Meet TVIRD Canatuan’s well-loved chef

Overseer of dining room and kitchen in employees’ home away from home

And the offerings are varied. On one Sunday evening, for instance, the Hilltop menu would feature specialties from the Ilocos Region in Northern Philippines, such as pinakbet (mixed vegetable dish flavored with fermented fish), dinengdeng (similar to pinakbet, but more soupy), bagnet (deep fried crispy pork), and dinakdakan (grilled pig parts, such as ear, tongue, liver, blended with pig’s brain or mayonnaise). Every bite of these cuisines would transport the Ilocanos in TVIRD’s work force to their hometowns up north. On another Sunday, the fare would be Italian, including sumptuous marinara, Bolognese and puttanesca!

The creator of these mouthwatering dishes is TVIRD Canatuan’s young chef, Edison “Ember” Impang, Kitchen Supervisor, who works under the Human Resources and Administration Department (HRAD). “At the Hilltop, we make sure that Sunday evenings and other days of the week are special for our employees,” he says. “We do understand the difficulties and the pressures they can go through on the job to be able to effectively deliver our product. Ensuring that they have good food to enjoy every meal is one of the many ways the company shows that it truly cares for, and takes care of, its people.”

Along with the fine food, the employees also get to enjoy watching Hollywood movies, such as Angelina Jolie’s “Salt” and Leonardo di Caprio’s “Shutter Island”. Indeed, for the employees of TVIRD, Sunday evenings at the Hilltop have become a time and place to unwind.

Only 27 years-old, Ember already has a broad experience in culinary arts. He hails from a family who loves to cook Filipino cuisine. “My mother is a Pampanguena (from Pampanga province in Central Luzon) and my father is an Ilocano. I clearly inherited from them the love for cooking, which are inherent traits of both cultures, albeit having quite distinct cuisine styles,” he says, beaming with pride. Even at the young age of 10 years old, he already had his hands full in the family kitchen. His family now operates two restaurants in their adopted hometown of General Santos City in Saranggani Province, Mindanao.

Ember took up a Management course but, in-between, he took charge of one of their family restaurants named after him, Ember’s Resto, that offers the traditional Filipino seafood dishes. He joined and won in professional cooking competitions during culinary festivals in his hometown.

After graduation, Ember sought to widen his cooking experience by travelling abroad. Armed with a student visa, he studied culinary arts while working part-time at the Amo Roma Pizeria Restorante in Sidney, Australia. Initially, his work at the famed restaurant was just to skin carrots all day. But the restaurant’s chef saw his potential. He was asked to cook fettucini vongole, his very first in a big restaurant. He became one of the restaurant’s chefs, which made him a master in cooking Italian pizza and pastas.

“Cooking is not just simply putting all the ingredients at the same time,” Ember explains. “It’s more like putting makeup in one’s face. It should be done following a process. And you do it because you love it and your are passionate about it. Of course we must also always keep in mind that we cook to nourish our health.”

With his stint abroad, he also learned to cook other Oriental cuisines. Armed with his vast experience in various kitchens, he went back home but was a bit disappointed that he cannot apply what he learned. His family restaurants has already earned the reputation for serving quality Filipino cuisine, and he was not ready to undo that reputation. And so in 2008, he accepted the challenge to work with TVIRD.

“The first I thing I did was to change the name of our mess hall into Hilltop Restaurant,” Ember recalls. “The name stuck.” Then he applied what restaurants would do — offer a wide variety of dishes, complete with presentations and in the right ambience.

“I am grateful that TVIRD management supported me and my creative endeavors,” he says. Working alongside him is the company’s dietitian Maria Lisa Lee, who regularly monitors the food to ensure that it has the proper nutritional values fit for the dietary requirements of the employees.

Dr. Ulysses Silorio, Company physician says “the food served at the Hilltop are watched closely by our dietitian. Of course, from time to time, I issue diet prescriptions for some employees. I always check their health and general well being because it is not only my and HRAD’s mandate. It is the mandate of TVIRD.”

“In my two years of working with the company, I have always been satisfied with the food we eat here,” says Franklin Jardeleza, TVIRD Canatuan Environment Supervisor.

Marilou Prestoza, midwife assigned at the TVIRD Clinic, agrees: “Even when you are tired after a day’s work, it is always refreshing to dine at the Hilltop. We even have Wi-Fi connectivity there that enables us to check our emails.”

“It’s the ambience that I like most,” says Jane Manaog, of the TVIRD Canatuan Community Relations and Development Office (CReDO). “The restaurant sits on top of a hill, and you can see the lush mountains and rugged hills through the window.” Indeed, even if many of the employees long for their families, they are content with the thought that they are being properly taken care of by their company, at the kitchen and dining room of their home away from home.

“Providing our employees with decent meals is the reason for my being here in Canatuan. I am serious about this job because I know TVIRD values its employees. They know it. I know it. And we can attest to that always,” Ember concludes. (Joseph Arnel Deliverio)