Asian Journal- The Filipino-American Community Newspaper

From the kitchen of the White House to that of Oprah Winfrey, from the plushiest restaurants in the East Coast to the celebrity hangouts in the West Coast, Filipino American chefs are whipping up a new reputation for Pinoys -- as outstanding cooks!  Yes, more and more Americans are taking notice of our great chefs. No less than President George W. Bush himself admitted that the slight bulge on his midsection is a result of the “very, very good food” prepared by his FilAm executive chef.

Chef Cristeta Pasia Comerford    

The FilAm community’s star chef is Cristeta Pasia Comerford, the Executive Chef in the White House. She is the first female, first Minority, and first Asian to be appointed to the esteemed position of cooking for the world’s most powerful leader, his family, staff and guests. The former executive chef,Walter Scheib III, who recommended Comerford to take over his position described his former assistant for ten years as “a great cook with an artistic eye and a calm demeanor that can handle the pressure cooker that is the White House kitchen, which feeds as many as 2,000 guests per month.”

Born in Sampaloc,Manila in 1962, Cristeta took up Food Technology at the University of the Philippines-Diliman, in Quezon City before she immigrated to the US. Her first job was making salad at the Sheraton Hotel in Illinois. Cris then met and married another chef, John Comerford. After stints at the Sheraton and Hyatt Regency hotels, Cristeta, with her husband, moved to Washington. She was a chef at two Washington restaurants -- Le Grande Bistro at the Westin Hotel and the Colonnade at the former ANA Hotel. For six months, she also worked as chef tournant (“revolving chef”) at Le Ciel, in Vienna, Austria before Scheib, then the executive chef at the White House, recruited her. When she took over the position of Executive Chef in the White House, Cris admitted that she went overnight from being a “nobody” to being a “somebody”. The girl who simply loved to eat Chocnut in Sampaloc now cooking up State dinners for world leaders has been affirmed by First Lady Laura Bush who said  Comerford’s ”passion for cooking can be tasted in every bite of her delicious creations”.        

Chef Rod Aglibot

A most sought-after chef, Rod Aglibot earned his stars for creating an innovative menu of Asian dishes and blending bright flavors with an array of textures and temperatures. He was formerly the executive chef of the plush restaurants, Koi of Los Angeles,Yi Cuisine and Penthouse in Santa Monica.  Rod focuses on traditional Japanese ingredients with an essence of French technique and Californian style.  He combines generous hints of his Filipino ethnic roots coupled with his formal French training and experience to create one-of-a-kind dishes.

Aglibot credits his parents, Reggie( a retired chef) and Sally (“ a great cook too”) as his early culinary mentors. After attending UCLA, he moved to San Francisco to pursue his culinary aspirations. He graduated from the City College of San Francisco’s Hotel and Restaurant Program. He entered the prestigious Chef’s Apprenticeship Program at the Five-Star and Five-Diamond Greenbrier Resort, in West Virginia. After the program, Rod returned to San Francisco where he honed his culinary skills at the E & O Trading Company, the French-Asian restaurant Peregrine, the romantic hideaway the Magic Flute, and ZaZen, a beachy Asian Bistro in Venice, California. Over the recent years, Rod has been featured on national television programs ---on Food Network, Style Network’s It’s my Party, Live Like a Star on Fox, Entertainment Tonight, Good Day LA, and Extra. Print features include San Francisco Chronicle, SF Weekly,Food and Wine, Wine Spectator, LA Confidential, Los Angeles Times, Angeleno, and Restaurants and Institutions.