Exclusive Interview: Fil-Am cooks for Oprah

This Filipino chef cooks for Oprah
PINOY Newsmagazine/Philippine News
October 2005

Text and Photo by Ted Regencia

Chicago, IL -- "I am not financially well-off, but I am rich in experience. So I want to give something back to our less fortunate countrymen," Chicago-based Filipino American chef Ron Bilaro says, speaking of his trip to the Philippines this November to help raise funds for the Gawad Kalinga (GK) project for the poor.

For the event, Ron will travel to Manila with his mentor Art Smith, private chef to Oprah Winfrey. Ron also cooks for the entertainment mogul as sous-chef to Smith. Smith, who has his own children's foundation, Common Threads, was inspired to team up with Ron, and visit the Philippines after learning of the latter's charity work.

After the White House has named Filipino American Cristeta Pasia Comerford as its executive chef, a sense of kinship among Pinoy chefs in the U.S.has been established.

One of those who emerged from anonymity is Ron Bilaro. He invited this reporter to his hip residence located near the heart of Wicker Park's yuppie village. Ron's digs, which offers a stunning view of the Chicago skyline, is surrounded by upscale restaurants, which he visits often to try out new tastes.

Chicago's FilAm community learned of Ron's high-flying culinary stint after Sharon Cuneta introduced him to the audience during her hit concert last May.

At his own stage -- the kitchen that is -- Ron has been earning raves from his well-heeled clients, which includes an old rich family and an international hotelier. As a personal chef to Chicago's corporate families, he whips up culinary concoctions that are delicious to the taste as
they are delightful to the sight. At the recently concluded Chicago Air Show, Ron was busy cooking for a corporate family whose guests include television producers and reporters.

In one of those private parties, he caught the fancy of author and celebrity chef Art Smith, who happens to be the private chef of Oprah. From there, the two forged a working relationship, such that whenever Art Smith needs some assistance, he calls on Ron.

Ron's Oprah gigs started in earnest. During Oprah's grand 50th birthday celebration, he flew from Chicago to Montecito, Californiato join a few more chefs in creating a menu worthy of the grand dame of American entertainment.

Since his fortuitous meeting with Art Smith, Ron has his share of "Oprah moments." However, he is prudent enough to protect his client's privacy. He only goes as far as describing her as "a wonderful person and very down-to-earth." She likes crispy quesadillas, and has not tried bagoong or kare-kare just yet.

The kid from Pasig
Despite his feat, Ron has remained grounded. During our first encounter after Sharon's concert, I asked if he still speaks Filipino and he quipped: "Gusto mo, tutula pa ako." (If you like I can even re- cite to you a Filipino poem.)

"What's nice with chef Ron, wherever he goes he's always proud to say he's a Filipino. And he knows, as a chef, he can contribute something worthwhile to his fellow humans," Panjee Gonzalez, the former Mrs. Gabby Lopez, was once quoted as saying.

Bilaro was born in Pasig to Rafael and Josefina Bilaro. His parents are now based in Las Vegas, Nevada. He has one brother.

Ron finished high school at the Pasig Catholic College and went on to study at Letran and Maryknoll College (now Miriam). At the age of 19, he and his family moved to Los Angeles, where he lived for many years. He later joined United Airlines as a flight attendant, and ended up in the Windy City where the company is based. Ron loves to travel so working in the airline
business was a logical move. Still, his heart was yearning for something else.

"While working as a flight attendant, I always found myself in the galley plating food for first class and business class passengers. I told myself, 'I can do better than this,'" Ron recalled. "Becoming a chef was something that I always wanted to do."

"The 9/11 tragedy changed the dynamics of my career. Immediately, I decided to stop flying and went back to school to be a chef," he said. He enrolled at the Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago under Le Cordon Bleu. He graduated at the top of his class, after enduring many
penny-pinching months.

"Right before graduation, I got a break when a corporate family hired me to cook for them," he said.

To further boost his stock, he apprenticed as pastry chef at Rhapsody and trained under Chef Gene Kato. Being a pastry chef is something Ron really relishes because he enjoys the intricacy of preparing baked goods and creating chocolate desserts.

Eat healthy
Ron is putting together a cookbook and is only waiting for "the right time" to publish it. The book contains a line-up of cuisine that Ron has done for his top clients and a section on Philippine dishes.

I asked him why Pinoy cuisine has not quite captured the mainstream American market. He conceded that food presentation is still inadequate; even as he hastened to point out that the taste is as good as other ethnic fare. Ron was proud to say that he is experimenting on Filipino dishes like deep roast and desserts like jackfruit, introducing them to his mostly Western clients. He, however, admitted that many Filipino dishes are rich in fats and high in cholesterol, thus limiting his picks as his patrons "prefer or demand healthy food."

