MINDFUL BITES: CULINARY ACTS OF LOVE, RESISTANCE, AND HOPE

A Thesis submitted to the faculty of

San Francisco State University
In partial fulfillment of
the requirements for
3 k the Degree

Master of Arts
•033
In

Asian American Studies

by

Allen Byron Ocampo

San Francisco, California

July 2017
 Copyright by
Allen Byron Ocampo
2017
 CERTIFICATION OF APPROVAL

I certify that I have read MINDFUL BITES: CULINARY ACTS OF LOVE,

RESISTANCE, AND HOPE by Allen Byron Ocampo, and that in my opinion this work

meets the criteria for approving a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the

requirement for the degree Master of Arts in Asian American Studies at San Francisco

State University.

Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales, Ph.D.

Dayvn Bohulano Mabalon, Ph.D.

f\ ~ ^
'^Associate Professor

Daniel Phil Gonzales, J.D.

Professor
 MINDFUL BITES: CULINARY ACTS OF LOVE, RESISTANCE, AND HOPE

Allen Byron O cam po

San Francisco, California
2017

Ethnic culinary research can be a platform for understanding ho w system s o f oppression

impact com m unities o f color, as well as give Filipina/o com m unities the opportunity to
share their cultural w ealth (by m eans o f docum enting oral histories). For this research,
cultural hegem ony will be viewed through a lens o f culinary experiences focusing on
exploitation through institutional (cultural food colonialism), interpersonal (culinary
m ulticulturalism), and internal (cultural estrangem ent) system s o f oppressions.
Furthermore, the counter-narratives o f the interviewees in response to the above forms o f
exploitation will be claimed as cultural wealth. Essentially, this research proposes that if
we are critically conscious about the food we pick, prepare, present, and consum e, the
kitchen becom es a site o f resistance and the preparation o f food becom es an act o f
resistance. This research is intent on contributing to the grow ing body o f critical
perspectives about understanding our c om m unities’ connections to food.

I certify that the Abstract is a correct representation o f the content o f this Thesis.
 PREFACE AND/OR ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

To all the women in my family who showed me how to love through food,

To all the men in my family who fostered spaces to experience this love,

To all my AAS mentors who continually show me how to embody critical joy,

To my participants who courageously shared their stories and experiences,

To my thesis committee who have gone above and beyond in supporting m e...

I thank you with all the love and light in my heart for making this work possible.

v
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Figures.......................................................................................................................................vii

Introduction................................................. 1

Methodology......................................................................................................................................... 12

Preface of Theoretical Framework.........................................................................................19

Literature Review................................................................................................................................. 20

Cultural Hegemony through Cultural Culinary Experiences...............................................20

Cultural Wealth through Cultural Culinary Experiences..................................................... 27

History and Practices of Filipino Cuisine..............................................................................36

Cultural Food Capital...........................................................................................................................43

Sawsawan................................................................................................................................. 43

Komunidad............................................................................................................................... 51

Maasim......................................................................................................................................56

Responsive Capital............................................................................................................................... 62

Pagkain para sa Ulo................................................................................................................ 63

Pagkain para sa Katawan........................................................................................................67

Pagkain para sa Puso............................................................................................................... 71

Resilient Capital................................................................................................................................... 75

Kulinary Privilege....................................................................................................................75

Kulinary Babaylans................................................................................................................. 80

Kulinary Kasamas....................................................................................................................84

Conclusion............................................................................................................................................ 89

References............................................................................................................................................. 97

vi
 LIST OF FIGURES

Figures

1. Figure 1.......................................................................................................................28
2. Figure 2 .......................................................................................................................91
 1

Introduction

The old and the new. The provincial and the pop. The slow and the fast. The past,
the present, the future. That's what's cooking in Philippine cuisine. Which means
that, as the most popular (people-created, people-processed and people-
consumed) segment of popular culture, it is dynamic and changing, living and
lively. (Fernandez, 1994)

The first time I ever considered myself to be a chef, I was a sophomore attending

the University of San Francisco and working at a late night pizza cafe on campus called

Crossroads. The training I received was mediocre and the quality expected from our

ovens was equally embarrassing. But something magical happened during my time in that

kitchen. I began to make fast friends from different areas of the kitchen: from other

cooks, to cashiers, to food preparers (choppers). To this day I still cook with, party with,

and attend the weddings of folks I’ve met in this space. That kitchen was an incubator for

some of the lifelong friendships I would continue to foster the rest of my life.

As my love and respect for these individuals grew, so did the quality of the food I

was cooking. It wasn’t long before until my sole responsibility was to cook specialty

dishes particularized for the kitchen staff. Granted, we were simply a pizza joint, my

friends got to enjoy unique dishes that ranged from mini fruit pies to personal

lamb/chicken bakes. Since then, I’ve considered cooking for others to be an act of love.

Whether I’m scouring through a nearly bare pantry or being blessed with a bountiful

fresh garden, the entire process of preparing food for the people I care about becomes

holistically therapeutic for me. From the picking, to the preparing, to the presenting,

every step in this process becomes an element of a communal experience kept in mind as

my purpose for cooking.

 2

When choosing ingredients, I take food allergies and dietary restrictions into

consideration so everyone can partake and enjoy. When preparing dishes, I am always

open to teaching and explaining the procedures taken when mixing and heating particular

ingredients. When presenting, I try to portion and design my cuisine in a manner that

conveys how special my loved ones are. In my family, the kitchen has always been a

space of contribution, collaboration, and innovation. The voices of elders are listened to.

