I HAVE this fondness for watching cooking shows on TV whether it has Bobby Flay, Giada de Laurentiis, Ina Garten, Nigella Lawson, Rachel Ray or the exciting show Iron Chef America, I am glued to it. On the local front, I watch Rosebud Benitez, Janice de Belen's Spoon and Secrets of the Masters that features the country's who's who in the baking and cooking arena.

I think in my past life, I must have probably been a chef and a passionate one at that. Ever since I was in school and up until now, I have made it a routine to embrace baking, cooking and anything that has something to do with food. I go through it, even if I seldom do such stuff.

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Every free time I have, I am in front of the TV watching these shows, cutting featured recipes in three national dailies every Thursdays of each week. I would also photocopy recipes from different cookbooks; never mind if it was a 200-page something printed material. I would neatly make this look like a real recipe book whether in a clear book or spirally binded except that everything in it is in black and white. I also surf the internet for recipe after recipe.

It was while watching the Secrets of the Master over at QTV that I took notice of the frail looking and shy Ernesto 'Ernie' Babaran who was the featured chef in one of its episodes. If you judge the book by its cover, you would not have known that Ernie Babaran is the country's best and highest paid pastry chef and one of Asia's greatest.

Ambitious as it may sound, it has always been my and that of my younger sister's dream to have our own small bed and breakfast or cafe, similar to that of Baguio's Cafe by the Ruins. I knew with a job that sometimes require a 24-hour duty at times when we least expect it, enrolling myself in culinary courses would be impossible.

Thus, it was an excitement on my part when my sister told me she wanted to enroll in a short course on Asian cuisine at the famed International School for Culinary Arts and Hotel Management (ISCAHM). I told myself, this could be the beginning of the realization of our dream of having our own cafe.

Midway through her course, my sister again asked my support because she wanted to enroll in bread making with Chef Babaran as instructor. I told her to go for it and maximize her courses at ISCAHM, it being the country's foremost culinary institution.

As she attended her classes with Chef Babaran, my sister had nothing but praises for the unassuming chef who, she said, could bake the best pastry breads and cakes even with his eyes closed. With several students in his class, he could tell at once if one kneaded or rolled the dough right just by looking at its texture without actually seeing how this was done.

Chef Babaran started from the scratch, no formal schooling whatsoever, just perseverance and an eye for details. For someone who finished only fourth grade because of life's hardship, Chef Babaran had indeed come a long way. His passion for food and making it started with only fritters and pilipit that he used to make with his mother very early in life in his hometown Isabela.

Fast forward to years later, Chef Babaran is just no longer doing the fritters and pilipit. He is credited for being the only pastry chef in the country who could do 'spun and blown sugar' like the ones he did for Jackie Ejercito's wedding to Beaver Lopez. Chef Babaran was also part of the team that created the huge 850 kilogram wedding cake of Jordan's Prince Abdullah and his bride.

His is a story inspiring not only for aspiring chefs but for common people who want to make it big in life. His was a story of perseverance and continued learning having just finished fourth grade.

Although he had handicap for education, this did not deter him from pursuing his dream and zeal. Chef Babaran attributed his skill/expertise/creativeness towards his passion through his endless readings and says 'books make a lot of difference'... the secret of the master.