777
I'm so excited.

00:16:38.836 --> 00:16:40.366
It's almost a year we took this.

00:16:40.817 --> 00:16:43.836
I was so tired doing this because we flew in.

00:16:43.836 --> 00:16:46.996
Our photographer, he was from Seattle,

00:16:47.267 --> 00:16:49.956
Oh my gosh thats where im from.

00:16:50.206 --> 00:16:51.976
He was here for five days.

00:16:52.216 --> 00:16:53.716
We did 16 hours.

00:16:54.317 --> 00:16:59.746
What happened is I have to cook it fresh and then they do the foot photo shoot, right?

00:17:00.136 --> 00:17:04.876
And then I'm looking at the at, the camera, and I like, it doesn't look nice.

00:17:05.477 --> 00:17:10.487
I have to cook it again till I say, wow, that is the right picture.

00:17:10.846 --> 00:17:11.987
This is what I wanna capture.

00:17:12.946 --> 00:17:14.537
So that's the story.

00:17:14.777 --> 00:17:15.646
And then we got it.

00:17:15.856 --> 00:17:16.271
got it printed.

00:17:17.582 --> 00:17:18.122
Wow.

00:17:18.481 --> 00:17:19.231
A lot of work,

00:17:20.142 --> 00:17:22.781
What's next for you on the horizon?

00:17:24.162 --> 00:17:24.761
Wow.

00:17:25.082 --> 00:17:26.771
Second cookbook perhaps.

00:17:26.846 --> 00:17:27.326
Yes.

00:17:27.866 --> 00:17:29.037
It's on the plan, right?

00:17:29.836 --> 00:17:35.176
I'm trying to do live TV cooking class.

00:17:35.297 --> 00:17:35.866
Yes.

00:17:36.856 --> 00:17:40.037
My husband introduced that and I love the idea.

00:17:40.037 --> 00:17:42.257
I think we will do that then.

00:17:42.872 --> 00:17:45.392
People could see and it's like a talk show.

00:17:45.807 --> 00:17:46.096
Okay,

00:17:46.352 --> 00:17:50.011
Like it, it's more like five people in front of me.

00:17:50.041 --> 00:17:54.451
We are, we're gonna be cooking together questions but it's live.

00:17:54.602 --> 00:17:56.942
A lot of people could really see us cook.

00:17:57.392 --> 00:17:57.811
sure.

00:17:58.561 --> 00:17:58.832
Wow.

00:17:59.071 --> 00:18:05.311
then I hope sometimes when you say all the time, it would happen, right?

00:18:05.642 --> 00:18:07.592
So we're looking for another location.

00:18:08.237 --> 00:18:09.287
Closer to New York.

00:18:10.096 --> 00:18:12.497
Same concept as what we have in East Brunswick.

00:18:12.936 --> 00:18:13.186
Okay.

00:18:14.686 --> 00:18:19.517
We're, really getting we're blessed that it's doing very well.

00:18:21.227 --> 00:18:24.257
We wanna do it some other time, like some other place I should say.

00:18:24.692 --> 00:18:25.172
Wow.

00:18:26.551 --> 00:18:27.061
I'm loving it.

00:18:27.061 --> 00:18:27.872
I don't wanna stop.

00:18:28.021 --> 00:18:30.991
I, just wanna keep doing what I'm doing.

00:18:31.382 --> 00:18:32.136
It's interesting.

00:18:32.342 --> 00:18:32.912
feel it.

00:18:33.541 --> 00:18:40.172
I feel when you think about it, the work that you're doing is recognized by people and appreciated by them.

00:18:40.771 --> 00:18:42.392
And you're connecting to all these people.

00:18:42.392 --> 00:18:50.132
You're making these amazing friends probably from around the world and you know that's true joy, right?

00:18:50.162 --> 00:18:51.301
Why would you want to stop?

00:18:51.571 --> 00:18:59.942
Yeah, I think it makes me feel younger more than because your mind is constantly like full of ideas.

00:19:00.106 --> 00:19:00.511
yeah.

