Alessandro's Catering: Wedding Caterer in South Cotabato

Three generations of cooking passion creates Marasa CHRISELDA CLARISSA MACION has dabbled in a lot of jobs over the years but eventually went back to what she loves the most - cooking. After graduating with BS Hotel & Restaurant management degree in St. Paul College (now St. Paul University), she took Tesda?s one-month culinary course in the Pinoy Chefs Training Program in Taguig, courtesy of chef and good friend Ed Quimson. From there, she went back to her roots and got sidetrack doing different jobs in their hometown of General Santos City. Kring managed two hotels, a resort hotel, a driving range and a travel agency while she was fulfilling her term as the assistant vice president of Anchor Hotel. Juggling all this jobs eventually took its toll on her and after eight years, she let go of everything to start a career that was finally in tune with her true passion. In July 2002, the Marasa Grill Restaurant was born in General Santos City. Love for cooking runs in her family. " I acquired it from my paternal grandmother", she says. "She is a really good cook, is very meticulous on therms of the quality and is very strict when it comes to ingredients. The basic waray recipes I learned from her. My mom also cooks. She does not allow substitutes for ingredients. She uses only the best to make the food taste great." While the passion for food has run for three generations. It is only now that it materialized into commercial venture. "Marasa" means delicious in Waray and true enough, customers attest to rich and enticing taste of grilled food. From seafood to the inihaw fiesta, Marasa?s lutong bahay menu is a hit among the people because not only are they affordable and made of fresh produce, but also because they?re cooked out of passion. "I love what I am doing," Kring says. "I do it personally and it shows in the food that I sell." Apart expansion plans, she has her mind set on building up her catering business this year. "I hope to be able to cater to more than a hundred guests and start marketing a business. Also, I plan to put up a kitchen and start cooking classes to those who are interested in cooking." It may have taken time and money for Kring to make her in the food business. But with how things are running, every sacrifice she made has been generously rewarded. "I made a big gamble when I decided on this. I use my separation pay to start my own restaurant. My only weapon is to cook food that?s really ?marasa? so people will come and eat in my place." Re-printed with permission from Philippine Daily Inquirer - Nov 26, 2006 http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2479&dat=20061126&id=wVc1AAAAIBAJ&sjid=iiUMAAAAIBAJ&pg=2626,25207607