All About Me!

MYKAILA CANTOS

September 26 wasn’t supposed to be my birth date… I was actually supposed to be born on November 22, this is also my Lolo’s birthdate. (Lolo means Grandfather in Filipino.) I am the eldest and the shortest of 3 kids in my family, I have a younger brother by 3 years and a younger sister by 5 years. Being Filipino, my family had this big dream of me becoming a Nurse and getting into the medical field, like everyone else in my family.

When I told my family I want to go into the Culinary field, they had me make sure I was making the right choice. During Highschool is when I realized that I wanted to go into this field, I took a “Food and Nutrition” course in Grade 10, I loved being so hands on in the kitchen and learning about food. Mrs. Scattalon was my Culinary teacher for all 3 years, she really made my last years oh highschool the most memorable, and pushed me to pursue a career in the Culinary field, and made me participate in the Ontarion Skills Baking Competition, where I came in 12th place out of 20 people.

I am not working in the industry as of right now, I really do hope to one day own my own restaurant or food truck with my Lolo, he’s always wanted to have his own place… But being Filipino, he worked as an orderly in a hospital and now has a business that deals with the general maintenance of hospital equipment. (Ideally he is just a contractor.) My Lolo makes the best Filipino food that I’ve ever had (except for his Sinigang) and many of my dad’s friends would pay money just for his Dinaguan, because of his food and the impact it has created for many of my family, I would want to emulate that in my own career.My personal philosophy on cooking is something I like to do with my family, sometimes my dad and I’ll come up with crazy food names/ combinations for an imaginary food truck my Lolo and I have! With this blog I would like to be able to look back at what I do and find a way to better myself.

So to summarize all of those words, cooking to me means Family. Everyone in my family cooks in one way or another. My Lolo with traditional comfort Filipino food, my Mom who will always be the best cook in the house and lastly, my dad he’s made, what I consider to be one of the most creative, avant-garde dish ever. It is the simplest dish that anybody could make for 3 kids under the age of 6, the dish is called “Camp Fire.” It is made up of frozen store-bought chicken nuggets, frozen fries, and ketchup. The chicken nuggets place on the plate in a circle, for all of your finger people to sit on while getting warmed up by the “fire”, with room in the middle for the fries to be stacked up into a pile (like a pile of sticks), and ketchup all over the fries, to make the “fire.” The most simplest dishes can also be the most impactful.

Harry Smith Outdoors- “Camp-Fire-Art” http://www.hsmithoutdoors.com/camp-fire-art/

One Blog that I really like and hope to be like is http://www.hummingbirdhigh.com/ . She does pasrties and sweet treats but I love how she is showing her mess ups and isn’t embarassed by them, she’s a normal human like you and me and has screw ups.

To eat well, I always disagree with critics who say that all restaurants should be fine dining. You can get a Michelin star if you serve the best hamburger in the world. – David Chang