Chef Tatung is Tito Maggi

What do you cook today?

If you cook every day, that’s a tad tall to answer, especially in a typical Filipino household relentless about hankering breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Maggi is making a home cook’s life a little easier — and more entertaining this time around — with celebrated chef Tatung Sarthou as new ‘Tita Maggi’ whipping up wonderful, rudimentary stuff made special by the healthy spices of this granules generation.

Sarthou identifies with Maggi in that there’s a need to educate the younger generation to love preparing home-cooked grub in the age of microwaveable meals and Grab Food.

“One of my advocacies really is about food sustainability. I teach people how to cook simple [dishes]. It’s every right of a Filipino to eat deliciously no matter the economic background. But, with the rising cost of everything in the Philippines, sometimes families sacrifice the quality of food,” Sarthou said.

“That’s why we did the program Simpol. If you go on social media, sometimes it’s so toxic when people say, ‘Ha! You’re cooking caldereta without chorizo; that’s not authentic!’ ‘Oh my God! You’re not using olive!’ You cannot tell your child, ‘Anak, pasensya. ‘Wag ka muna kumain kasi ‘yung kaldereta ko ay kulang ng Bilbao; for now ‘wag muna tayo kumain kasi (let’s not eat first because) I won’t dare serve you something that isn’t authentic.”

Maggi and Sarthou sealed the advocacy in a content partnership where the celebrated Filipino chef will be, aside from a lot of content, reaching to communities to teach them how to cook, start a conversation at the grassroots, and sustainably feed a nation.

While slow food and purists may frown upon Sarthou working with products such as Maggi, Magic Sarap and all, he really sees it as an economic solution in providing housewives and families a means to put together healthier and more delicious food:

“In the Philippines, you cannot stop families from trying to feed their family and, if there’s a solution to making it more palatable. Kahit kumain ka lang ng gulay; kahit sayote lang at Magic Sarap, solved na (Even if you just eat vegetables; even if it’s just vegetable pear and Magic Sarap, it’s good).”

As a food brand, Maggi recognizes the whopping number of hungry Filipinos, and acknowledges that, with them nary anything to eat, the brands would be useless. Maggi has also partnered with the Department of Agriculture, going to state schools and teaching students how to grow their own vegetable gardens and make something delicious out of it.

“When you teach people how to cook, they begin to ask questions. Kids tend to be wasteful; they disregard food when it’s served to them. Once they’re part of the cooking process, they go ‘Ay mahal pala ito [ingredients] (Oh, so these are costly)!’ Patience, hard work, focus: Cooking teaches a lot of values.”