All showbiz stars and talents, as well as journos and v/bloggers, who have attended a media conference at the ABS-CBS compound in South Triangle, QC, most likely may have done so at the cozy and classy restaurant on the 14th floor of the building there.
But were they ever aware that the building is called the Eugenio Lopez Jr. Communication Center and the restaurant goes by the mysterious name 9501?
If they knew those two names, would they also know the name Myrna Segismundo?
Most likely, no unless the journos and v/bloggers who cover showbiz also go to lifestyle media events.
Segismundo is one of the country’s foremost chefs of international renown. She was managing director of 9501 for almost 20 years,with the rank of vice president.
Security Bank, the Zonta Club of Makati and a group known as Environs recently cited her among their Bravo Empowered Women Awards recipients.
First project
The private 9501 restaurant was conceived in 1995 as the first project of the year, which is why it was given that name by then ABS-CBN head Gabby Lopez, a son of “Kapitan Geny,” who sat on top of the broadcast empire almost up to the time it lost its franchise (Gabby is legally Eugenio Lopez III and is now the chairman emeritus of ABS CBN).
The 9501 corporate dining facility produced everything from weekday lunch buffets, formal haute cuisine dinners and board meeting meals to celebrity-studded press conferences.
It was never opened to the public, only to ABS-CBN employees and their guests. In August this year, the restaurant ceased operations but went on to be a venue for media conferences with goods catered by other suppliers. That was where Hori7ons (the number stands for “s”) was launched as a K-pop-inspired boy group managed by ABS-CBN with a Korean company. The contract signing of transwoman talent KaladKaren was also held at 9501 weeks ago.
Frequent diner
Monchet Olives, Gabby Lopez’ s former chief executive, said in an interview that he has never forgotten the very first meal served at 9501 in 2001, with just Gabby Lopez and himself seated at table 001 in the corner: rack of lamb, potato purée reminiscent of Alain Ducasse, gazpacho and the famous quezo de bola cheesecake — prepared by Chef Miguel Yadao who was one of the chefs Segismundo took along with her to 9501 from another private restaurant, PCI Bank’s the Sign of the Anvil.
“Sitting there in the corner, window glass on both sides, overlooking Quezon City… It was a sunny day, you could see Manila Bay. I said, wow, this is ABS-CBN,” Olives said.
Gabby Lopez was a frequent diner at 9501, usually entertaining guests or meeting with company executives in the wine room. Segismundo, in another interview, remembered Lopez as a “flexible” diner who loved good wine and enjoyed Japanese, Italian, French and especially Mediterranean fare, and occasionally Filipino.
The 9501 chefs could prepare any kind of cuisine, but Segismundo was most proud of the prominence of Filipino food there. Many of its most famous dishes came from the Sign of the Anvil, including the bestselling Turon, Quezo de Bola Cheesecake, Potato Bread and Adobo Paté. In fact, 9501’s bestsellers were almost all Filipino, including its Chicken and Pork adobo and Beef Tapa — “in the service of Filipino food,” she recalled in one interview.
Segismundo started “dissecting and deconstructing” traditional Filipino dishes with her chefs during her Anvil days, creating her iconic Lechon Roulade (using suckling pig, not liempo) in 1995, years before the lechon roll trend came about.
Lecturer on Filipino cuisine
The Christmas parties of ABS-CBN executives and employees were held at the restaurant, all the parties of the bigwigs like the birthdays of Gabby Lopez and ABS-CBN top executive Freddie Garcia, and “birthdays ng lahat ng mga sikat,” as Olives once put it.
A graduate of Hotel and Restaurant Management of the University of the Philippines, Segismundo began her professional career at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City, USA. After several years, she went back to Manila and headed Sign of the Anvil.
Under the sponsorship of the Department of Foreign Affairs, she has held demonstrations and lectures abroad to promote Filipino cuisine in countries like Spain, Portugal, France, Netherlands, Japan and more.
She became the first ever Filipino lecturer on Filipino cuisine at the Cordon Bleu in Paris and Filipino presenter in the prestigious Madrid Fusion in Spain.
She has written several books such as the The Party Cookbook and Philippine Cuisine – Home-cooked Recipes Wherever You May Be and
co-authored Kulinarya (A Guidebook to Philippine Cuisine). She is known for promoting heritage recipes while also transforming them into contemporary interpretations without losing their authentic taste.
She was editor of Food Magazine of
ABS-CBN and the founder of the Doreen Fernandez Food Writing Awards, an annual food writing competition which aims to encourage food writing and research in the country.
Most importantly, she developed the Kulinarya Program of the Department of Tourism to teach the rural folk basic cooking, service and accounting concepts to help uplift their lives and their families.
Tastes and flavors
Instead of saying certain Filipino dishes are “like” a particular dish from a different country, Segismundo encourages Filipinos to describe them through tastes and flavors. “Talk about our vinegars, our citruses — ingredients that are indigenous to us. Dishes that are truly Filipino that will have a universal appeal.”
Meanwhile, the other awardees of Security Bank and Zonta are Celia Baltazar-Elumba for Arts, Culture and Heritage; Lourdes Delos Reyes for Business and Entrepreneurship; Jennie Jocson for Education; Cheryll Ruth Soriano for Media and Public Affairs; Rebecca Angeles for Social Services; Maria Caterina Cristina Lopa for Sports; and Rose Maria Mendoza for STEM.
Segismundo received her award for Tourism and Hospitality. A special recognition was also given to the Philippine women’s football team during the awards ceremonies held 27 July at the Security Bank Center in Ayala Avenue, Makati.