Sabrina Daez or “Sab” as she is fondly called, is a 2nd Year College student taking up International Hospitality Management, who just happens to be awesome in the kitchen. She shares her passion for food by not only making wonderful and delicious concoctions, but by teaching the young and old alike, the fine art of preparing cuisines from around the world. During her free time she tries to spend it with nature where she takes inspiration to cook, bake, do arts & crafts, and even write music.
Her journey into the world of baking started as a little girl, helping out her mother and grandmother in the kitchen. She began baking on her own when she was around 7 years old and started writing her own recipes at the tender age of 8. Her love for baking came from seeing the joy it brought to people, her family, friends, and eventually customers. Seeing their smiling faces and full stomachs were the things she looked forward to at the end of each meal.
As far as she can remember, she was always spending time in the kitchen. When she wasn’t baking, she would be immersing herself in anything culinary; from books to cooking shows and eventually, experimenting on her own. Before entering college Sab used to bake 2 to 3 times a week. Nowadays, it’s been cut down to around once a week to allow her more time to focus on her studies.
Her favorite recipes involve bread – whether it’s pizza, breadsticks or pretzels. She also loves creating bite-sized desserts such as cream puffs, tartlets, macarons and small cakes. She considers Fruit Tartlets, Pizza Bread and Lemon Squares as her signature recipes. Why? These are the ones which get the best reviews and are the most requested by her fans, customers and students.
Sab considers working with Manila’s humidity as her biggest challenge when it comes to baking. Since she specializes in international cuisine and experiments with recipes from different countries, she always finds herself making adjustments to try and get the temperature and kitchen conditions right so that the end product looks and tastes exactly like it should.
Her most memorable baking experience was her first ever solo cooking demo, back when she was 12. She taught a group of ladies how to make pizza, pasta sauce and bread rolls and remembers it as “a terrifying yet amazing experience.”
Her number one baking goal is always to satisfy – “I love it when I see people smiling & enjoying the food.” She also puts a premium on innovation – how to bring her culinary art to a higher level and to make it different.
Her most important tip to all the New Gen Bakers out there is to make sure all your ingredients are fresh/ still good. A lot can go wrong when even a single ingredient isn’t the way it should be.
Sab handles Teen and Kiddie Workshops at The Maya Kitchen on a regular basis. For more information on her class, visit http://www.themayakitchen.com/articles/young-chefs-kitchen.
