MANILA, Philippines — In the hit primetime series “Unbreak My Heart,” Joshua Garcia’s character, Renz, is romantically involved with two chefs, Rose (played by Jodi Sta. Maria) and Alexandra (played by Gabbi Garcia), who turn out to be mother and daughter.

In real life, Joshua is the one who is really interested in the culinary arts. His dad is, after all, a chef, and he grew up with a passion for cooking.

Wanting to professionalize and formalize his cooking skills led him to the Center for Asian Culinary Studies (CACS) in San Juan. As the primetime series wraps up on TV (in real life, the entire series has already been shot), he decides to finally enroll in a culinary course that will hone his cooking skills but will not eat up his time, so he can seamlessly move on to his next project.

For this, Jodi, his co-star in “Unbreak My Heart,” referred him to CACS, where she enrolled before the series started to equip herself with the skills, stance and gait of a real chef. She asked the school to customize a course for her and her companions since her schedule really would not allow her to attend regular classes.

The school, led by Chef Gene Gonzalez, accommodated her request and she had a great learning experience under the husband-and-wife team of Chef Gino Gonzalez and Chef China Cojuangco-Gonzalez. Joshua followed his co-star’s move to request a customized course for him.

Apart from Jodi and now Joshua, CACS also has other celebrity alumni. These include “Dirty Linen” star Janice de Belen and Judy Ann Santos-Agoncillo.

Cooking his seafood

“He will go through a compact version of the Certificate course in Cooking Skills, plus some Asian classes on the side. He will be with us for 11 to 12 days,” said Chef Gino, who has been handling Joshua’s classes after his father and CACS founder Chef Gene took care of the first day of Joshua’s class. Other days would be handled by Chef China, herself a celebrity, who studied at CACS.

Joshua’s one-on-one session began with a lecture on the fundamentals of cooking, followed by a long day of hands-on cooking. This is how classes at CACS are usually handled.

The actor plating his soup.

How is Joshua as a student?

“He is very obedient and very open to new knowledge. He has an apt for cooking as well. Very intuitive and very mild-mannered, he is a very nice and humble person,” said Chef Gino.