00:19:02.162 --> 00:19:07.892
If you would go into my studio, like when people first come in, they would say, wow.

00:19:09.017 --> 00:19:11.446
This is such a nice venue.

00:19:12.076 --> 00:19:15.346
And before I became a chef, I was an interior designer.

00:19:15.547 --> 00:19:16.326
Makes sense.

00:19:16.656 --> 00:19:20.317
so when I decorated the whole place, it

00:19:20.632 --> 00:19:21.051
Okay.

00:19:21.051 --> 00:19:22.402
That really makes sense.

00:19:22.477 --> 00:19:23.826
field that we want.

00:19:24.082 --> 00:19:24.412
yeah,

00:19:25.567 --> 00:19:31.326
We, have this barn door that we got it from a salvage place.

00:19:32.076 --> 00:19:35.406
But it's such a good patina with the decoration and stuff.

00:19:35.797 --> 00:19:39.396
That's what we have at the back of my, cooking studio.

00:19:39.787 --> 00:19:41.136
It's, gorgeous.

00:19:41.676 --> 00:19:45.787
We just have to find the right piece for, that place.

00:19:46.156 --> 00:19:46.157
yeah,

00:19:46.336 --> 00:19:47.747
getting to be small now.

00:19:47.747 --> 00:19:49.997
When we first moved in, we thought it is huge.

00:19:50.386 --> 00:19:53.902
Now I feel like people are like, can you take 50 people?

00:19:54.701 --> 00:19:55.547
I have to turn it down.

00:19:55.547 --> 00:20:04.261
I can't take 50 people, but we've been doing a lot of, team building corporate events catering.

00:20:06.021 --> 00:20:07.521
Just so people know.

00:20:07.672 --> 00:20:13.426
Before we wrap up, Tell me about a couple of the cooking classes that are coming up just, off the top of your head.

00:20:14.086 --> 00:20:16.967
Oh, so of course we do a lot of empanada class.

00:20:17.386 --> 00:20:17.507
Okay.

00:20:18.541 --> 00:20:20.731
Seven fillings that you're gonna learn.

00:20:20.731 --> 00:20:21.902
Two kinds of dough.

00:20:22.592 --> 00:20:23.491
A Thai glass.

00:20:23.521 --> 00:20:24.842
We just had the Filipino.

00:20:25.231 --> 00:20:30.481
And then on the coming weeks, we are featuring, as I've said, chef's table.

00:20:32.372 --> 00:20:41.382
We, created a new menu for the chef's table and we're adding Hawaiian feast.

00:20:41.642 --> 00:20:43.951
A Kamayan feast, I should say.

00:20:44.551 --> 00:20:48.481
And we're, adding dim sum classes.

00:20:49.922 --> 00:20:55.051
A lot of people like dim sum, shalong, ba it's the soup dumpling.

00:20:55.382 --> 00:20:57.902
A lot of people like to learn how to do that.

00:20:58.741 --> 00:21:04.112
so we're in the process of creating more menus, more recipes for the cooking classes.

00:21:04.832 --> 00:21:10.902
meanwhile it's August, so we have bookings now till November, but.

00:21:11.561 --> 00:21:24.362
The corporate accounts are coming in again for their parties and stuff, and a lot of private events, bridal showers, maybe showers because they have the option to recreate the room.

00:21:24.362 --> 00:21:31.592
Like I have one couple they're gonna be married in their honeymoon is in Japan.

00:21:32.221 --> 00:21:40.622
So for their bridal shower, they turned the whole room into a Japanese, experience.

00:21:40.652 --> 00:21:42.241
It was so beautiful.

00:21:43.021 --> 00:21:50.231
I tell you the things that people come and bring, that even makes the whole dining room so, nice.

00:21:50.336 --> 00:21:50.936
Wow.

00:21:51.836 --> 00:21:53.606
Do you have any final message?

00:21:53.787 --> 00:21:55.497
First of all, how do we reach out to you?

00:21:55.497 --> 00:21:57.446
Because I think people are hungry right now.

