Abi Marquez recounted her memorable experience collaborating with multi-Michelin-starred chef Gordon Ramsay last January.
In an interview on Bianca Gonzalez’s Paano Ba ‘To: The Podcast, Abi recalled her initial reaction upon learning that Gordon’s team had reached out to her.
"Sobrang elated. Sobrang saya ko. I actually have footage of myself na talaga na, 'Oh my god!' But we never really confirmed the collaboration until that time na he commented on my video," she recounted.
Gordon's comment on one of her viral videos, where he challenged her to make a lumpia version of his iconic Beef Wellington, was the green light that set the project in motion. "After that day na nag-comment siya, dun pa lang kami nag-meet nung team niya and talked about this is what we're gonna do," she relayed.
While the opportunity was exciting, Abi admitted she also felt immense pressure to deliver.
"So two feelings I was experiencing, super saya but at the same time, I was thinking I cannot mess this up. It has to be perfect. I cannot be an inconvenience to them. It has to be perfect. Good impression, yes," she shared.
Even before the collaboration was officially confirmed, Abi had already started planning and preparing. "For transparency before we confirmed the collaboration, I was already brainstorming concepts for the shoot," she shared.
She came up with three video ideas. "I prepared a list of all the possible videos that we could do with Gordon. And siguro tatlong concept 'yun. Hindi ko alam kung ano 'yung matutuloy. Binili ko lahat ng props. Binili ko lahat ng materials for those videos," she shared.
Abi went on: "One of those videos was having him taste Filipino snacks, so I bought 20 Filipino snacks that I wanted him to try. The second one would be the Beef Wellington lumpia concept. And then I think the third one was just a very quick concept na ibabalot ko siya sa isang malaking lumpia wrapper so nagpagawa ako ng malaking comforter lumpia wrapper."
Beyond the concepts, Abi also went all out on the technical side to ensure the shoot would go off seamlessly.
"It was really one of the videos talaga na I wanted it to be a pit stop... Because I worked with foreigners before and grabe talaga 'yung punctuality and 'yung pagka-prompt nila with filming," she said.
The content creator relayed that she also did rehearse the shoot. "I don't normally do it but nag-rehearse kami ng camera, nag-rehearse kami ng lighting. Nag-rehearse kami ng placement. We usually do a storyboard our outline for my videos but really this time prinaktis talaga namin 'yung movement and frame by frame," she said.
But perhaps the biggest pressure of all lay in one thing: the food.
"'Yung pinakamalaking preparation actually on my end was preparing the recipe kasi kailangan masarap and I don't think he will lie about it just for the collaboration... So 'yung pinakamalaking pressure sa akin to prove na I can do this, I can make a good Beef Wellington lumpia," she highlighted.