SINGING COOKS & WAITERS Good food and good music at the Kili Cafe

Imagine yourself listening to good music while gobbling down on your favorite dish in a serene ambiance of greens and flowers as the soft breeze of the sea touches your cheek.

If it seems good enough, wait until you are actually serenaded by a group of 10 restaurant staff fresh from one of Manila’s finest restaurants with their own rendition of standard love songs as you feast on your food at the tranquil garden setting of Hyatt Regency Saipan.

Beginning tonight, diners will be treated to an evening of good music and good food as Hyatt brings out 10 of its musically-gifted restaurant staff from the kitchen into the dining hall of The Kili Café and Terrace.

Practically a very new attraction in the Northern Marianas, the Singing Cooks and Waiters promise to bring guests at the Kili Café and Terrace to a mesmerizing trip back from the 1970s to the 1990s with their own rendition of popular songs that are sure to fill the atmosphere at the Hyatt with love and passion.

Members of the group recall the tight screening they had to go through when they auditioned for a slot in the popular group from Manila which started in the early part of 1992 at a famous restaurant along the historic and scenic Roxas Boulevard in the Philippines.

They say that while skills in the usual waiting and kitchen chores are part of the requirements, each of the member had to audition for a slot in the group to ensure only qualified applicants who show good promise in singing are accepted.

All 10 members of the group sing while some do the instruments like acoustic guitar, flute, trumpet and bungus to accompany and blend with the vocal style unique only to the Singing Cooks and Waiters.

One member is actually a pioneer of the original Singing Cooks and Waiters, having been a part of the musically-talented group of wait and kitchen staff that was formed by a Filipino restaurateur in October of 1991 but started actual performing in January 1992.

The Singing Cooks and Waiters have practically traveled around Asia, with Singapore and Malaysia being the most frequent points of destination where they have surely left a distinct mark.

The group’s enchanting blend of voices and exquisitely choreographed frolics that enthrall the audience have captured the very discriminating bosses at the Hyatt Regency who signed them for a three-month contract, with an option of another three months.

And what could be the easiest way to enthrall Saipan’s largest market of visitors than to give them the kind of music that are closest to home. The Singing Cooks and Waiters can belt out their own rendition of popular English, Tagalog, Spanish and Japanese songs.

The group is a winsome combination of musically-talented three girls and seven men who are veterans of amateur singing competitions and Church choirs back in their own respective places in the Philippines.