Abu Dhabi-based Filipinos Chuck ‘Chakoy’ Vosotros and Mark Anthony Talavera share the same passion in life: to create content for social media, and the other is to eat and cook food.
Chakoy, who initially worked as a receptionist for a five-star hotel in Dubai in 2005, currently works at a renowned private community management company. Meanwhile, Mark, fondly called ‘Chef Mark’, works at a private telecommunications and maintenance company in the capital of the UAE.
When Chakoy was still young, he knew that he would be a food connoisseur. He recalled preparing food for his siblings with whatever food he could find in their kitchen or edible he could find inside their fridge.
Working overseas, he developed a strong desire to return to those things, and they linger on him.
As soon as he came back to Abu Dhabi, he started thinking about it. The regained enthusiasm gave him a new reason to keep on living. Chakoy entered the world of vlogging. Equipped with all the materials for vlogging, he thought of the things that were sensible in front of his camera, but he didn’t know how to deliver them.
He then remembered all the printed materials about recipes he had kept for many years. He thought it was a start.
Chakoy then decided to shoot his first food vlog. At that time, he cooked the famous chicken adobo. “It was a continuous learning,” he said.
On the other hand, Chef Mark started as his vlog’s regular guest. Hailing from Pampanga, the culinary capital of the Philippines, he definitely knows his things in the kitchen. When it comes to making dishes, baking, and preparing Filipino desserts, he is innovative and skilled.
When the two clicked and developed chemistry in front of the camera, the Wandering Kusina vlog started making the rounds of social media.
“We were all ecstatic and so grateful for how the year turned out for us and Wandering Kusina,” Chef Mark said.
After working hard for a couple of years, their platform–Wandering Kusina–has started getting invitations from different restaurants in the capital, wanting to be featured by them.
On their platform, they have a segment called Restaurant Raid. They vlog their first visit to small and medium restaurants, give their honest opinion about their food and service, and further promote it to the growing community in Abu Dhabi. As part of their advocacy, they prioritize restaurants that serve Filipino food.
“Being content creators help us contribute to the society by way of expressing our creativeness and giving our audience ideas on how to prepare a dish, and provide information on where they can enjoy a meal with their family and friends,” Chakoy said.
“Now that we have started to fulfill our passion for cooking through vlogging, we can confidently express our skills and our food ideas with different recipes by being creative and innovative. These give us fulfillment. These gave us new directions and paths to take. It helped open doors for us and meet new opportunities. It saved us from being idle in life,” Chef Mark said.
Their vision for the platform gives them more hope for themselves and as Filipinos.
When asked about their plans for Wandering Kusina, they said it is to expand their reach, not just in the UAE but also in the Philippines.
