Eat like a celebrity

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ON SEPT. 18, a chef who has cooked for celebrities was treated like one, with San Juan rolling out the red carpet at Guevarra’s for Princess Anne Uy.

Ms. Uy laughed in an interview with ����ý when she remembered being asked by Australians if she was a real princess back home: she would reply that she didn’t wear a cape, but an apron. But the chef, who caters at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium (after stints at Nobu and Crown Casino) has had her own brushes with celebrity.

Ms. Uy and her husband, Marc Nacua, were at Guevarra’s by Chef Laudico in San Juan last week for the 5^th edition of Taste of the Philippines: A Global Culinary Journey, a collaboration series by chefs Rolando “Lau” Laudico and his wife Jacqueline, the owners of Guevarra’s, among other restaurants. Mr. Laudico is also known for his TV stints on the local franchise for MasterChef. The collaboration, which continues “until supplies last” is a partnership with Nutribullet.

SINGERS AND BANDS
Due to Ms. Uy’s position at one of Australia’s largest performing venues, she’s given a taste of her cooking to some of the world’s most famous. She recalled serving the British band Coldplay: “They’re very good with sustainability, so they like seafood and vegetables. In the whole stadium, we cannot use any plastic.”

During her stint at Nobu, she recalled feeding star Nicki Minaj: “She loves sushi (and) anything with tempura,” she said. As for popstar Adele, she said, “Adele (was) very conscious with food at the time. She only loved sushi and sashimi. They ordered tempura, steaks.”

She and her husband have some degree of celebrity though: Ms. Uy won the Silver Knife Bocuse d’Or Australia – National (2025) and second place in Seafood at the World Food Championship (2023, Dallas). Her husband, meanwhile, was the Dessert Champion at the 2024 World Food Championship – Australia and was Top 7 at the World Food Championship in Indianapolis, USA.

ON THE MENU
This time around, she’s not serving the dishes with which she won (she recalls serving a Duck and Lamb Embotido — a local steamed meatloaf — in Australia).

For her stint at Guevarra’s, she made Umami Lechon Belly Roll, Prawn Toast with Kare-Kare Bonito, Chicken Moringa Chawanmushi, and Seafood Udon. Of these, the lechon (roast pig) is a standout for obvious reasons (we’re Filipino and we like pork), but kidding aside, we’d go back again and again for the Seafood Udon. It’s her own take on the local palabok (noodles with an enriched seafood sauce), but without all the actual (taking after the Filipino idiom for “complications”) “palabok.” It’s clean and seafood-forward without all the fat, resulting in a more intense and seemingly distilled flavor, but still unmistakably Filipino. This she achieved by using Japanese techniques and ingredients like bonito and mirin. “At first, I though they’d never marry each other,” she said about melding Japanese and Filipino in her food. “But then I tried to think of how they’re going to connect.”

As for her husband, he made Dried Mango Rum Baba, Piñacolada Pavlova, and his competition-winning piece, Winter Morning. This contained parmesan frangipani crumbs, Maja Blanca de Cacao, coconut-rum granita and lychee pieces.

Speaking of marriage, she and Mr. Nacua had been childhood sweethearts before marrying and migrating (he went to Australia first). She spoke about the highly unique experience of having two decorated chefs at home: “When someone’s on their day off, someone will cook for you,” she said. “Normally we eat together at home. We cook for each other.”

Mr. Laudico recalled that they all met at a Filipino Independence Day dinner in Australia that he worked on with them, convincing them to collaborate with him if ever they came to the Philippines — most of the chefs in the Taste of the Philippines series became part of it in this way.

“Aside from the advocacy of Guevarra’s to promote Filipino cuisine, we also want to promote Filipino chefs. Especially the ones who really work so hard abroad, really trying to promote Filipino flavors,” he told ����ý. “One way of promoting Filipino cuisine is also promoting Filipino chefs.”

THE TASTE OF HOME
Ms. Uy talked about the difficulties of getting the real taste of home abroad, and why skill matters in recreating what home cooking should taste like. “We don’t have anything like our local produce. We have it frozen, or otherwise in the can. If we cannot replicate it, we just need to use another ingredient,” she said. “Missing the home taste, we still need to have the knowledge that we can get from the Philippines.

“Kung hindi mo rin kayang magluto dito, hindi mo rin siya madadala sa Australia (if you can’t cook at home, you can’t bring that to Australia).”

Guevarra’s by Chef Laudico is in 387 P. Guevarra St., San Juan City. — Joseph L. Garcia