00:21:57.446 --> 00:21:58.707
I think they're interested.

00:21:58.977 --> 00:22:00.297
So we're gonna be in East Brunswick

00:22:00.372 --> 00:22:00.882
east Brunswick.

00:22:01.662 --> 00:22:01.991
Okay.

00:22:02.051 --> 00:22:03.461
Street, east Brunswick.

00:22:03.791 --> 00:22:08.051
You could go to my website,  Maricel at Maricel's kitchen.com.

00:22:08.352 --> 00:22:10.211
We have an Instagram account.

00:22:10.332 --> 00:22:12.432
All right, so you could go for  Maricel's too.

00:22:12.461 --> 00:22:17.172
We have TikTok account, we have Facebook account, Maricel's Kitchen, USA.

00:22:18.672 --> 00:22:23.622
We're, very quick in answering emails and stuff like that yeah.

00:22:23.801 --> 00:22:26.592
So that's how you could connect with me.

00:22:26.787 --> 00:22:33.747
And then the last thing is, I always love to ask this, is there any final message that you wanna share with the world?

00:22:33.747 --> 00:22:35.487
Because we're a global podcast.

00:22:35.547 --> 00:22:40.646
And is there anything you wanna share about  Philippine cuisine, inspiring chefs?

00:22:40.946 --> 00:22:41.876
Any, message?

00:22:42.057 --> 00:22:49.106
Yeah, so of course I want the Philippine cuisine to be up in the bold stage, right?

00:22:50.217 --> 00:22:52.076
It's being known now.

00:22:52.467 --> 00:22:58.676
I love the hustle and buzzle about Filipino food, which is so good.

00:23:00.537 --> 00:23:09.326
for the people who like to cook or would like to try something, try the Filipino try to cook Filipino food.

00:23:09.686 --> 00:23:10.676
It's easy.

00:23:11.997 --> 00:23:14.517
Simple, basic ingredients.

00:23:15.926 --> 00:23:17.096
I know you would love it.

00:23:17.606 --> 00:23:22.557
I've never introduced our egg roll or our rice noodle to someone that didn't love it.

00:23:23.096 --> 00:23:24.662
So you are gonna love it.

00:23:25.051 --> 00:23:28.531
And of course, if you try to buy my book

00:23:29.412 --> 00:23:29.832
Oh yeah.

00:23:30.541 --> 00:23:50.122
you could actually learn a lot of things you could finally also read a portion of who I am and where I came from, and in fact, one of the person who was trying to review my book is after reading the book, I feel like I, I met a chatty friend of mine, you know that.

00:23:50.211 --> 00:23:50.491
love it.

00:23:50.692 --> 00:23:52.041
So I love that.

00:23:53.622 --> 00:23:56.632
I like to really connect with people.

00:23:57.771 --> 00:24:00.531
Don't hesitate to call, don't hesitate to email us.

00:24:00.892 --> 00:24:04.856
We'd love you to talk with you, share with you whatever we could.

00:24:06.126 --> 00:24:10.836
Share with you, like Philippine cuisine, tradition, so that's it.

00:24:12.112 --> 00:24:15.396
I just wanna say  Maricel, thank you so much for coming on the show today.

00:24:15.426 --> 00:24:16.866
Oh, thank you so much.

00:24:17.467 --> 00:24:19.207
It is very special to me.

00:24:19.477 --> 00:24:22.507
I have a lot of emotion going on in this episode.

00:24:22.807 --> 00:24:33.186
connected me to an amazing culture and, food, and I just, I really think that you are truly a Voice4Chefs and

00:24:33.221 --> 00:24:33.442
oh.

00:24:33.576 --> 00:24:34.477
grateful to know

00:24:34.612 --> 00:24:35.662
Oh, thank you.

00:24:35.662 --> 00:24:37.251
Thank you so much, Michael.

00:24:37.251 --> 00:24:38.241
It's amazing.

00:24:38.721 --> 00:24:39.652
Had a great time.

00:24:40.717 --> 00:24:41.376
Me, as well.