It's Me, Gracee: Chef Boy Logro birthday at CLICKS

Chef Boy Logro Celebrates Birthday at Chef Logro Institute of Culinary and Kitchen School

Chef Boy Logro Saturday, July 04, 2015

With this funny antics, signature dance moves and “yumyumyum” recipes, Chef Pablo “Boy” Logro is now one of the most popular chefs on Philippine television.

Chef Boy Logro celebrated his birthday at his culinary school in Cavite named after him, "Chef Logro Institute of Culinary and Kitchen School" of CLICKS. It was indeed a jam packed event filled with fun activities and surprises. The birthday event was hosted by no less than Tess Bomb.

There was also a cooking showdown between the four students from Cavite State University in Carmona, Cavite. They prepared a dessert using Angel Kremdensada that will be judged specifically by Dra. Yolanda Ilagan, Dean of Cavite State University and Chef Boy Logro himself.

The four students and their creations were Joanecel Aspera (Angel’s Trifle Wish), John Mark Anthony Gloria (Angel Choco Rice Banana Kremdensada), Princess Xenica Patoc (Heavenly Meal Crepe) and Gellene Violata (Crispy Lumpia Wrap with Potato and Avocado).

Each of their works were unique and delicious which is why Chef Boy and Dean Ilagan made a tough decision picking the lucky winner who will win a scholarship at CLICKS.

Princess Xenica Patoc won the competition. She will receive a FREE Bread and Pastry Production NC II scholarship at CLICKS. All four of them will receive gift packs from Angel Kremdensada, Omega Housewares, Nestle Nescafe Smoolatte, Scent For Senses

and Aquabest. Congrats to Princess!

Students of Chef Boy also gave him a surprise treat! They baked him a cake headed by

Chef Josephine Alcantara. They even gave him special message and thank him for being their mentor in cooking.

Surprises didn't stop that day because Chef Boy's family is also there to greet him on his special day and even sung a birthday song for him. All of them gave him a special message and at one point became emotional too because according to them, He was a father like no other. They're all aware of what he's been through just to be where he is right now.

According to Chef, he couldn't ask for more, he received a lot of blessings and right now all he's wishing for is good health and more blessings to come.

Chef Boy's success story is known to everyone and has become an inspiration too. Once upon a time, the “Kusina Master” of Philippine television served state leaders, kings and queens. A poor boy from a fishing village in Leyte, Chef Boy’s rags-to-riches story from a houseboy in Quiapo to the personal chef of the King of Oman is among the most inspiring overseas Pinoy stories.

In a palace with golden walls and crystal chandeliers, he led the kitchen with an international staff of around 300 to prepare 25 to 30 dishes for Oman Sultan Qaboos bin Said al-Said, while often preparing special menus for visiting world leaders—among them former American president George Bush, Sr., the late King Hussein bin Talal of Jordan, former president Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and the late Princess Diana of Wales. Former Philippine president Fidel Ramos was also one of the guests he served. The sultan also took him along on trips to Istanbul, Geneva, London and France, among others.

His ability and willingness to learn and absorb as much as he could from other chefs would certainly count as a vital ingredient in his recipe for success.

As his story goes, he began as a child laborer. At 13, after a storm had wiped out his family’s coastal home, he was sent off to Manila to work as a houseboy. He cleaned three floors in Quiapo, washed all the dishes, then was still required to help mix dough to make siopao (Chinese meat-filled buns) and siomai (dumplings) for the owner’s restaurant on the ground floor. In time he became an expert dough maker.

Chef Boy ended his contract after 10 years. The training he had in Oman and the multiracial kitchen staff that introduced him to the world’s best dishes helped him become the first Filipino executive chef of a five-star hotel in Manila.

As executive chef he earned P350,000 a month, he intimated. But he eventually left his job and put up a culinary school in Cavite.

He has also started building a culinary university on the land he acquired in Davao to give those in the province and nearby war-torn areas a chance to develop their cooking chops without having to leave their hometown.