Filipino inspired by mom’s cooking vies to be Canada’s next Masterchef

Jeremy Senaris will compete with 12 others in the new series of Masterchef Canada. After two hit seasons, MasterChef Canada is back to give a new batch of home cooks a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity Jeremy started cooking after his mom was diagnosed with cancer.

How did you prepare for the show? Did you prepare any specific recipe?

“I did. I mean, I was a fan of the show before I got my chance to audition so I knew what I had to be prepared for. I practiced a lot of different cuisines. I grew up cooking Filipino food and learning Filipino food from my mom. She passed away in 2008 from cancer.” “Thank you, thank you. But yeah, that’s how I learned to cook Filipino food. She taught me all of that when she was sick because she was too weak to cook. I took that time to learn all of her recipes so that she wouldn’t have to cook for our family. Knowing all of that stuff prepared me well for going into the competition.”

What’s your favorite recipe from your mom?

“I’ll have to say champorado. My cousins would always come over, they would sleep over on the weekend and my mom would make us champorado and we would always look forward to that in the morning when she would make us champorado. We would get up early knowing that.”

What other Filipino dishes do you love?

“Everything! I like sopas, arroz caldo. Pusit is one of my favorites. Adobong pusit. Anything Filipino I love because that’s what I grew up eating.”

What’s your favorite comfort food?

“I would have to say kare-kare. Kare-kare would be my favorite comfort food.”

How old were you when you migrated to Canada? Or were you born in Canada?

“Yes, I was actually born here in Canada. My parents migrated here in, I think, 1978. So we were all born here in Canada. My parents were from Cavite. I have two siblings, one older sister, Jennifer, and one younger brother, Jonathan.” (Jeremy, 36, is married to a Polish woman with whom he has a baby girl born last Jan. 14. She also cooks, but only Canadian dishes.)

So, you were born and raised in Canada. Is your food mixed Canadian and Filipino? Is your taste for food a mixture of Canadian and Filipino?

“Uhm, it is for the most part, because we grew up Canadian as well so it’s common for us to eat Canadian food like chicken and then French fries and all that stuff. But when it comes to home cooking and family parties, we mostly only eat Filipino food.”

What course did you take up in school? Did you take up Culinary Arts?

“No, I didn’t. I actually took Civil Engineering.”

“Yeah, I know. It’s completely opposite actually. But I enjoy cooking. I like feeding people and exposing people to Filipino food.”

What about your Canadian friends and neighbors; what do they love about Filipino food?

“Yeah, there are lots of people here. There are lots of different cultures in Canada, right? We grew up having friends of all cultures. We always accepted them and fed them our food, and we make sure they always go home with baon and you can’t have a Filipino party here without baon, you have to have baon. And that’s what we like to do, we like to expose other cultures to our Filipino food.”