Rediscovering Filipino Cuisine: From Local & Global PerspectiveChef Jam Melchor

The FILIPINO food has finally ARRIVED!

Filipino cuisine had gone light years away from the unappealing, brown and oily fare it was always thought to be, one of the most gorgeously prepared and mouthwatering cuisine today.

Its time has finally come.

Andrew Zimmern- an american tv show personality, chef, and food writer, had featured the Philippines in his popular TV food travel show, "Bizarre Food." He ate delicacies such as balut (fertilized duck egg), crickets, stuffed frogs, and even raw tamilok (woodworm); as well as regular Filipino fare. He described banana cue as similar to bananas Foster, but without the snooty waiter.

“I had said to some people, ‘If there was a great chef executing

Filipino food at a high level, everyone else would line up behind

them,’ ”- Andrew Zimmern

• Anthony Bourdain author of the controversial worldwide best seller Kitchen Confidential, visited manila in 2009. He sang praises to Filipino cuisine, ranking the Philippines number one in his “Hierarchy of Pork.”

“Like nothing I’ve tasted before.” – Anthony Bourdain

This is a stark contrast to a decade ago when Filipino cuisine was written off as being too ethnic and one whose flavors were too indigenous to appeal to the western palate. Back then, crossing over to the mainstream market seemed all but impossible.

But tastes and preferences evolve. Today, more and more people have grown in sophistication to appreciate the flavors of our islands.

If we play our cards right, our cuisine can explode in the world stage just as Japanese food did in the 70’s and Thai cookery did in the ’80s.

What is Filipino Food?• It is the sum of Filipino history, from

the indigenous food of the prehistoric era, to the influences of Southeast Asia cooking brought by trade, and colonial influences brought by conquest.

• It is a very misunderstood cuisine because of its diversity.

In recent years, because of domestic migration, tourism, national food businesses, and through the mass media, regional dishes have gone beyond their borders and are part of the national border.

“There’s more to filipino food than Jollibee.”

What took it so long?Our nation's table-fare has long suffered a poor reputation internationally compared with its regional south east asian neighbors.

• Across the world, Indian curry houses compete with Vietnamese noodle soup shops or Chinese dim sum restaurants in offering a taste of Asian food, but there are comparatively very few places serving Filipino dishes.

• many locals also undoubtedly prefer their meals fast and cheap -- in the style of their former American colonial rulers -- with deep-fried chicken and hamburger chains dominating the food scene.

• an obstacle to the development of Filipino food abroad is hiya – or shame. "Some Filipino immigrants in America have felt a sense of hiya around their food, with its duck embryos, pig’s blood, shrimp paste and other potentially hard-to-swallow ingredients.”

What makes our food unique?

• Filipino food has a deep and complex taste that has been described as LINAMNAM (literally “deliciousness”)

• Malinamnam – savory and fragrant quality of the dish

• One significant aspect of Filipino LINAMNAM is sourness and a penchant for tangy flavors.

Branding our FoodClassification of Taste: Sourness Three major Filipino cooking techniques have sourness as a flavor base:- Paksiw- Kinilaw or Kilawin- Sinigang

Adobo is an exemption because sourness does not dominate the dish’s flavor.

Branding our FoodRegional Cuisine & Heirloom Recipes

Regionality plays a huge role in Filipino cooking, as it's a geographically divisive country populated by dozens of ethnic groups. "Each island has their own flavor."

Branding our FoodADOBO NATION

- Adobo is considered as the country’s most popular dish; inaccurate to call it a singular dish. To say that there are 7,100 recipes of our adobo is an understatement; there are as many kinds of adobo as there are households.

Adobo

So, to claim your adobo is better than others is pretty much a personal thing. Its really a matter of taste…

Branding our Food• Perhaps our recent ranking as the

world’s second best food destination, according to the CNN Facebook poll, is a sign that the Filipino Food Movement is finally gaining some precious traction.

• But, I believe that it takes more than public opinion to really sway the world’s palates our way.

Branding our Food• Promotion of Philippine made food

products (wines, jams, concentrates, etc.)

• Rice• Vinegar• Coconut• Mango• garlic

Branding our Food • Serve Filipino food—even abroad—

without compromises. Let’s unabashedly present to the world our flavors, full back fat and all!

Branding our FoodNO COPYCATS• it is important for chefs & foodies to

expose themselves to trends around the world, but only to gain a new sense of perspective in order not to become outdated. Exposure should not lead one to copy dishes.

Branding our FoodINNOVATE BUT GO LOCAL• What is important, they all

concurred, is that chefs innovate. Put your stamp on what you serve, don’t just copy. Make it your own. Your restaurant must have personality, although this must be matched with flavor.

Rediscovering the Filipino Foodie

Part of what feeds the Filipino Food industry is being able to reimagine traditional food in new ways or reinvent the experience of eating your favorite food.

Sansrival

Sapin Sapin

Sisig

Tibok Tibok

• Reimagining the cuisine needs execution by means of cooking the traditional recipes and passing it to other people so the recipe will continuously live and ideas will flourish.

Lechon Roulade

PSE - Pour un Sourire d'EnfantPhnom Penh, Cambodia

PSE - Pour un Sourire d'EnfantPhnom Penh, Cambodia

Rediscovering the Filipino Foodie

The Philippines has all the right ingredients to become a truly international foodie destination. So long as we can cultivate a homegrown cultural appetite for local cuisine, global taste buds will soon follow.

 ”All we need to do is stir the palayok in the right direction.”