Do not be deceived by those pictures showing PBBM serving — not cooking — soup in a soup kitchen to home-less persons in a “Walang Gutom” kitchen in Pasay City. The Chief Executive may not be a certified chef, but he knows how to cook!

It’s not a state secret, though not many people know about his flair for cooking and how it finds full expres-sion in a Spanish soup dish called “pochero,” which is a flavorful mix of meats (chicken, pork, beef all together or choose one) simmered slowly for hours to bring out their full glory. Why am I writing about food 90 days be-fore Christmas? Because it’s “pochero” weather!

According to my source — and she has her own impeccable source — PBBM is a “natural” in the kitchen. Af-ter all, once upon a time in his younger years he lived in Paris, didn’t he, in an apartment in the fashionable 16th arrondissement; Paris where even the way they swallow their food is done stylishly.

Before Paris, BBM went to school at The Abbey in London, where English food is about as flavorful and ex-citing as cabbage soup and smoked meats — no kidding! Paris must have seemed like a five-star reward, even if their bouillabaisse is as hard to cook as it is to spell.

Did Bong Bong the future president of the Philippines learn how to cook sinigang and adobo in Paris, of all places? Why not? If he can produce pochero without having to learn it in Madrid or Barcelona... As they say, hun-ger is the best teacher. (Second best is living in an international dorm with dormmates who cannot cook, and the kitchen is off-limits.)

The recipe for pochero is actually quite simple. Says my tutor, start by sautéing a piece of chorizo, then slowly make a broth from chicken, pork, or beef (bone marrow will do). Add the chorizo. Let the whole thing boil and simmer — better patis than salt — then sit back and wait. Serve saba banana separately (steamed, with or without the skin). Add broth to tomato sauce — with mashed eggplant, potato and garlic the dish is com-plete. Now your pochero looks like a work of art.

As they say in Spain, “Buena suerte!”