The hands of children are mixing or rolling. Occasionally, a big “AHHHH...” shared

amongst everyone when a favored dish is finally prepared. Of course we have our

differences, as all families do; but the kitchen provides us a platform to put our issues out

on the table and sometimes even put them to rest. There is a certain magic that occurs

within the cooking quarters that pushes us to squash our disagreements for a larger

purpose, that is, feeding the entire family.

While I have stuffed myself with Filipina/o cuisine my entire life, the first time I

experienced it in a completely different light was at a restaurant known as Poleng

Lounge. I remember being a freshman at the University of San Francisco, nibbling on

Crispy Adobo Chicken Wings, asking myself, “Is this real?” It was the first restaurant

I’ve ever eaten that satiated my Philippine cuisine cravings, yet continued to pique my

other culinary interests. To be clear, there was nothing wrong at all with the Philippine

cuisine I’ve been blessed to experience prior, but this was the first time I experienced

Filipina/o cuisine creatively expanded upon and extended, yet still maintain respect for

and recognizability of its indigenous roots.

 3

I’ve eaten at turo turos my whole life and that is how I came to understand what

Filipino restaurant food was supposed to be. The phrase turo turo derives from the idea of

“pointing pointing” to the hotbox dish you want. I imagine myself as Forrest Gump and

the turo turos as my box of chocolates, every time I enter one, I never know what I ’m

going to get. It isn’t uncommon to want a particular dish going in, but after seeing

something that you haven’t had in awhile, end up leaving with that instead. To an extent,

there’s always an element of surprise in turo turo restaurants which definitely adds to the

Philippine cuisine experience.

When it came to sit down traditional Filipino restaurants, my family would only

dine in if it was a special occasion such as a birthday, anniversary, or if family was

visiting. However, something I noticed at these sit down Filipina/o restaurants was that

the customers were primarily of Philippine descent. But thinking back to the Poleng

Lounge, that did not seem to be the case. Since then, I began to wonder how Filipina/o

cuisine was becoming more and more palatable to non-Filipinas/os. Was it the way the

cuisine was presented? Or has society grown to be more open to new cultures and

experiences?

The only other restaurant that has helped spark my Philippine culinary awakening

is Purple Yam, in Brooklyn, New York. What sets Purple Yam apart from any other

restaurant I’ve been to is the passion, intention, and character Executive Chef, Romy

Dorotan, translates to his customers. I’ll never forget Tito Romy’s story about his first

restaurant, Cendrillon (NY), where he drastically changed his menu due to the confusion

about Filipina/o cuisine and his desire to clarify that confusion with his hometown
 4

culinary experiences. Long story short, Tito Romy was initially cooking pan-asian french

cuisine, however the cuisine itself was being referred to as “Filipino” in food reviews due

to his ethnicity. To which he began focusing primarily on Philippine French cuisine at

Cendrillon. Whether it’s through his very deliberately thought out dishes or warm and

hilarious conversations, I have always left Purple Yam with the firm belief that food is

much more than a set of flavorful bites.

That’s not to say that exquisite Filipina/o cuisine isn’t available in the San

Francisco Bay Area. I’ve resided throughout the Bay Area (Palo Alto, Santa Clara, San

Francisco, and Hayward) my entire life and never ran into the problem of acquiring

Filipina/o cuisine. When entering the phrase “Filipina/o Restaurant” into the Yelp search

bar, and specifying “Bay Area, California” as the location (SF / Daly City / San Mateo /

San Jose / Milpitas / Fremont / Union City / San Leandro / Oakland / Berkeley), 106

entries pop up. The majority of the results were restaurants, fast food chains, and pop ups.

However, there was a wide range of other categories associated with the other locations;

these restaurants were also karaoke bars, bakeries, caterers, grocery stores, and comedy

clubs. Investigated more closely, these various categories of Filipina/o cuisine in the Bay

Area are indicative of Philippine cultural practice locally as well as in the Philippines. In

Philippine culture, food doesn’t stand alone; it is tied to all other aspects of Philippine

life.

Food is more than just a “bite.” That is my philosophy when encountering

anything regarding food. I’ve been a sous chef for my mother since I was a toddler

folding lemon zest into her leche flan. Ever since I was a child, the kitchen has always
 5

been an open learning space, wielding dashes of inspiration into my family. As both an

ethnic studies educator and a culinary artist, my purpose is to explore how food can be

introduced into the classroom as well as how the kitchen can be a site of resistance.

Upon sifting through various sources that had any reference or relevance to

Philippine cuisine, I noticed a continuous theme that perplexed, and frustrated me. It was

a theme of Philippine cuisine having either a controlled or blanketed narrative. It’s

becoming more and more evident that everywhere I look, there lurks the impact of

cultural hegemony.

Throughout human history, cultural insiders have proven that outsiders can never

completely understand the inner workings of any culture unless they too become

immersed in that culture and it becomes part of their personal identity. Take for example

Jeff Smith’s cookbook, The Frugal Gourmet on Our Immigrant Ancestors: Recipes You

Should Have Gotten from Your Grandmother. The title itself is a bit condescending, but

his perspectives of the ethnic cuisines he covers are culturally scornful. One line in

particular, regarding Philippine cuisine, caught me off guard and infuriated me. “You are

right, this is not a cuisine you can call ‘high class’” (Smith, 1990).

