As a 10-year-old girl, I was entrusted by my Auntie Rosita Fernandez (or Tiya Rosing), my mother Alegria's older sister, with watching her small store in my native town in San Carlos City, Pangasinan. Instead of playing, my hours were spent tending the mini grocery. Many years later, the memories of those times would come back, not as something to regret, but as a reminder of those glorious moments of learning and discovery.
Running a bakeshop like this one I put up in San Diego, California almost 24 years ago, and managing its day-to-day operation 365 days a year without fail may sound too stressful. Yes it is! But for me, those pre-teen years proved to be a good preparation for the kind of work I do now. I'm still possessed with the same devotion and enthusiasm of decades ago.
I founded my bakeshop to make a living. Little did I know that I would have the passion to nurture it through the years despite the formidable challenges. Not until quite recently did I realize that my bakeshop would be the incubator for the great many ideas that I had as a child.
That's the reason my bakeshop has all these special breads, uniquely named after the most important personages of this new century. Having the breads is a milestone in itself, for there is no other bakeshop which had done what I did in celebrating our life and times through the medium of food.
Thus I created the Obama Pan de Sal, to commemorate Mr. Barack Obama as the first African American to become president of the United States. There's the collection of Pacquiao breads, three in all -- Brazo de Pacquiao, Siete Coronas de Pacquiao and Pan de Pacquiao -- to mark the boxing victories of Filipino champion Manny Pacquiao.
I also created a new set of Filipino eatables (kakanins) to signify the growing acceptance of these food items by mainstream America and named a whole set Reyna Bibingka ng America for notable Filipino ladies Imelda, Cory and Gloria.
The inspiring transition from the glitzy world of entertainment to domestic bliss by popular actress Genesis Walcher (aka Patricia Javier) has moved me to create another special bread for her, the Genesis Loaf.
I couldn't find a better way to honor my father's brother, Uncle Fred Ventura, than to invent a new bread and named it after him, thus the Ventura bread. It's a bun shaped like an eight-pointed star, garlic-flavored and sprinkled with sesame seeds.
The eight "points" represent the Ventura siblings, including my father and the uncles and aunties I will never forget, namely, James, Fred, Narciso, Leonora, Trinidad, Domingo, Eduardo and Jhona. Uncle Fred is the one who had brought us all to the US as soon as he had joined the US Navy.
My creative juices still flow. One day it just struck me. I had a craving for something sweet and so I concocted this cupcake which isn't a cake at all. I tasted it as soon as I removed it from the oven and satisfied my rare craving for this kind of pastry. Now I call it Wilma's Ube McPuno, the last name intended for those with difficulty pronouncing macapuno.
There's a lot more bread products waiting to be found and named. The inspiration to invent new ones comes from constant contact and rapport with friends and customers. And to be honest, I'm so blessed to have them all.
inspiring!!!
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