Accomplished chef Myrna Segismundo opens her home kitchen and continues to spread the love for Filipino food.
                          
                                                             
                                                            
Instead of going to culinary school, you graduated with a degree in Hotel and Restaurant Administration (HRA) from UP?
HRA prepares you for being more than just a cook—it involves management, housekeeping, engineering, PR, sales, all those topics that are not present in a culinary program. On the other hand, it doesn’t prepare you much for the kitchen either. So I had to go back to my cookbooks, or at least relearn techniques, in order to apply what I already had.

What would you say is your proudest achievement so far as a chef and restaurateur?
Becoming identified with Philippine cuisine. I was born with it and I understand it, therefore I feel confident about promoting it. It’s funny how you go out to discover what you’re all about, only to come back home again. Which is what I did. I used to live abroad.

What advice do you usually give to aspiring chefs?
Start from the very bottom and move your way up, and act like you still come from the bottom when you’re up there. One should never lose one’s humility.

Tell us the story behind your New Manila Private Kitchen.
Did you ever play bahay-bahayan, luto-lutuan? This is it! I’ve been running restaurants for other people for many years, doing consultancy work, demos, lectures on food service, even television. I’ve always been into private dining—whether it’s in ABS-CBN, or The Sign of the Anvil before, another corporate dining restaurant. So I’ve gotten used to offering a very personal approach to service and cooking. My nephew, Michael Navarra, a chef who’s been living and working abroad for the longest time, has also decided to come home to help me run this kitchen. It’s become the direction of his career, having been a personal chef in the Aman resorts in the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Photography by At Maculangan | Interview by Loren G. Evangelista | Hair & Makeup by Benjie Angeles