Not only did Smith have a biased and uneducated perspective of Philippine

cuisine, he also attempted to impose or confirm, a preexisting negative perspective of

readers on Philippine cuisine. I was also concerned that he had a strong presence on US

television. Though his presence was most notable back in the 1980’s, Philippine culture

is still being appropriated, refashioned, and misrepresented today.

 6

On the Food Network, non-Anglo/non-European cuisine and its culture of origin

is being presented and explained by white people. Unfortunately, it seems easier for my

generation of Filipina/o Americans to feel gratification when receiving cultural notice

from white Americans. Our culturally stilted age group still seems ill-equipped to

appreciate Philippine culinary counter-narratives much less to argue them.

However, among recent literature on Philippine cuisine by Filipina/o Americans, I

have found their focus on cultural wealth and the reclaiming of cultural identity. This has

led me to see the importance of documenting Filipina/o foodways. This is the essence of

my research, unweaving the fabricated narrative and preserving and presenting accurate

narratives of Filipina/o American cuisine in the US.

In the book he co-wrote with his wife Amy Besa, Memories o f a Philippine

Kitchen, Romy Dorotan describes the perspective chefs and historians should take when

excavating the roots of pan-ethnic Philippine cuisine. Besa and Dorotan focused their

research on the food memories and foodways of those born in the late 1940s and 1950s,

in Filipina/o American history, food writing, and Philippine history.

“We tried to find those answers not only in Philippines history and food books,

but in the local histories of the towns, provinces, and regions where these families are

rooted,” Besa said. “And although these families represent several regions of the

Philippines, this is by no means a regional cookbook of the Philippines. To do justice to

all the regions would mean more years of research and many more books on the subject”

(Besa & Dorotan, 2012).

 7

Luckily, I was able to meet and interview Romy Dorotan. The individual who put

me in contact with him was Dr. Dawn Mabalon, who also is a Philippine food historian

and enthusiast. Since working with his wife Amy Besa, during the Marcos martial law

regime, Mabalon has continued the struggle for resistance within her classroom and

through her scholarly works. In an essay, “As American as Jackrabbit Adobo” in an

anthology on Asian American food, Eating Asian America, she discusses how Filipina/o

immigrants create a distinctive Filipina/o American cuisine from the 1910s-1970s on the

West Coast and Alaska. She explains how the decision for Filipina/o immigrants to stay

in the US could be viewed as the beginning of Filipina/o American culture and cuisine,

and in turn, an act of resistance.

The lack of specific Philippine ingredients and the poverty that forced cooks to
improvise, embrace, and creatively adapt local resources, the extreme sex ratio
imbalance in which very few women immigrated before World War II, the
migratory nature of Filipina/o life, and the intermarriage and the close social ties
of Ilocanas/os, Tagalogs, and Visayans gave birth to a unique Filipina/o American
cuisine with cultural ties to the Philippines but with roots in the campos,
canneries, and plantations of Hawai’i, Alaska, and the West. (Mabalon, 2013)

Mabalon’s research is key to understanding how historical systems of inequity

(across countries and generations) impact Philippine culinary livelihood today. Although

there are various cookbooks that delve into the matrix of indigenous Philippine recipes,

there is little written or discussed about Philippine cuisine as a means to attain social

justice, solidarity, and culturally responsive history.

There are, however, culinary resources that silence - perhaps inadvertently - and

reduce these culinary narratives. As I scoured the internet and libraries for culinary

resources focusing on Philippine cuisine and social justice, I critically analyzed how
 8

Philippine cuisine and culture was portrayed by non-Filipina/o chefs and authors. Upon

breaking down their words and notions behind those words, it was evident that this was a

subtle but no less injurious method of cultural appropriation.

As I have become more and more recognized as a critical chef, I took it upon

myself to address the cultural appropriation of Filipina/o cuisine by organizing a critical

catering collective called HoodYumz. Our tagline is “Curated experiences from our hood

to yours!” We are a collective of educators and chefs who prepare Filipina/o cuisine for

our communities and share our culinary cultural wealth with the Bay Area and beyond.

This is achieved through a non-profit framework, solely charging our community partners

only ingredience costs. Because we primarily cater events for community service groups,

organizations, and agencies, we offer the opportunity for members of the benefitting

community to learn how to cook with us as we prepare for their event. The hope is to

cultivate culinary cultural wealth and help it to permeate throughout our communities.

In my myriad experiences in the culinary world, I seen food mishandled, wasted,

disrespected, and abused. More often than not, food is not given the care, thought, and

engagement that it deserves. But when food is critically engaged with constant

mindfulness, it becomes much more than a bite. Food is understood to be energy,

medicine, love, and power. When the concept of race is introduced into the discussion of

food, the power of food and in food can be either a product of cultural hegemony or the

preservation and celebration of cultural wealth.

The sociocultural genesis of Filipina/o cuisine is a topic given cursory treatment,

often misunderstood, and assumed to be apolitical. Against this long established trend,
 9

however, the movement to document the counter-narratives and culinary practices of

Filipina/o chefs who create and recreate Filipina/o cuisine can provide a starting point to

reclaim cultural wealth, while simultaneously combating cultural hegemony. This thesis

and research is rooted in understanding how systems of oppression (through race, gender,

and class) impact Filipina/o American culture, particularly through food, foodways, and

food systems and how can Filipina/o cuisine be used as a counter-narrative of resistance

against these systems.