For Filipino families, how then can they enjoy the typical Filipino cuisine without sacrificing their diet? He said, they should learn how to "eat in portions" if they cannot give up altogether cholesterol-packed Pinoy meals.

"We also have this habit of eating too fast. That's not advisable. One should take time to enjoy the food. Eat lean meat instead, more fish, vegetables, fruits and other food with high fiber. The more colorful it is, the healthier," he said. "And get a lot of exercise." Now take that
from this gym-buffed chef.

Beyond his evident love for food, however, is Ron's passion "to help the less privileged back home." Last May, he learned about GK and its humanitarian activities. At once, Ron pledged his support to GK executive director Tony Meloto, and GK Chicago regional director Esok Adraneda.

While the Couples For Christ's GK project is focused on building houses for poor families through GK 777, other supplemental projects are carried out such as livelihood creation. That's where Ron wants to share his resources and ideas, by teaching food vendors to improve their trade and prepare dishes to draw more customers and generate bigger income.

Aside from GK, Ron has been involved with the Karangalan (Honor) Foundation, another Manila-based initiative, which promotes social change through positive values, such as initiative and social entrepreneurship.

That volunteer work earned him praises in Manila, and landed him television interviews including the ABS-CBN show, Private Conversations with Boy Abunda.

"I really wanted to help and inspire families to earn a decent living and be self-sufficient," he said.

Exclusive Interview: Fil-Am Cardiologist of Oprah Winfrey

Heart-to-heart with Oprah’s cardiologist

PINOY Newsmagazine/
Inquirer.net/Philippine News
October 2005

Text and Photo By Ted Regencia

CHICAGO, IL – Because of “poor diet,” many Filipinos are vulnerable to heart disease, the number one killer in the United States.

Take that valuable words of caution from Dr. Annabelle Santos Volgman, one of the top cardiologists in the country. Volgman is the director of the Electrocardiography Services at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. She also happens to be the cardiologist of TV talk show host Oprah Winfrey.

In an exclusive interview, the Marikina-born, New York-raised, medical practitioner laid out the scientific facts and enumerated crucial life-saving measures to protect one’s heart.

"Eighty percent of strokes and heart attacks are preventable,” Volgman declared. “And if more people knew that it's in their hands to prevent them, I think they will change their lifestyle."

For Filipino families, that change of lifestyle starts in the kitchen.

In her words, "Filipinos have terrible diet" because of food rich in cholesterol and salt. Cholesterol blocks the arteries and restricts normal blood flow in the body, while high concentration of salt induces high-blood pressure: A life-threatening, if not a killer combination.

"Avoid them altogether if you really want to avoid heart attacks and strokes,” she said.

For lechon-loving, Chinese buffet-raiding Filipino folks, that piece of advice may be hard to take. Sounds like an equivalent to solitary confinement or deportation. Volgman herself admitted that because it is a deeply-ingrained habit, that has become part of the culture, eating deliciously greasy and salty Filipino food is so hard to give up.

“But that is a choice that people have to make," she said.

Five major factors
Volgman said there are five major factors contributing to heart disease: Family history, cigarette smoking, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes.

As in any other ethnic groups, those factors above may be present within the Filipino community; but because of the Filipino eating habits, the level of risk moves a notch higher. Other contributing factors include stress, obesity and lack of exercise.

"In order to prevent heart disease, you have to have a change in lifestyle,” she stressed.

Another essential part of that change is exercise. She said walking for, say, 30 minutes every day makes a lot of difference. Volgman practices what she preaches.

See a doctor
"If you cannot change your lifestyle, you need to see a physician who can put you on the right medication," Volgman said. "If they go to a doctor to check their cholesterol and blood pressure; and listen to their doctor to take medication or to decrease their salt
intake, it would make a huge difference. It will save their lives."

While heart attacks remain the number one killer in America, the actual number of cases has declined.

"People are much more aware of how to prevent them. There are also less cigarette smokers, although it remains a big problem," she said.

"There are also excellent medications. So a lot more people are having less heart attacks, because they are taking medications." However, she noted, that healthcare is also becoming expensive. And research is also becoming very expensive. On the bright side, she said, "we wouldn't be able to save a lot of lives if we hadn't done these research studies."

Listening to Dr. Volgman, it's apparent that medicine is her passion.

Solid academic background
As a young girl growing up in Marikina, she has always wanted to be a doctor. Moving to the U.S. at the age of 11 paved the way to achieving her dream.

