The most awarded cooking school in Cagayan de Oro held its 23rd Graduation Programme recently at the posh Limketkai Luxe Hotel with no less than celebrity chef Penk Tan Ching as guest of honor and speaker.
Monster Kitchen Academy 23rd Graduation Class
Three batches of Fundamentals in Culinary Arts (11, 13 & 14) with 33 graduates, and two batches of Fundamentals in Baking & Pastry Arts (25, 26) with 21 graduates, received their toques and certificates of completion as symbols of their entry into the culinary and baking professions.
“It’s your job to perfect your skill and broaden your knowledge. Try to experiment with new things and open yourself to innovation,” advised Chef Geni B. Labadan in her message to the graduates. “Remember, nothing in life is worthwhile unless you take risks, because every failed experiment is one step closer to success. “
For her part, Chef Penk Ching shared her experience about how she made her mark in the Beijing Olympics by being the only chef to be allowed to exhibit her culinary skills in what was essentially the pinnacle of events for physical sports.
Celebrity Chef Penk Tan Ching with Monster Kitchen Academy Senior Officers, COHARA officials and media partners
“With luck, timing and primarily lots of grit and determination, I was able to convince Coca-Cola to let me design and make the cake which was presented during the company’s pre-opening party held in Beijing held before the 2008 games,” she recalled.
The Bird’s Nest cake was inspired by the gigantic sports stadium China built specifically for the 2008 Olympics. It was a real fruitcake baked a month and a half earlier (to properly age it) with an oval shaped fruitcake center, about 3 feet wide and 2.5 feet 9 inches tall, covered in red marzipan and fondant.
Chef Penk Ching’s Bird’s Nest Cake of the Beijing Olympics Stadium
The mesh or nest part surrounding it (5 inches wider than the fruitcake itself) was made from pearly white fondant that needed an entire week to dry. The cake was mounted on a 2.5 feet by 40 inch board that was a replica of the ground where the actual Bird’s Nest stadium stands. Set in gold around the cake were various sports symbols of the Beijing Olympics. To complete the look, four light bulbs were installed inside the hollow center of the “stadium.”
Except for the board and the lights, everything about the cake was edible and to Chef Penk’s delight, guests consumed the entire cake!
Five skilled cake decorators, including Chef Penk’s sister Shen Chen, needed two months to complete the master work. And it was a titanic undertaking to disassemble the parts and ship them by Philippine Airlines to Beijing where it had to be shoehorned into a room barely able to accommodate its dimensions.
Chef Penk Ching made the inaugural cake for President Noynoy Aquino
Other Chef Penk’s notable masterworks include the inaugural cake of President Noynoy Aquino and the University of Sto. Tomas’ Quadricentennial Anniversary cake.
UST’s Quadricentennial Cake (photo courtesy of Penk Ching)
Like many MKA graduates, Chef Penk came from the corporate world where she spent 20 years in the Philippines and the US. She answered her true calling when she founded the Pastry Bin over 30 years ago. Cited as one of the 10 Outstanding Maharlika Women in 2014, Chef Penk was also recognized as a Gourmet Master Entrée Chef in 2014, and passed the Master Certification program for Advanced Cake Decorating in Chicago, USA.
Besides cake decorating, Chef Penk is also a noted visual artist and is skilled in Chinese Brush Painting, Chinese Calligraphy, and charcoal portrait painting, to name a few.
This led MKA Culinary Arts Head Chef Cathy L. Dano to exhort the graduates to emulate the drive, grit and vision of Chef Penk.
Monster Kitchen Academy Senior Management and Faculty with celebrity chef Penk Tan Ching
“Be humble and remain positive always. When you start your vocation or your own business, always remember to respect the people above and below you,” Chef Cathy noted in her closing remarks.
“Be creative and don’t forget it will take years to make your name or reputation, and only 5 minutes to ruin it. Value the people you work with. Value the people wherever you’re going or where your career will take you. It’s okay to try and fail, than to fail without even trying. It is strictly an opportunity for you to begin again, more intelligently.”
“Your instructors have equipped you with the basic culinary and baking skills,”.“We are sending you as graduates with the greatest confidence, and fully clothed with the necessary preparation for the real world, for the real kitchen.”
Like what Chef Geni Labadan said earlier, “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds that you plant. And never forget the basics that are essential to basic baking and cooking.”
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