Cultural Hegemony

In her book Coming Full Circle: The Process o f Decolonization Among Post-

1965 Filipino Americans, Leny Strobel describes the concept of cultural hegemony as US

benevolent world domination:

The need of the US to expand and extend control globally reveals itself in the
ways it was able to amass a "conceptual arsenal," which means, theorizing and
creating a body knowledge about economic processes, traditional societies,
systems transfers, methods of pacifications, social mobility and the like. (Strobel,
2015)

In essence, Strobel’s perspective on cultural hegemony illuminates the shift from

war over bodies to war over minds. Instead of subjugating countries and peoples through

military force, the US is coerces them by redefining and Westernizing their cultures and

controlling their economics. Cultural hegemony will be explored as an effect on

Philippine and Filipina/o American cuisine and as an instrument of misinformation of

Filipina/o American identity.

Community Cultural Wealth

 10

Tara Yosso’s framework of community cultural wealth is rooted in resisting the

deficit view of Communities of Color, and instead fostering self-determination that

explores and builds upon the cultural skills and abilities held by Communities of Color:

Various forms of capital nurtured through cultural wealth include aspirational,

navigational, social, linguistic, familial and resistant capital. These forms of
capital draw on the knowledges Students of Color bring with them from their
homes and communities. (Yosso, 2005)

Although Yosso writes about six forms of capital in the community cultural

wealth framework, she explicitly states that this framework is not limited to these six

forms, nor are each exclusive to one the other. The six, or more, forms of capital can

intertwine in single experiences. Community cultural wealth will be explored in relation

to food, how all six forms can be experienced through the preparation and consumption

of food, and the potential framework of critical culinary wealth.

Humanization

Paulo Freire describes the concept of humanization as the process of becoming a

complete human being and overcoming the present challenges in society that prevent us

to do so. “In order to achieve humanization, which presupposes the elimination of

dehumanizing oppression, it is absolutely necessary to surmount the limit-situations in

which people are reduced to things” (Freire, 1970).

This definition takes into account the long history, and continuous and heavy

prevalence existence of social, economic, and political inequities experienced throughout

humanity. Freire emphasizes humanization as vocation for all human beings, a

responsibility to strive to eliminate oppression. Cultural hegemony directly reduces, if not

 11

erases, the community cultural wealth of People of Color. This research is thereby rooted

in the vocation of humanization.

 12

Methodology

There is nothing that makes historically documented history more valid than an
oral history. Nothing. Aural/oral histories are often the sources of correction to
established, traditional, 'well-documented’ histories and the social scientific
romance with quantification has waned - appropriately. (Daniel Phil Gonzales)

Asian American Studies Professor Daniel Phil Gonzales once said this in class. I

take his statement to be true and necessary. When capturing oral histories from

communities of color we hear and have experience the effects of cultural hegemony. We

witness how and when “well-documented” histories were substituted for true and

indigenous histories, now modified to fit the colonizers’ narratives, or erased outright,

whether by imperialism or genocide.

Because ‘documented history’ tends to over-essentialize cultural experiences,

manipulate cultural narratives, and marginalize communities of color in order to maintain

Eurocentric renditions of history, it is necessary to deconstruct this tradition in order to

uncover and cultivate the cultural wealth within our communities. By applying oral

history as the central research method of this study, the goal is to learn from the actual

narratives of our people and to preserve them as records that our communities and all

communities can gain access to, learn from, and build upon.

According to the Oral History Reader, edited by Robert Perks and Alistair

Thomson, oral histories have a particular quality that sets them apart from other research

methods:

The unique and precious element which oral sources force upon the historian and
which no other sources possess in equal measure is the speaker’s subjectivity. If
the approach to research is broad and articulated enough, a cross section of the
subjectivity of a group or class may emerge. Oral sources tell us not just what
 13

people did, but what they wanted to do, what they believed they were doing, and
what they now think they did... .Subjectivity is as much the business of history as
are the more visible ‘facts’. (Perks & Thomson, 2006)

Subjectivity is ingrained throughout any critical discussion regarding food.

Therefore, there is no way that food talks aren’t influenced by the subjectivity of the

parties involved in the discussion. This research is designed to identify any common

themes of brought up by the participants sharing their oral histories regarding their

experiences in the kitchen. The excerpt above about the power of oral history as a

research method ties in directly with the concept of humanization with regard to

recording an individual’s oral history, as well as sharing their story with a broader

audience. The excerpt emphasizes the importance of singular, individual experiences in

the process of larger histories.

Oral History Questions

In order to develop a common ground on the topic of what Filipina/o cuisine is in

America, Filipina/o cuisine is broken down into the five categories (history, taste

procedure, presentation, and purpose). Each of the five categories have subspecific

questions and they are as follows:

1. History
Please share with me your first memories of Philippine food.
• How did you know it was Philippine food?
• How have you preserved and/or challenged your understanding of
Philippine food?
How would you describe the history of Filipino American food? How do
you understand your place in this history?
2. Taste
What is your favorite Philippine dish to cook and how do you make it?
When you prepare this dish, how is it the same and how is different from
how you experienced it growing up?
 14

3. Procedure
• Please tell me a story of how you learned how to cook.
• Who are your biggest influences in the home kitchen?...community
kitchen?...and professional kitchen?