Since elementary, Anabelle excelled in the academics. “I got the right genes from my mother, Purificacion, and father, Raymundo,” she proudly declared.

In 1984, she graduated from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York.

“I remember when I went to New York. We lived in Washington Heights and we were passing by Columbia. I told my dad, ‘I like that place. I want to go there. And I did’.”

Following her graduation, then Dr. Santos had her medical training at the University of Chicago
Hospitals and Clinics for Internal Medicine Residency. For her Cardiology Fellowship Training, she went to Northwestern University Memorial Hospital. She eventually ended up at Rush University, where she also serves in the faculty as a professor in medicine.

While at Rush, she landed a very high profile patient, when a fellow Columbia University graduate, Elena Campbell, a gynecologist at Northwestern University Hospital referred to her, Oprah Winfrey.

“She was having some pre-menopausal palpitations and she was very concerned, so her gynecologist referred her to me,” Dr. Volgman said. That meeting was highly publicized by the mega-entertainer in her magazine O.

“She's an incredible woman. But it was also difficult because I have to remove the fact that she's this huge personality and just focus on the person,” Volgman recalled her first meeting with the superstar. “I think my office was more excited, while I’m the one with all the pressure and the stress.”

"She's doing all the right things and she work outs a lot," Volgman said of Oprah, declaring her as "very healthy."

Family first
Despite her level of achievement, Volgman remains unaffected by all the attention and the awards she gained through her profession. To her, her family remains the "first priority."

The doctor is married to Keith A. Volgman, a Chicago-based lawyer, and they have two children
Robert, 13 and Caroline, 9. Son Robert is part of the cast of "Carmen" at the Lyric Opera. The family lives in the upscale neighborhood of Lincoln Park in Chicago.

"My family always comes first," she said.

Exclusive Interview: Fil-Am White House Aide Susan Ralston

A View from the West Wing
Pilipinas Magazine 2.0

By Ted Regencia

Washington, D.C. -- September 11, 2001, 6 a.m. The rest of United States was still in deep slumber while the other half of the world was getting ready for bed. But a few select men and women tasked to help run the most powerful country in the world, were already up and running in Washington D.C. By now the White House was buzzing with politics and policy, a daily staple there.

In one corner at the second floor of the West Wing, Fil-Am and Chicago native Susan Bonzon Ralston, was gearing up for the day’s events, sifting through the many documents piling up on her desk. That day, Ralston’s boss senior political aide Karl Rove was traveling with President Bush to Florida. Except for the president’s trip and First Lady Laura Bush’s appearance in Capitol Hill, that clear mid-summer day was expected to be just another ho-hum 24 hours for “Bush 43” West Wingers. Nothing prepared them for the approaching disaster that would turn their world upside down.

At around 8:45 a.m., hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 out of Boston crashes into the North Tower of the World Trade Center (WTC). Minutes later, the tragedy was flashed on TV screens. Ralston, her monitor tuned-in to Fox, was one of the firsts to witness it. Immediately, she alerted Rove by phone, giving him a blow-by-blow account of the air mishap. Ralston, however, observed how strange the circumstances behind the incident were. As she continues to chat with Rove, a second hijacked airliner struck the South Tower. Right there and then, she knew it was no coincidence. America was under siege.

All hell broke loose.

“This could not be real,” Ralston recalled as telling a colleague. But it was a real West Wing moment not even an NBC series of the same name can closely approximate. Suddenly she was tossed into the eye of the storm. In one blink, this mid-level Filipino American in the White House became a reluctant eyewitness to the unfolding of history.

Rove Deputy
As one of the deputies of Rove, arguably the closest and most influential aide to Bush, Ralston is assigned to coordinate public events involving the POTUS (President Of The United States). She is also involved with the long-term strategy and planning of Bush’s schedule and travels, including one the president made to the Philippines recently.

As a close and trusted aide to Rove, Ralston is designated of late, as a White House liaison to the Bush-Cheney 2004 re-election campaign, a first for a Filipino. It is “not unusual” then that she confers with senior government officials on a regular basis. But on that fateful day of September, her role took on a more profound significance.

As soon as it was determined that the twin incidents in New York were perpetrated by terrorists, then New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and New York Governor George Pataki scrambled to get on the phone with the president. They quickly made contact with Ralston’s office, which maintains a secure and direct line to Rove and President Bush. During these very tense moments, Ralston managed to keep her cool as she helped orchestrate the powwow between the highest officials of the land.

