(Thumbs up) IF THE SRO attendance to the Delores Custer food styling seminar Saturday was any indication, it seems more and more Filipinos are becoming food entrepreneurs and restaurateurs, and thus want to learn how to better package or present their food or dishes.

The Sunset Pavilion at Sofitel drew a record crowd ? the biggest Custer has had in the times she?s been coming to Manila to do food styling seminars. Her seminar this time was produced by Inquirer through Lifestyle Food contributor and cookbook author Norma Chikiamco.

The crowd ? a good mix of entrepreneurs, chefs, restaurateurs, hoteliers, foodies, homemakers, artists and stylists ? learned how to have a food styling career, how to increase their visual awareness and watched Custer style a peanut butter spread for a photograph (it?s an industry), discuss about a restaurant versus a home consumer-plated dish, compare a good salad dish with a bad one, or even style potato chips.

It must be the times ? it?s apparent that more and more Filipinos are getting drawn to the food business or culinary careers.

Custer is one of America?s foremost food stylists who has worked with culinary icons like Julia Child and later, with Martha Stewart.

Over lunch at the buffet-of-all-buffets at Sofitel?s Spiral, Custer was obviously impressed with the buffet?s food presentation. She looks at food presentation the way fashionistas look at dressing or styling up.

Where the ordinary eye sees food, Custer sees color, texture, shape in, say, a prawn. ?What strong colors,? she gasped as she saw us put fresh prawns and salmon sashimi on our plate.

Does she still feel the urge to eat after styling food one after another?

Yes, she said, she?s one of the lucky ones whose appetite hasn?t been dulled by years of handling food as a style object. However, she knew of another stylist who would eat only ?white food? (like cottage cheese) for she seemed to have had a surfeit of food colors. She herself didn?t want to eat muffins after styling hundreds of them.

She relishes having worked with Julia Child, the famous author and culinary icon who put French cooking in mainstream America and who is the subject of a forthcoming movie, ?Julie and Julia? starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams.

Child, said Custer, had that zest for life until she died in her 90s. She was about 86 when Custer worked with her, styling Crepe Suzette for a TV show to air in time for the release of Child?s book.

Why they (producers) wanted Crepe Suzette in the show, Child had wondered. Must be the drama, everybody loves drama, Child had answered her own question.

Yes, in this day, food must be drama. (The Custer seminar was conducted with the support of Sofitel, CCA and Baguio Oil.) (TSS)

Haute ?Pinoy? cuisine in book form

(Thumbs up) Chef Rolando Laudico, proponent of Filipino haute cuisine, will publish a book. It aims to inspire younger chefs to elevate Filipino food to a fine dining experience.

Incidentally, the chocolate truffle gourmet ice cream he developed for Selecta is raking in millions ? one more proof the Filipino palate is getting more sophisticated.

Kobe?s cordon sanitaire

(Thumbs down)Last Tuesday?s press event for Kobe Bryant?s third Manila visit was an important event, whether for fans wanting a glimpse of their idol, or for journalists whose duty was to write about the event.

However, the cordon sanitaire imposed was strict, or rather selective in its treatment of journalists. Organizers gave priority to TV networks and totally forgot about this poor writer/editor from a major publication.

She asked for a five-minute ?one-on-one? interview with Kobe, and patiently waited from 11 a.m. at the Peninsula Manila, boarded the press bus to Bonifacio High Street for the 2 p.m. schedule and ended up in Ultra at 7 p.m.

When she asked for her turn, the organizer assured her with cheery smiles. Sadly, the writer/editor went home without a single soundbite from Kobe. How surprised she was, then, to see ?one-on-one? interviews with the basketball celebrity being broadcast on TV.