Nora Daza: I want my children happy and healthy

Two days before she passed away, the Philippine culinary legend Nora Daza was interviewed by “Powerhouse” host Kara David in her home in Quezon City. The iconic chef had a lot to say about Filipino cuisine, sharing fun facts about her favorite Filipino dish (Kare-kare) and her cooking idol (Ligaya Ambrosio), and even her thoughts on using sinigang mix (“If it makes life easy and better, why not?” she said.). 

 

But at the end of the day, in her final TV interview, Chef Daza had only her children — Bong, Sandy, Mariles, Stella and Nina — to think of. 

 

“I want to make sure that my children are alright,” she said when asked what else she wanted to achieve in life. “That is what I want — that my children are happy and healthy, that they have a good family life. What more can you ask from life?”

 

Daza rose to prominence as a chef, food columnist, cookbook author and restaurateur and a radio show host. She was most popular for her TV cooking show “Cooking It Up with Nora.” She was also a cooking contest judge and the school director of the Manila Gas Cooking. 

 

Not surprisingly, her children followed in her footsteps. Bong is a food entrepreneur; Sandy is a food columnist for Philippine Daily Inquirer, restaurateur, and TV cooking show host; Mariles is a cookbook author, even co-authoring the cookbook “Galing Galing Philippine Cuisine: Food as Prepared in Philippine Homes” with her mother; Stella is a chef and owner of an all-Filipino grocery store, “Tindahan,” in Richmond, Canada; and Nina is the editor-in-chief of Appetite magazine.

 

In the interview, the “Julia Child of the Philippines” expressed pride in her children’s achievements in the Filipino culinary scene, even repeatedly asking Kara David if she has already eaten at Chef Sandy Daza’s restaurant, Wooden Spoon. 

 

“My son (Sandy) is doing the right thing. He is developing his own kind of Filipino food. He is improving Filipino cuisine his way,” she said, noting his son’s famous stylized Filipino dishes. 

 

She also shared how her three daughters are coming up with their own cookbook, “Sisters in the Kitchen.” Daza authored the famous “Let’s Cook with Nora,” a culinary bible among Philippine housewives since 1969, and other cookbooks such as “Festive Dishes,” “The Best of the Maya Cookfest” volumes 1 to 3, and “Nora V. Daza: A Culinary Life - Personal Recipe Collection.” 

 

With these books under her belt, her advice then to the girls as they work on their endeavor: “Alam mo, it’s not easy to write recipes. It’s like having a baby. Sabi nila, madali lang! Sabi ko ‘You go ahead and try!’ [Ngayon,] ang tagal-tagal na hindi pa nila nagagawa!” she joked. 

 

The Daza children’s efforts reflect their mother’s passion for Filipino food and help fulfill her wish of being remembered by the Filipinos for promoting and improving our cuisine. 

 

“I hope that [my children] will continue in what they are good at… I hope that when I come back a hundred years from now, ang cooking natin will be better,” she said. — Bernice Sibucao/CM, GMA News