Chef Vallerie is elevating Filipino cuisine to new heights. She will be using her current position as the Assistant-Vice President for Catering Operations at Philippine Airlines (PAL) as a way to expose travelers to some staple dishes from different regions of the Philippines. With her fresh takes on Filipino classics like longganisa (a type of sausage) and sisig (a type of pork dish), she is hoping to share her culture with the global audience of Philippine Airlines. In addition to her culinary duties, she will also plan and develop strategies for improving catering services.
In hopes of reaching a wider audience, Chef Vallerie will also be hosting a show with GFC and ABS CBN called “Origin.” In this show, she will visit different hotspots in the Philippines and in neighboring countries to learn more about the local cuisine there and help people in their living rooms fall in love with the Philippines through food. She is excited to take viewers with her on culinary adventures through the lush green rice terraces of Northern Luzon, the glimmering white sand beaches of El Nido, the bustling city of Hong Kong, and many more luxurious locations. She hopes that her travels will inspire fellow Filipinos to bond over a shared love of food and truly embrace their communities. Chef Vallerie loves using her culinary expertise as a way to tell stories and bring people back to different moments in their lives.
“It has to have some kind of color, and it has to appeal to your emotions, and it has to pop out,” said Chef Vallerie. “And when you bite into it, it brings back some different memories. Like remembering what your Lola used to make for you when you were a child, or remembering the meal you had when you broke up with your boyfriend. Something like that. I want to appeal to people’s emotions and remind them of these different memories.”
Chef Vallerie loves using food as a way to connect with others and to express herself. While she loves the Philippines and Filipino cuisine dearly, she never limits herself to one specialty. She dabbles in the cuisines of many different cultures from Chinese to Mediterranean. In addition, because she first fell in love with food through her grandfather’s bakery, she loves to bake anything from macarons to wedding cakes.
“I think about the times when I was a child and my grandparents used to take care of me,” continued Chef Vallerie. “And when it comes to cooking or baking, I love to channel my emotions and make anything that brings back memories for me. But the best part is seeing other people’s emotions and their faces when they take a bite of something I made and watching their eyes light up.”
While becoming a chef has always been her personal passion and her calling, Chef Vallerie is also eager to use her platform as a way to inspire other women. She is paving the way for women
and showing them the importance of taking charge of their careers and fighting for themselves. In the male-dominated culinary industry, Chef Vallerie has noticed that women are often looked down upon, making it difficult to be taken seriously, especially in leadership positions. By becoming an executive chef, she is fighting against those stereotypes by showing women that they deserve to have their voices heard and their wages equal to their male counterparts.
“It takes a lot of courage for me to stand up for myself and stick with my convictions,” said Chef Vallerie. “Coming back to work after being a stay-at-home mom really taught me that in order to be somebody, you have to have a voice. Now I always speak up for myself.”