4. Presentation
What does the table spread look like for a typical family dinner?...family
party?
• How is similar to what you present when you serve food? How is it
different? Why is it different? What made you decide to make your food
presentation choices?

5. Purpose
What do you want present with your cooking?
Why did you decide to become a chef? And why in Philippine cuisine?
• How would you describe your purpose as a Philippine chef?

Overview o f Study Procedures

1. Select at least 5 participants for the study.

In accordance with the participant qualification criteria for this study, I chose

participants who have explored and shared Filipina/o cuisine in their own unique way. In

a sense, I targeted individuals who were actively “transitioning” the definition of

Filipina/o cuisine while challenging assumptions about Philippine cuisine in America.

2. Reach out to participants explaining Problem Statement, Thesis, and initial

question from each o f the 5 categories o f Philippine cuisine (listed in Oral History

Questions section).

For this step, my primary mode of communication was through e-mail. Although I

only knew one of the five participants personally prior to the study, I did share at least

one mutual friend with the four other participants. This helped in regards to building
 15

rapport with them as some of them were aware of my research prior to me reaching out to

them.

3. Confirm dates, times, and locations o f interviews

At this point of the study, the participants and myself were actively e-mailing one

another as well as communicating through texts to finalize the times and locations where

the oral histories would be documented.

4. Document oral histories (audio, photo, and video)

During this portion of the study, I received assistance from Jessica Vue, an

undergrad student in the San Francisco State University Photojournalism Department.

Jessica helped with setting up microphones, taking photos of the oral histories being

documented, and filming the process.

5. Confirm outcomes o f research with participants

Upon meeting the participants, I confirmed the outcomes of the research with

them. Prior to recording anything, I inform the participant that they will be given a

transcription of their oral history for review and approval prior to using them for this

research. They are also informed that they will be given a copy of the published thesis,

upon completion, for their time invested into this research project.

a. Copies of oral history transcriptions will be given to participants for review.

b. Copies of published thesis will be given to participants.

2. Issue and collect Waiver Release Forms

Once the the transcriptions of the oral histories were complete, they were e-

mailed to the participants along with a waiver release form. During this portion of the
 16

research, participants had the opportunity to review the transcriptions for any edits and

omissions prior to signing the waiver release form. I have received Oral History Release

forms from all five participants.

Population and Sample

Qualifications for the oral history participants of this study are as follows:

Cooks/cooked Philippine cuisine professionally in the Bay Area

• Identifies as Filipina/o or Filipina/o American

• Identifies as part of Generation X

Jay-Ar Pugao - Vegan cuisine

Jay-Ar Pugao was interviewed on Friday, March 24th, 2017 at 11AM in Room

100 of the Ethnic Studies and Psychology Department of San Francisco State University.

Jay-Ar Pugao is the [co-owner] and Executive Chef of No Worries Filipino Vegan

Cuisine. Jay-Ar Pugao was interviewed because of his expertise in the vegan culinary

sector, specializing in Filipino food, and cooking out of his truck for the past fifteen

years. His cuisine has been instrumental in serving the Filipina/o community, providing

healthier alternatives to traditional favorites, in regards to Filipino food.

Chel Gilla - Comfort cuisine

Chel Gilla was interviewed on Friday, March 24th, 2017 at 3PM in Room 100 of

the Ethnic Studies and Psychology Department of San Francisco State University. Chel

Gilla is the [co-owner] and operates a San Francisco based chain restaurant, called

Tselogs, which specializes in Filipino comfort cuisine. In the past five years, she has

opened three locations: Tenderloin neighborhood (SF), Top of the Hill (Daly City), and
 17

San Pedro Street (Daly City). Chel Gilla was interviewed because of the surge in her

popularity throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as being a community-favorite

location.

Tim Luym - Pan-Asian cuisine

Tim Luym was interviewed on Wednesday, April 5th, 2017 at 4PM in the private

dining room of Buffalo Theory, a restaurant located in the Polk Gulch neighborhood of

San Francisco, CA. Tim Luym is the Executive Chef of Buffalo Theory and specializes in

pan asian cuisine. Tim was also the the Consultant Chef of The Attic, a pan asian

restaurant in San Mateo, CA. Prior to that, he was the Executive Chef and co-owner of

Poleng Lounge. Tim Luym is one of the two chefs interviewed with professional culinary

training and was selected because of his experience cooking fusion cuisine over the past

ten years, continuously drawing community patronage.

Aileen Suzara - Seed to Table cuisine

Aileen Suzara was interviewed on Friday, April 7th, 2017 at 11AM on the top

floor of PIQ Bakery, located in Downtown Oakland, CA. Aileen Suzara produces a series

of seed to table popups called Sariwa. She also works with Sama Sama Co-op and

FACES. Aileen Suzara was interviewed because of her unique approach to Filipino food

which incorporates the production of the ingredients used for the actual dishes she cooks.

Her research connecting indigenous Philippine foodways to present day production of

Filipina/o cuisine provides refreshing perspectives of Filipina/o cuisine.

Lee Opelina - Fine Dining cuisine

 18

Lee Opelina was interviewed on Friday, April 7th, 2017 at 2PM in Room 100 of

the Ethnic Studies and Psychology Department of San Francisco State University. Lee

Opelina is the owner and Executive Chef of “Province SF”, a weekly pop-up series

throughout San Francisco, that provides fine dining experiences heavily influenced by

Filipino cuisine. Lee Opelina was selected for his uncommon, technique-driven, approach

to cooking Filipino food which is heavily influenced by French cooking methods.

