Chef Profile: Ogie Alberto

This is what vast kitchen experience did to Chef Ogie Alberto – positivity brought about by a resilient soul. Chef Ogie steps into every classroom with the goal of stepping into each student’s life with the learnings and expertise that have helped him become who he is.

For this Cuisines and Modern Program Head, life in the kitchen is much like life outside of it - the satisfaction, the joys, the battles, the hurdles, the diskartes - the heat is always on and the outputs vary each day. This is why learning culinary arts should be taken as seriously and as in-depth as learning how to live and cope.

“Aside from giving lectures, demos and leading workshops,” Chef Ogie says, “being the head entails a more in depth analysis of the course itself. You should be more knowledgeable of the new modern techniques used in the industry.  Research is inevitable to further enhance what we are imparting to the students.”

He continues, “Honing the students to be the best of what they can be is a very tiring but definitely most rewarding of our tasks as chef-instructors. You do not only teach them the basic and advanced culinary techniques but also the basics of being a good person. It's like teaching them the way of life inside and outside of the kitchen.”

Judging from his many students who have come back to him in expression of gratitude for having been equipped for the lives and tasks they now live despite the ordeals, one can say that Chef Ogie lives, and teaches, by example. A good and inspiring example.