Fil-am chef cooks for Microsoft
abs-cbnnews.com | 07/15/2008 10:54 PM
Printer-friendly version | 
Send to friend | 
Share your views
By JULIE JAVELLANA-SANTOS
Henry Pacheco's greatest frustration is that none of the chefs known in the international cooking world is a Filipino – despite the fact that Filipinos are known the world over for being great chefs; one is even the chief cook of US President George W. Bush.
One day, he aims to be the first Filipino international chef on TV, Pacheco told abs-cbnNEWS.com.
He says that the Filipino chef will be recognized worldwide, not only for cooking for a casual type of restaurant but also for being the chef of upscale fine dining places.
Pacheco says he does not understand why Filipino restaurants are not popular with non Filipinos, many of whom patronize Chinese, Japanese and other Asian restaurants.
"Someone has to work hard to bring Filipino cooking up to par with these high end French, Italian and even Mexican cooking," Pacheco says.
He says someone just needs to find a way to cook, serve and present Filipino food creatively so that it will be worth having an entire restaurant devoted to it.
"Down the road when I'm 50 or 70 years old that's what I want to accomplish," Pacheco adds.
Meanwhile, Pacheco says he is teaching members of the Chicago community where he lives how to manage their leftovers, which are a lot especially after a barbecue.
He says he is also teaching fellow Fil-Ams how not to overcook food.
Delicious food = family
Pacheco's appreciation for the finer points of food and cooking can be traced back to his Pampangueño roots.
Growing up in Sapang Bato, Angeles, Pampanga, where the land was rich and food was abundant, Pacheco was steeped in Filipino cuisine.
When he was only three months old, Pacheco was the subject of a bitter custody battle between his parents.
His father, not having enough means to keep him but wanting to do so, left him with his family in Sapang Bato.
His grandparents took over his life and his upbringing, even when the courts finally decided his father could keep him.
Pacheco was left under the loving care of his extended family, a family of aunts, uncles, and grandparents who loved to eat. They encouraged him to do the same, all the while filling his mind with delicious recipes and smells so that he invariably connected delicious smells with a family.
He grew up with a family that put a lot of love and pride in cooking, often seeing how the day began and ended in the kitchen.
Pacheco recalls that everybody cooked and had their own specialties. Holidays were always extra special and he remembered fondly all the rice cakes, all the good food and how the family catered for other people.
The Pachecos took the little boy in their midst and showered him with all the love he needed, in the process paving his love for cooking to blossom.
Little did they know that they were already paving the road to his destiny.
New frontiers
At the age of 18, Pacheco decided to leave for America to find his fortune.
But with no real sense of direction, the street gangs of Chicago took him in leaving him with the feeling that he was on top of the world and that they were all invincible.
Later, when tragedy struck and a member of his gang died, Pacheco had to rethink his options and exactly why he left his family and what it was he really wanted in the country of many opportunities.
Turning to the Filipino community of Chicago for assistance, Pacheco was rejected each time due to his previous lifestyle and unorthodox way of living.
Pacheco, however, did not lose hope and in December of 1986 he was fortunate enough to be directed by a friend to the Chinese American Service League (CASL) of Chicago who welcomed him with open arms.
Bernarda Wong, President of the CASL and Linda Yu, at the time the anchor and reporter of ABC 7 News introduced Pacheco to the famous chef Rick Bayless leading him to enroll and attend Malcolm X College where he focused and was very involved in the culinary arts program.
Turning point
During his time at Malcolm X Pacheco continued to train with Bayless who is famous for his Tex-Mex style of cooking and teaching and has also appeared on shows such as "Good Morning America", "Today", CBS "This Morning", and even "Martha Stewart Living."
The teachings of Bayless only marked the beginning of Pacheco's renewed love affair with cooking.
"It was the greatest thing working with Rick Bayless. I never found another chef like him," Pacheco acknowledged.
After graduating from Malcolm X College in November 1989, Pacheco took a job with Spiaggia the very first restaurant of a chain of 25 Italian restaurants around the West Coast and Chicago area owned by the Levy Restaurant Organization.
This then lead him to train under the wing of Tony Mantuano, his next mentor and great influence in his cooking career. Mantuano was "widely acclaimed as a trailblazer of fine Italian cuisine."
After several years cooking both Tex-Mex and Italian food from two well known chefs and the occasional cooking job both in the Philippines and in Seattle, Pacheco moved to a famous hotel in Alaska.
Another step up
A chef friend had informed Pacheco about a job as an executive chef at a Holiday Inn in Anchorage, Alaska.
While vacationing in Hawaii, Pacheco also heard about a chef named Roy Yamaguchi, a specialist with Euro-Asian cooking.
Yamaguchi was a popular chef and owned 26 restaurants reaching from Hawaii, Cebu, Philippines, and even in Seattle where Pacheco would later reside.
Pacheco wanted to work with Yamaguchi and in 2004, he applied at the Westin
Hotel in Seattle where Yamaguchi was working.
He was then blessed with the chance to learn the tricks of the trade with Yamaguchi's Euro-Asian fusion cooking.
"I really liked his cooking. I learned to make a lot of natural sauces from fruits and vegetables and was even given the chance to be in charge of the kitchen on Fridays and Saturdays," Pacheco raved.
By the end of 2005, the management of the Westin restaurant changed and by April of 2006 Pacheco decided to resign and find a new experience to add to his list of culinary accomplishments.
After being educated by three of the top chefs in the US, Pacheco wanted to make a path of his own. He wanted to specialize in something he was very familiar with and that could take him back to where his career started, Filipino Cuisine.
"I want to do international cooking and I also wanted to bring Filipino cooking to a higher level," Pacheco said.
Pacheco is now on his way and could very well select his jobs.
For the moment, though, Pacheco chose to work for Microsoft Corporation.
At first, he was just a chef in a outsourced catering group, the Eurest Dining Service and Compass Group and recently, he was transferred to the place where the great Bill Gates had his very first office.
Pacheco said he originally planned to return to the Philippines and set up a culinary school here, but the prospect of working for a man who became a success and became a philanthropist was really great.
"I want to be like him and help the Aetas," Pacheco said.
He now has a pending proposal for a cooking show, a cookbook, and an international catering group.
Pacheco said he is far from being an international chef. "I have more to eat first," he said.
But he is definitely on his way because in April 2007, he was the chef for superstar Nora Aunor and her entourage during Aunor's last concert held in Seattle, Washington.
Pacheco said definitely "someone has to work hard to bring Filipino cooking up to par with these high end French, Italian and even Mexican ways of cooking. I don't believe that Filipino cooking is hard to make, the only difference it has to all these high-end European types of food is that we haven't found a short cut to cook, serve and present it creatively and worth having in a restaurant as an individual dish rather than family style."