Role o f Researcher

My initial role as a researcher is to give participants to opportunity to share their

narratives of cooking Philippine cuisine. I try to establish a rapport with participants and

create an emotionally safe setting. It is quintessential to give participants the opportunity

to share anything they’d like to address outside of what was discussed as well. Also, as a

researcher, it is important to give participants the opportunity to ask me anything they’d

like to follow up on as well. Ultimately, my goal as a researcher is to share the outcomes

of this research with others exploring the culinary cultural field as well as the broader

Asian American and Ethnic Studies community.

Strengths and Limitations o f the Research

As mentioned before, the primary strength of the oral history method of research

is its subjectivity, especially in a field where much of the culinary experiences of

communities of color are absent and often what is written is muddled by outsiders.

However, there are limitations to the method of documenting oral histories, as there are

limitations to all forms of research. Regarding the topic of Philippine cuisine in America,

the two significant limitations of my method of documenting oral histories are sample
 19

pool size and possible bias from participants. My hope is that this research will serve as a

platform to build upon critical perspectives of how systems of oppression impact our

communities’ food culture. My research will be ‘applied’ and community focused as it is

drawn from the expertise and experiences of Filipina/o and Philippine American chefs

throughout the Bay Area of California.

Preface of Theoretical Framework -

Upon completing the data collection portion of my research, three outstanding

themes of capital were drawn from the oral history interviews I conducted: Cultural Food

Capital, Responsive Capital, and Resilient Capital. These three forms of Capital are the

pillars of the Critical Culinary Wealth framework I am developing. The Critical Culinary

Wealth model draws much of its inspiration from Tara Yosso’s model of Community

Cultural Wealth, which will be covered in the following Literature Review Chapter.

Critical Culinary Wealth is the set of knowledges and skills that promote well­

being, sustain livelihood, and foster a sense of community through a holistic diet. The

purpose of the Critical Culinary Wealth model is to help communities of color identify,

cultivate, and preserve the power inherent within their everyday food practices.

Following the Literature Review Chapter, the three subsequent Chapters (3, 4, & 5) will

examine the concepts of Cultural Food Capital, Responsive Capital, and Resilient

Capital; each chapter dedicated to one type of Capital. Woven in each of those three

chapters, the five oral histories collected will hopefully yield a clearer understanding of

Critical Culinary Wealth.

 20

Literature Review

As a scholar of foodways, the following questions guide my critical approach to

Filipina/o cuisine in America: 1) How do systems of oppression (through race, gender,

and class) impact Filipina/o culture in America, particularly through food, foodways, and

food systems? 2) How can Filipina/o food be used as a counter-narrative of resistance

against these systems? As mentioned before, Filipina/o cuisine is a topic that is cursory

and complex. However, unpacking its culinary counter-narratives can be a form of

reclaiming and surviving Critical Culinary Wealth, while simultaneously eliminating

cultural hegemony. To frame the research conducted in this thesis, I review literature in

the following three domains: cultural hegemony, cultural wealth, and Filipina/o

foodways.

Cultural Hegemony through Cultural Culinary Experiences

The concept of cultural hegemony stems from Marxist philosophy that cultural

differences are directly correlated to variances in the economy. It is important to note that

the concept of cultural hegemony was used as a theoretical tool, proposed by Antonio

Gramsci, to dominate a people’s positionality in society. The implementation of cultural

hegemony can be viewed having two main actions, that of as coercion and consent over

another nation’s values, beliefs, perceptions and experiences in support of a universal and

controlled narrative (Gramsci, 1971).

This idea of cultural hegemony through coercion and consent can be understood

in the metaphor of a human body. Human beings face infections, illnesses, diseases, and

cancers every single day; imagine that all these forces represent coercion. To prevent all
 21

these forces of coercion from taking over, human beings do things like take medicine,

rest their bodies, or have a medical procedures performed. But the moment people refuse

to take care of themselves and commit to abusing their bodies is the moment consent is

given to forces of coercion.

For this research, the theories being used to understand these forces of coercion

through food include: Cultural Food Colonialism, Culinary Multiculturalism, and

Hemispheric Orientalism. In regards to understanding consent to these forces through

food, the theories being used are: Colonial Mentality, Cultural Estrangement, and Deficit

Mentality. Should we choose to ignore exploring how these cultural hegemony impact us,

we risk the eventual loss of indigenous Filipino culinary foodways and culture,

mainstreaming of Filipino culinary foodways to a point of unrecognizability, and the

socially reproducing adverse outlooks on Philippine cuisine perpetuated and internalized

by Filipino communities.

Cultural Food Colonialism

Kicking off the exploration of culinary cultural hegemony, Lisa Heldke (2003)

explains the concept of cultural food colonialism as the appropriation of Asian foodways

to satisfy culinary curiosities, the desire for thrills, and the drive for profit. In her book,

Exotic Appetites, Heldke’s concept of cultural food colonialism is particularly tied to

third world countries by the disruption of their local, self-sufficient food systems and

their replacement with export economies. However, author and historian Mark

Padoongpatt expands Heldke’s concept:

These acts were mechanisms of domination (not simply a justification), as food

became linked to processes of US global expansion that strengthened neocolonial
 22

relationships between the United States and the countries and peoples of Asia and
the Pacific. (Padoongpatt, 2013)

There is a US history of cultural hegemony through exploitation of immigrant

workers, publishing of cookbooks with appropriated recipes, and the miseducation of

culinary practices. Padoongpatt further explains:

A history of Asian/Pacific food culture uncovers the way in which after the war,
the US Empire turned foodways into a central site of identity formation for white
American women, specifically suburban housewives. Most important, white
American women’s fascination with Asian/Pacific cuisine sustained the empire by
adapting local food cultures and systems to the tastes and appetites of US
consumers. (Padoongpatt, 2013)

Not only does this concept help frame how the heavy presence of US imperialism

in the Philippines impacted Filipino food and foodways, it helps Asian Americans

understand how the narrative of their culture, particularly culinary cultural narratives,

were constructed in American culture, prior to their mass arrival.

