Kitchen goddess, beach bride

SCARED “but poised” Precious has overcome her fear of open fires.bayani san diego jr.

Beauty queen Precious Lara Quigaman was once deathly scared of kitchens.

The fear stemmed from an incident when she was a teenage student in Bristol, United Kingdom: Her flat caught fire after she left her cooking unattended. She recalls, “I was making fries for my brother but the phone rang. When I got back to the kitchen, it was on fire.”

The home was insured and no one was hurt, but she was traumatized and refused to venture into the kitchen again.

Until she enrolled in an intensive culinary arts program at the Cuisinier Bistro and Culinary Studio in Quezon City, with some friends and her fiancé, GMA 7 artist Marco Alcaraz.

It was after earning a degree in Media Production and Communications at the Filton College in the UK that Precious thought of thus challenging herself: “I wanted to overcome my phobia of open fires and ovens.”

In a way, it’s also a preparation for her coming wedding with Marco. “I should be able to cook for him in the future,” she explains. She means complicated recipes, like the menu she and her classmates – Marco, Luis Alandy, Edgar Allan Guzman and other talents of manager Noel Ferrer – whipped up for their recent graduation. (The course was given by chef Mafe Seva.)

Precious prepared a hearty meal of mushroom soup and fish Normandy with mussels and shrimp, served with rice pilaf. The boys handled the dessert, chocolate trio. She says she hopes to someday open, with some of them, a Filipino-European fusion restaurant.

Another classmate, Shalala, relates that, if Precious was initially nervous in front of the stove, she never showed it. “She always looked poised and flawless in spite of the heat.”

Precious and Marco are eyeing a 2012 wedding, to give way to her sister who’s tying the knot in London this year. “We’re not superstitious,” she clarifies. “It’s just more practical. A wedding can be expensive.”

FIANCÉ Marco plans to open a restaurant with her.

She should know. The budding chef also co-owns a wedding-planning company, Supernatural Events. She envisions her own wedding as a “laid-back affair by the beach. I want the ceremony to be simple, for the guests to feel relaxed.”

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