Donita Rose finds happiness in cooking
“When I was younger, I wasn’t very fond of Filipino food,” said former MTV Asia VJ Donita Rose (photo). “I was your typical Fil-Am kid who preferred burgers and country fried chicken to home-cooked rice meals.”
Growing up in Pampanga among her mother’s extended Filipino family, Donita said she would often cook meals especially for her siblings apart from what everybody else ate.
As the child of a former US military civil engineer and a school teacher stationed in Clark Air Base, they were entitled to the local officers’ club where she was exposed to and developed an early taste for gourmet food. As a teenager, this encouraged her to try and spruce up the dishes at home.
After her family had returned to America, Donita stayed a while longer in the Philippines to pursue her blossoming showbiz career. She eventually moved to Singapore where she gained considerable regional fame as an MTV Asia VJ.
“Living by myself in a place like Singapore really made me appreciate global cuisine,” she said. “I also had a local boyfriend who was quite the foodie and tasting all these new flavors with him inspired me to try to replicate many of those dishes at home.
“Cooking is tough work,” Donita stressed. “It is so physically taxing, that if you do not have the passion and love for it, you won’t last a month.”
An offer to host a cooking show in the Philippines eventually lured her back home, and after many years of wandering, she has found the sweet spot that lets her celebrate her two careers: cooking and showbiz.
Being back in the Philippines also allowed her to take part as a celebrity chef in Resorts World Manila’s LOVE Dishes project wherein professional chefs or renowned home cooks contribute a recipe which will be included in some of the menus of RWM’s signature restaurants. Part of the proceeds from the sales of each
LOVE Dish will be donated to the COR Foundation, the Pasay City Social and Welfare Development (PSWD) and the Right Start Foundation.
(Donita Rose’s Ginataang Chicken Adobo is available at Café Maxims, GF Maxims Hotel, RWM. The Creamy Mango Strawberry Jelly is available at Impressions, 3F Maxims Hotel, RWM. For details, visit rwmanila.com or call (02)908-8833.)