Kat's Notebook

My sister and I together with my brother and his wife were recruited be audience members for this TV cooking show called, Secrets of the Masters. Of course I was thrilled to be part of this experience – it would be a first time for me to be in a live show and I would be fed wonderful things as bonus. The taping was held at GMA TV network, just a straight ride with the MRT. When we arrived, the studio was still being prepared. We took pictures of the set. We saw the guest chef making sure that everything was ready. We also were able to take pictures with the host who was very friendly and down-to-earth. We were seated to a table with laid down plates and wineglasses. More people arrived and the show officially started at 5pm.

The director coached us on how and when to clap, on how to taste the food samples, and prompted us to always smile when the camera was on us. I was getting excited. The taping began and we discovered that the guest chef was Andre Gellart (dunno if this is the right spelling), an Austrian-trained pastry chef. When I heard pastry chef, I groaned because baking takes too long. I knew that it would be delicious but I also knew the process would take forever.

The chef made 4 dessert cakes: Le Macao Cake, Green Tea Almond Cake, Soybean Cheesecake, and Panacotta with Lemongrass. The chef technique was amazing. All the cakes he did were delicious. I’m not a big fan of cheesecake, mousse, chocolate, and panacotta but darn he sold me with his concoctions.

Le Macao Cake was a chocolate layered mousse-like cake. The filling had caramelized almond with chocolate ganache and a layer of vanilla gelatin cream, and then completely topped with the dark chocolate syrup. It was really really good. As I’ve said I don’t like mousse and chocolate cake much. But his was really appealing. It wasn’t too sweet. The almond filling brought about a nice texture without being too nutty. Creating this masterpiece took about 1 and half hour. It was worth the wait.

The second cake he did was the Green Tea Almond Buttercream Cake. It’s a 4 layered rectangular sponge cake with green tea buttercream and vanilla cream in between layers. The sponge cakes were basted with green tea syrup. He topped the cake with a chocolate ganache and airbrushed it with green tea sugar mist. The airbrush technique was really interesting. It brought a green mist to the studio. I wasn’t really fond of this cake. It was too sweet for me and I didn’t get the taste of green tea. But still the chef made a nice harmony of different flavors to the cake.

After this cake we had a dinner break which didn’t include us, just the studio staff. We were only given sandwiches. So by the time I sampled the third cake, I was feeling full of cakes/desserts that I want to puke. But still I had to look that I’m enjoying when the camera was always taking a shot of our table.

The third cake was Soybean Cheesecake. The chef didn’t use a crusty like bottom as norm for cheesecake. He only had sponge cake which he filled with soybean cream. Then he topped the cheesecake with different fresh fruits and glazed it with apricot jam. The dish looked delicious. When I tried it, I was disappointed because the soybean cream flavor didn’t materialize for me. They served the cake to us warm and I think it would be yummier if it’s chilled.

The last dessert was Panacotta with Lemongrass. I’m not really fond of panacotta because the cream is too heavy. But this chef made a twist to it that really caught my taste buds. So he made a raspberry filling which he put on the bottom of the glass, then a pistachio sponge cookie, then vanilla cream with lemongrass, then he topped it with chocolate strip garnish. If I wasn’t too full of the previous desserts, I would have enjoyed this. The lemongrass brought a refreshing taste to the vanilla cream. The raspberry contrasted the lemongrass really well and it was a good blend of flavors.

After the chef made his final dessert, the host brought him to a lounge area where there was a little bit of Q and A. The chef was so endearing because he was nervous being in front of the camera that he didn’t smile a lot or didn’t explain a lot of his dessert. If the chef talked and engaged the audience more, I think we would be more entertained than bored to tears. It was a long 5 hours taping!

So would I be a live TV audience member again? Of course I would especially if it’s Ellen Show. Catch my 5 seconds to fame on July 19, 2009 at 730pm on QTV, Secrets of the Masters.

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