'I Like Doing It Because All of You Are Here'

"It" being preparing our Christmas Eve meal in Baguio and "you" being his three family members scattered in the big lowland metropolis. He chose the stoneware, lined up a menu for the health-conscious (that should be me) and the one who could use an extra inch on her waistline (our youngest child Ida). And so we caught the cook of the moment on our digicam preparing a rich person's repast of Canadian salmon sashimi, a salad of Romaine lettuce, walnuts and grapes with a dressing of balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil, tenderloin coins and my contribution, lumpy mashed potatoes. Whenever I'd get something from the kitchen, he shooed me off with his admonition, "Too many cooks!" He also prepared Christmas Day breakfast and lunch. In a rare moment of revealing the vulnerable side of this hard-nosed newsman, he later said quietly, "I like doing it because all of you are here."

Master chef of Green Valley Village, Baguio, gets some assist from eldest daughter Kimi