David Rockefeller Sr.'s personal chef knew nothing about French cooking but whipped a perfect soufflé with flair

Story Mia Concio
Photography Mark Jacob

"You can't learn how to cook even in Culinary school if you don't have the passion for cooking. You must love it!" exclaims Emelita "Baby" Escalona Martinez, or Tita Baby as we call her.

In fact, the homemaker who stayed by the hot stove 24/7 concocting all those mouth-watering recipes to feed her son's basketball team have only fond memories of how they would troop to her house at any given time just to sample her steaming bulalo, caldereta and baked spaghetti. Word soon spread about her cooking, and before she could say "Kain na", there would be 50 hungry boys trooping to her kitchen. It was just like a scene from the '70s film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory where the chocolates never seem to run out. There was just so much good food!

So when Tita Baby and her family migrated to the United States in 1986, she found herself at a loss not knowing what to do. Her children were all grown up and there were no more hungry mouths — and crowd to feed. She found herself scanning the classified ads and before she knew it, was hired by media mogul R.H. Parks and later, by billionaire industrialist and philanthropist David Rockefeller, Sr. as a personal chef.

"What I soon learned was the old rich are more humble and simple than the newly rich. In Rockefeller's estate, for example, everything is fresh. The milk comes from their dairy farm, the meat from their livestock, the vegetables, which are all organic are harvested from their garden. They prefer simple American food without the frills. Salmon rosettes cradled on freshly baked bread, fresh artichokes dipped in lemon butter, a grilled steak and salad would make a great meal. I once worked for a woman who wanted a huge buffet served everyday with different kinds of dishes piled on it...and there were only two of them who were going to eat!"

Indeed, her passion for cooking knows no boundaries. At Rockefeller's and R.H. Parks' estates, she would cook for as many as 25 people every meal time without any helper. Once, when she was in between jobs, she was hired by a real estate tycoon who preferred French cooking. Tita Baby didn't know a thing about French food but she boldly took on the task, whipping up her first soufflÉ with considerable aplomb.

"Yes, it took a lot of guts but when it comes to food, all you need is that kind of fervor and after that, you can cook anything," she states emphatically.

More of Tita Baby's Q&A in the August 2010 issue of Appetite.