Young Margarita Forés in a 1989 Interview with Cheche Lazaro

(SPOT.ph) Fans and friends of Margarita Forés continue to mourn the chef’s passing days after the news of her death broke. Tributes from people in the food and beverage industry filled social media in the past two days, expressing sadness over the loss of such a talented, generous mentor, colleague, boss.

This video that Probe Archives released Thursday night, however, might just bring a smile to their faces. It’s an interview with a very young Margarita done by broadcast journalist Cheche Lazaro during the early days of the news magazine show Probe.

Young Gaita at work

In the video, we see Margarita in what seems to be the kitchen of the family-owned Trattoria Uno Ristorante, and she’s showing the Probe cameras how she works: barely looking at a recipe and just slicing away, giving noodles a toss, sprinkling salt to a dish, etc. And regaling Lazaro with answers that are as natural and honest as the answers of a young cook can be.

She told Lazaro how she got into cooking—she was working for a finance company in Hong Kong and needed to learn how to cook for herself or she’ll blow all her savings and rent money away. She said some of the things she does in the kitchen she learned only by practice: “I learn from cut fingers and a lot of burns. That’s the only way it sticks!” She said she can’t understand why some people feel awkward seeing her working amidst all the heat. “I can’t do my work unless I’m beside the stove and you have to understand that If I didn’t enjoy it I wouldn’t be here!”

Here's the Probe feature on Margarita Forés

The feature came out in January of 1989, and by this time Gaita was already 30 (we know, it doesn't show!) and had already done her studies in Italy—just short courses for a month in 1986, she said—and has already staged her first Italia in Bocca Festival at the Hyatt Regency in Manila.

And Cibo was still a few years away.

Here’s the video. Enjoy.