When a chef claims to be underprepared for dessert, which is often the jewel of specially crafted meals, yet serves you a platter of not one, but three different flavors of the finest mini crepe cakes, you know that she’s the real deal.
The name to remember is Jill Busuego, owner and head chef at expert caterer and healthy meal delivery service Delicioso.
“I didn’t actually want to become a chef, but I knew I wanted to cook. I knew I wanted to do things, I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur. I knew I wanted to be a businesswoman,” Chef Jill clarifies.
(Chef Jill with Delicioso‘s most popular picks)
Jill started heading to the kitchen when her plans of working at a hotel didn’t pan out. Once her efforts were redirected and her dreams set to recalibrate, she sifted through the endless array possibilities a teenager is afforded. She liked prettying places up for events, had a bit of a background in food and she wanted a business that was her own so she thought, why not catering?
Her undergraduate degree Hotel and Restaurant Administration that she finished the University of the Philippines and her three-month course at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in New York taught her different sets of lessons, but it was the value of discipline drilled into her by the CIA that plopped the Maraschino cherry on the cake.
“When we were in school, it wasn’t just cooking. It wasn’t just learning how to cook. It was complete, more detailed and more specialized,” she elaborates.
“We started with basic culinary courses. Soup stocks came first, then we moved to breakfast, different cuisines, then garde manger and charcuterie. That’s after butchery and making the smoked stuff. And then it was patisserie first, then restaurant management. And that was it; that was three and a half months of doing that. 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. of learning with only weekends off.”
(Order Chef Jill’s fillet of fish in tomato cilantro salsa we tried for ourselves and see that eating healthily doesn’t mean giving up tasty food)
She returned to Manila in 1996 with a rehydrated perspective of her business.
“I was asked me to do a mañanita for a top executive of said telecommunication company. It was a surprise party in his house, so I had to wake up at 5 a.m. to go to their home in Alabang. But because of that, I had breakfast with him and his wife, and I remember his wife saying, ‘If you do diet food, I will be your first customer.’ I fixed the menu in a month’s time and I texted her to ask, ‘Do you want to try out the diet food?’ She was my first customer,” says Chef Jill who would soon learn that she would only be the first of many others to take interest in Delicioso’s healthy menu.
Chef Jill then achieved something that many at that time failed to do: popularize healthier food choices and break the stigma that dieting takes away everything there is to love about food. From South Beach, to Cohen, Dukan and HCG diets, Chef Jill has mastered them all. The best part is, Chef Jill also delivers healthy meals to customer’s homes or workplaces for a minimal fee.
After more than a decade in the business, Chef Jill’s recipe for making it and staying on top of the game is simple and frill-free. “Because people are more exposed to travel, they want to try new things. And seemingly, they think this is an easy way to earn a living. A lot of people also like to eat. And because they like to eat, they think they want to get into it. They think it’s easy, but you have to study this, you have to learn it and you need to love it. If you don’t love it, you don’t last,” she says.
PeopleAsia welcomed Chef Jill for a catered lunch at the office just last and month and boy was it delicious! Check out the menu for that day:
(Whole Wheat Ravioli in Pomodoro Sauce)
(Hickory Spiced Spareribs)
(Smoked Salmon Cheeseball and Caviar Pie)
(Chorizo Cheese Corn Cups)
(Pasta Ragu Con Salsiccia)
(Mango, chocolate and cinnamon mini crepes)
For inquiries and orders, get in touch with Chef Jill or her staff through deliciosophilippines@gmail.