Culinary Multiculturalism

Wenying Xu’s (2008) framework of culinary multiculturalism explores the quiet

and subtle coercion of multiethnic cultures into a highly commodified and self-exhibition

performance. According to Xu:

American media’s representation of Asian Americans is irrevocably associated

with ‘the food of their ancestries...’ Even though there is a certain degree of truth
in some of these accusations [and representations], they are not made to simply
offer facts about Asian foodways. Rather, these tales are told with the intention of
defaming, of othering, and of abjecting Asians in America. (Xu, 2008)

The significance of this framework can be better understood through the concept

of ethnicity management (Brayton & Millingtons, 2011) which implicitly alludes to

individuals with white privilege having the ability to control the culinary narratives of
 23

other marginalized ethnicities, in addition to being able to profit off of them as well.

Examples of this today would be the cultural food web videos put out by Bon Appetit or

the Food Network show Bobby Flay’s Throwdown.

This concept helps frame the severity of this power as it is essential to remember

the 300+ years of Spanish colonialism and 50+ years of US imperialism. Understanding

how Filipinos/as balance maintaining culture and socially surviving in the US

characterizes the kind of dual consciousness we must face living in this country.

Hemispheric Orientalism

Erika Lee’s concept of transnational anti-Asian racism, hemispheric orientalism

(2007), describes “powerful countries being able to cause a ripple effect of impacting

cultural perceptions across continental waters.” Not only does this theory support the idea

of narrative construction in the US, but it perpetuates influencing anti-Asian sentiment

across US borders with constructed narratives of Filipinos and other Asians prior to their

arrival in those countries. The assumption that all Asian cuisines can be summed up by

chefs like Martin Yan is an example of reducing Asian culinary culture and controlling

cultural narratives.

Author and historian Dr. Dawn Mabalon alludes to this concept of hemispheric

orientalism through a critical lens of Filipino culinary experiences. Mabalon writes:

If Filipino/a bodies were deemed racially inferior to American ones, so too were
their native foods. Students were taught the nutritional superiority of refined
sugars, red meats like beef, animal fats, hydrogenated fats like shortenings, and
highly processed food. As a result, American food was seen as hygienic, practical,
and ‘modern’, fit for the new generation. (Mabalon, 2013)
 24

This perspective helps explain the constant, continuous, and inter-generational

experiences of ethnic inferiority socially reproduced by Filipinos/as. However, it is

quintessential to understand indigeneity of Philippine cuisine and how it has been

impacted to what it is today in order to make any conscious decision about food moving

forward.

Colonial Mentality

Essentially, when the coercive systems become a never ending battle, it gets

easier and easier to give up one’s culture, “just go with the flow” and subscribe to the “if

you can’t beat em, join em” type of thinking. When the will to resist these coercive

systems begin to fade, consent to these oppressive conditions arise, and a social

reproduction of consent primes the marginalized generations in the future to be confused

and conflicted about their identity and agency. Dr. E. J. R. David defines colonial

mentality:

A condition which the oppressed perceives oneself as inferior to the oppressor,

begin to degrade themselves, to be ashamed of their culture, and to be disgusted
of their characteristics. (David, 2011)
Simultaneous to the development of their superior perceptions of American
culture, Filipinos may have begun to devalue Filipino culture. (David, 2011)

David’s work was inspired and influenced by the works of Yen Le Espiritu, Leny

Strobel, and Kevin Nadal, who are pioneers in the research of Philippine-American

culture and psychology. This theory helps frame how historically cultural hegemony has

impacted Filipino-Americans and their outlooks on themselves, their culinary cuisine,

and their cuisine compared to the cuisine of others. Although the works of Dawn

Mabalon and Doreen Fernandez frontier the concept of cultural oppression experienced
 25

through embracing Filipino food, more research needs to be done in regards to this

particular field as well as the reclaiming of Filipino food culture.

Cultural Estrangement

Bigotry, racism, and othering are concepts that Filipinos/as are unfortunately

familiar with, especially in America. What is unfortunate are the ways these horrible

oppressive forces have shaped Filipinos/as and their survival mechanisms survive in

America. One of those impacts is cultural estrangement. Wenying Xu describes cultural

estrangement as “a shift of social norms and cultural allegiance in efforts to erase ethnic

identification and in favor of assimilation, rendering ethnic practices ridiculous and

shameful” (Xu, 2008).

In other words, it's a change in identity and culture in order to “fit in” the

community you are a part of. Although this concept connects imperialism and

colonialism to the whitewashing of cultures, which has historically been experienced

through food, it is unfortunate that not much research has been done in documenting this

phenomenon. However, one psychological characteristic that could be attributed to

cultural estrangement through Filipino culinary experiences is the “crab mentality,”

which is when other Filipinos try to outdo, outshine, or surpass other another Filipino

person (David, 2011). The concept of a “crab mentality” supports cultural estrangement

in regards to erasing ethnic identification, despite being from the same cultural

background.

