THE Maya Kitchen has through the years shared so many recipes with Filipino consumers, a lot of whom have been able to broaden their menus for family meals and provide their kids with nutritious dishes from breakfast to dinner. Some were even able to pick up recipes that helped them start a food business.
More than just sharing recipes, The Maya Kitchen has also educated a lot of cooking and baking enthusiasts and budding chefs through its lifestyle classes and professional courses.
There was even a time, specifically from 1974 to 1990, when it sponsored The Great Maya Cookfest with Nora Daza, a prestigious annual cooking and baking competition that produced many great talents, such as Chef Jessie Sincioco.
And its mixes have helped provide delicious shortcuts—from hotcakes to brownies to cakes—to many households and small businesses all these years.
So, when The Maya Kitchen recently marked its 50th year in the business, it celebrated the milestone with the publication of a special cookbook called Simply Delicious. Published by Anvil Publishing Inc., the glossy, full-color, 208-page cookbook traced the history of not just The Maya Kitchen but also of Liberty Flour Mills and Liberty Commodities Corporation. It put on record the milestones and accomplishments, and shared over 150 recipes of savory dishes, baked products and desserts. These recipes included those which The Maya Kitchen developed on its own, those featured in special ads and promotions by featured bakers, classic recipes of cakes that made an impact in the past five decades, award-winning recipes from The Great Maya Cookfest, and recipes shared by celebrity guest chefs in The Maya Kitchen’s The Culinary Elite cooking class series.
The Maya brand actually marked its golden anniversary in 2012, but The Maya Kitchen Culinary Arts Center celebrated its own 50th year in 2014.
Simply Delicious recently had its formal launch at National Book Store Glorietta 1 in Makati City last July 29, 2015, with book designer Ige Ramos and culinary stalwart Nancy Reyes-Lumen (herself a guest chef of The Maya Kitchen’s The Culinary Elite series) hosting the program. Company bigwigs Ernesto and Lourdes Fajardo were kept busy welcoming guests, who had their fill of savory dishes prepared by The Culinary Elite series guest chefs—Paella Montaña by Chef J Gamboa, Tinola Flan by Chef Glenda Barretto, Brochettes of Ostrich with Bourguignon Sauce by Chef Jessie Sincioco, Croquetas de Bacalao by Chef Miguel de Alba, and Piri Piri by Chef Martin Kaspar. The dessert spread was awesome, with iconic cakes that represented each of the past five decades: Pineapple Upside Down Cake (1960s), Gateau Sans Rival (1970s), Black Forest Cake (1980s), Cheesecake (1990s), and Green Tea Cupcakes (2000s).
The recipes of most of these featured dishes and cakes can be found in the cookbook.
Simply Delicious is now available in all National Book Store and Powerbooks branches at Php595 per copy.
