I had been so excited about November 13. Always felt that 13 is my lucky number, this is one instance where it proves it.
About mid October, my good friend Margie said that Nana Ozaeta, Editor in Chief of F & B World magazine, wanted to feature naturally grown products. Margie said we should hook up together. Nana was leaving for the US the next day, but we started exchanging emails. She said she will want to do a story when she gets back in early November.
I didn't want to get my excitement up...as it seemed to me like "we'll call you".
Lo and behold, I did get again an email from Nana for an interview and shoot for the 13th. Just about the time we were setting that date, was when I had taste testing at Zucchini's, and Didi was also supposed to be in touch with Nana. Perfect timing huh????
F & B World crew met up with me to go to AANI Urban Farm in Antipolo. We went around the two ranging areas there, and Nana, Betty, Gold and Christian enjoyed the farm. Chickens, native pigs, and organically grown vegetables. Pol and Tita were gracious hosts and even cooked Sunshine Tinola and Fried Chicken. We had home cooked food and the sweetest, freshly picked salad vegetables. It was good to have our fill as Zucchini's is fine dining and we didn't want to go hungry.
After a hearty lunch, we hopped to Sct Tuazon cor Sct Castor for a shoot of the Grass Fed Chicken Confit. When we got to Zucchini's, I sort of wondered where we were going to be as it seemed there was no table for a big group. We were led to the function room. Gilbert Lee was going out and yikes, he knew Nana again. Did I mention in an earlier post that this guy knew all of my real high school buddies, individually at that! We didn't know we all knew him. He must be taken as consultant by the likes of Facebook.
As we entered, Christian immediately set up for photo shoot. Hey, when he was taking my pictures at the farm, it was kidstuff. Not here...weheheheh he took the liberty of using bottles around to prop his aluminum foils for lighting effects. He dropped a bottle and the waiter instantly gushed "that's the most expensive bottle of wine". Nope, Christian didn't lose his car today, but decided to use steak sauce bottles as props.
Why did i say that eating is work???? We had lunch already, right? And now, from 12pm...until the time we decided to tour the office and kitchen...was 5pm already! What did we have? Almost the whole new menu of Zucchini's. You will not understand when I say that I got tired by all that lifting of forks to eat. Appetizers to deZZerts. AANI to Zucchini's....we ate all, A to Z.
When you want to eat good food, well thought and done with care...partake of Chef Richard's creations. I told the F & B World crew they had to see the kitchen. I go through a lot of backdoors in delivering. This is one kitchen that will tell you the washrooms are surely sanitized. The office upstairs show happy employees. What I saw for the first time today was the staff room of the restaurant. Didi knows how to take care of her staff. I sort of saw that when I had part of employees' meal last week. But seeing her staff room with double decks, airconditioning, well stacked kitchen, lockers that look like they were for a coat room...you see how she cares about the personal details. What caught my eye more? A note on the door that sort of went what to watch out for during a storm or a flood.
The good food is just the Cherry on top of the ice cream....today was super good company and values seen.
Let me show only these pictures taken. I will not preempt Christian's work for the day. You can see more in their Jan 2009 issue.
About mid October, my good friend Margie said that Nana Ozaeta, Editor in Chief of F & B World magazine, wanted to feature naturally grown products. Margie said we should hook up together. Nana was leaving for the US the next day, but we started exchanging emails. She said she will want to do a story when she gets back in early November.
I didn't want to get my excitement up...as it seemed to me like "we'll call you".
Lo and behold, I did get again an email from Nana for an interview and shoot for the 13th. Just about the time we were setting that date, was when I had taste testing at Zucchini's, and Didi was also supposed to be in touch with Nana. Perfect timing huh????
F & B World crew met up with me to go to AANI Urban Farm in Antipolo. We went around the two ranging areas there, and Nana, Betty, Gold and Christian enjoyed the farm. Chickens, native pigs, and organically grown vegetables. Pol and Tita were gracious hosts and even cooked Sunshine Tinola and Fried Chicken. We had home cooked food and the sweetest, freshly picked salad vegetables. It was good to have our fill as Zucchini's is fine dining and we didn't want to go hungry.
After a hearty lunch, we hopped to Sct Tuazon cor Sct Castor for a shoot of the Grass Fed Chicken Confit. When we got to Zucchini's, I sort of wondered where we were going to be as it seemed there was no table for a big group. We were led to the function room. Gilbert Lee was going out and yikes, he knew Nana again. Did I mention in an earlier post that this guy knew all of my real high school buddies, individually at that! We didn't know we all knew him. He must be taken as consultant by the likes of Facebook.
As we entered, Christian immediately set up for photo shoot. Hey, when he was taking my pictures at the farm, it was kidstuff. Not here...weheheheh he took the liberty of using bottles around to prop his aluminum foils for lighting effects. He dropped a bottle and the waiter instantly gushed "that's the most expensive bottle of wine". Nope, Christian didn't lose his car today, but decided to use steak sauce bottles as props.
Why did i say that eating is work???? We had lunch already, right? And now, from 12pm...until the time we decided to tour the office and kitchen...was 5pm already! What did we have? Almost the whole new menu of Zucchini's. You will not understand when I say that I got tired by all that lifting of forks to eat. Appetizers to deZZerts. AANI to Zucchini's....we ate all, A to Z.
When you want to eat good food, well thought and done with care...partake of Chef Richard's creations. I told the F & B World crew they had to see the kitchen. I go through a lot of backdoors in delivering. This is one kitchen that will tell you the washrooms are surely sanitized. The office upstairs show happy employees. What I saw for the first time today was the staff room of the restaurant. Didi knows how to take care of her staff. I sort of saw that when I had part of employees' meal last week. But seeing her staff room with double decks, airconditioning, well stacked kitchen, lockers that look like they were for a coat room...you see how she cares about the personal details. What caught my eye more? A note on the door that sort of went what to watch out for during a storm or a flood.
The good food is just the Cherry on top of the ice cream....today was super good company and values seen.
Let me show only these pictures taken. I will not preempt Christian's work for the day. You can see more in their Jan 2009 issue.
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