Even as she was fulfilling her responsibility to her country, Ralston also made sure she’s in constant communication with her family: Her mom and dad in Wilmette, Illinois and her husband at their Woodridge residence, 30 miles from D.C. “My husband, while anxious, assured me that I would be out of harm's way. New York is a safe distance from Washington.” Little did they know that at that very instance two more planes were barreling towards the capital, ready to hit its targets.

D.C. Under Siege
Indeed, at 9:43 a.m., one of the planes carrying 58 passengers and six crew members crashed into the Pentagon killing another 125 personnel inside the fortress of the Defense Department, just a few miles away from the presidential residence. It was now very clear: Nobody was safe anymore. With one more plane still unaccounted for and with reports saying that it was headed for the White House or the Capitol, the Secret Service concluded it’s time to evacuate.

The Secret Service first rushed Vice President Dick Cheney into a secured underground facility into the belly of the White House, while the rest including Ralston were hastily ushered into the mess hall, which is below ground level. “It was a very eerie scene. Everyone was very silent and tense,” Ralston said. And it was not the end of it. Only a little later, they were ordered out of the White House compound. “We were told to run as fast as we could.”

Outside, everything became even more incomprehensible. “It was total chaos.” Like many, Ralston was cut off from the world. Phone lines were not working. Cell phones were jammed. Rumors spread that the Capitol was on fire and that Camp David, the president’s summer and weekend hideaway was under attack. All Ralston could hear are the sonic booms and the whizzing of fighter jets searching for hostile crafts. It was Independence Day: The Movie minus the extraterrestrial invaders. The fog of war has descended over D.C.

It was only much later, when Ralston re-established communication with Rove who was in an undisclosed location with President Bush. She also learned of the horrifying collapse of the Twin Towers in New York, which killed thousands of innocent civilians, and the crash of a fourth plane in Pennsylvania.

As bedlam ensued, Ralston found herself wading through the crowd. She and hundreds of others were stuck near a bridge connecting D.C. and Virginia. Since she carpooled that morning, she was left with no choice but to do some hitchhiking. Albeit exhausted, Ralston realized on her walk home how the event transformed people. Complete strangers approached each other and even offered help. One motorist drove up to her and gave her a ride to the other side of the bridge, where she was reunited with her husband. She made it home at 2:30 p.m. Amidst the demonstration of hate and terror, some “rare” and beautiful things happened along the way that day, Ralston recalled.

Later in the afternoon, the president returned to the White House to address the country and the world.

Chicago native
In an interview last Fall, I asked her if her 9/11 experience two years ago made her wish she was doing something else instead of working at the White House. This Fil-Am pride’s reply was, it only strengthened her "resolve" to serve her country even better. Now this daughter of two Filipino doctors from Quezon City in Metro Manila is ruling her West Wing desk, thirteen to fourteen hours a day, Monday to Friday, and on-call on weekends.

It’s not all work though, for this summa cum laude graduate of Chicago’s Loyola University. On weekends, away from the political chit-chat and Bush-bashing in Washington D.C., she manages to do some round of golf and running with her husband. Or reading at home. This homebody’s latest read is the controversial, The Da Vinci Code, a book, which re-examines the role of Mary Magdalene in the life of Jesus Christ.

So what makes this Asian woman stand out in her world populated by Republicans? Determination and hard work. That she is a brilliant head-turner doesn’t harm. Ralston also credits her Filipino character – being warm and hospitable – as part of her charm. On her trip to Manila to coordinate Bush’s state visit, she also wowed her kababayans with her confidence and wit that landed her on the front-page of the widely-circulated national daily, Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Still, the question begs to be asked, why Republican? And why George W. Bush, the favorite target of anti-Iraq War opponents? To the first, she highlighted the Grand Old Party’s “conservative and family-oriented policies”, its anti-tax plank, its health care plan, its pro-life stance and its emphasis on “ownership society.” However, the Republican’s stand on one important issue dear to Filipinos, immigration, remains iffy at best. On the issue of Bush’s cowboy tendencies in dealing with world problems, Ralston said, “you don’t have to agree with every policy” the president makes, even as she emphasized that he is “a decisive president,” a man “full of integrity” and “down to earth.”

Ralston is equally protective of her boss Karl Rove’s reputation. On the claim that Karl Rove is the “real brain” of the second Bush White House, she said, “the president is a strong leader and he makes his own decisions. Karl is there to provide good advice. They are good friends.” “Karl is always portrayed as Machiavellian, but he is not all that.”

But whatever politics, an individual has, Ralston stressed, serving the public is an honorable profession. She encouraged young people from the minority population, especially Filipino-Americans to consider government as a career path. “We don’t have a lot of Asian people in politics. So go out and study government and politics, ” Susan Bonzon-Ralston.