Deficit Mentality
 26

When examining the presence of Asian cuisine in America, it is evident that

Philippine cuisine is not on the forefront of the industry. As Mabalon writes of 1930s

Filipino chef experiences in on the West Coast,, these experiences allude to deficit

mentality influencing the beginnings of Filipina/o American cuisine due to cultural

estrangement. Wenying Xu describes deficit mentality as:

Class powerlessness engendered by class unconsciousness and subscription to the

myth of the American Dream drives the oppressed into masochism, with the
oppressed revealing themselves as solely responsible for their misfortune and
misery. (Xu, 2008)

This concept alludes to the Filipino American dual consciousness of maintaining

culture and socially surviving in America. This concept also helps frame how American

culture makes it extremely difficult for ethnic cultures to feel welcomed in their own

communities, let alone celebrate their own ethnic cuisine. Over time, marginalized

communities normalize notions of inferiority and their communities are vacuumed away

from the cities they are parts of. As traces of culinary culture begin to diminish, these

marginalized communities begin to disassociate from their culture completely.

Concluding Cultural Hegemony

After exploring examples of culinary cultural hegemony through the dual nature

of coercion and consent, culinary cultural hegemony can also be viewed

chronologically. This research highlights how culinary cultural hegemony must begin

with an understanding how indigenous precolonial culinary customs were colonized and

changed by Spanish colonization and the introduction of US imperialism. In relation to

colonization and imperialism, war becomes another context in which experiences of

culinary cultural hegemony are experienced and must be unpacked. Even after times of
 27

war, the literature reviewed shows how culinary cultural hegemony continues to stand the

test of time through waves of immigration.

After realizing how deeply rooted the grips and shadows of colonialism and

imperialism are embedded in today’s Philippine culture, I cycled through stages of

confusion, disheartenment, and indignation. But in order to eliminate cultural hegemony,

we must continue to develop lenses and languages that help us survive our indigenous

cultural ways, and in this sense, culinary foodways. We must reclaim our Cultural Wealth

through through the production of cultural food and foodways.

Cultural Wealth through Cultural Culinary Experiences

As discussed before, should we choose to ignore exploring how cultural

hegemony impacts us, we risk socially reproducing over-essentialized characteristics of

and adverse outlooks on cultural cuisines, the manipulation of ethnic culinary foodways

to a point of unrecognizability, and the extinction of indigenous culinary culture. To

combat the continuation of cultural hegemony within our communities, it is imperative

for communities of color to understand their indigenous culture, connect to it, and be able

to share it with the world.

This section will explore the concept of Critical Culinary Wealth through

perspectives of (1) approach and (2) application. For this research, the theories being

used to understand approaches to Culinary Cultural Wealth are: Community Cultural

Wealth, Decolonization, and Pinayism. I will also explore the following applications of

Culinary Cultural Wealth: Food Justice, Decolonized Diet, and Rescue Kitchens.

Community Cultural Wealth

 28

Tara Yosso (2004) defines Community Cultural Wealth as the array of cultural

knowledge, skills, abilities and contacts possessed by socially marginalized groups that

often go unrecognized and unacknowledged to survive and resist macro and micro-forms

of oppression. Yosso’s framework of Community Cultural Wealth takes into account the

cultural suppression of socially marginalized groups and centers them as possessing

qualities and traits of transformational resistance to oppression. Referring back to

Professor Daniel Phil Gonzales’ quote, “well-documented” histories are typically

Eurocentric and portray marginalized cultures as subordinate to white cultures. Yosso’s

framework aims to erase this illusion and bring light to the valuable qualities,

characteristics, and histories of resistance marginalized communities inherently carry.

When examining this framework with a culinary perspective, various aspects of

cultural foodways can be classified into any one of the six types of capital. Below is

Yosso’s diagram of Community Cultural Wealth adapted from Melvin Oliver and

Thomas Shapiro:

Figure 1
 29

Communities of Color nurture cultural wealth through at least 6 forms of capital

such as aspirational, navigational, social, linguistic, familial, and resistant capital.
These various forms of capital are not mutually exclusive or static, but rather are
dynamic processes that build on one another as part of community cultural
wealth. (Yosso, 2005)

Aspirational Capital can be perceived as the imparted values of hope and

resilience, especially in the face of unequal and unfavorable circumstances. “This

resiliency is evidenced in those who allow themselves and their children to dream of

possibilities beyond their present circumstances, often without the objective means to

attain those goals” (Yosso, 2005). Thus, the desire to share cultural culinary experiences

and their histories in spaces where they are absent or misunderstood can be perceived as

Aspirational Capital

Navigational Capital are “skills of maneuvering through social institutions; the

ability to maneuver through institutions not created with Communities of Color in mind”

(Yosso, 2005). The appropriate hindsight and demeanor to successfully share cultural

culinary experiences and histories, particularly in the culturally hegemonic fields of

literature, social media, and the restaurant industry can be seen as Navigational Capital.

Furthermore, this particular capital “acknowledges individual agency within institutional

constraints, but it also connects to social networks that facilitate community navigation

through places and spaces” (Yosso, 2005). Meaning, Navigational Capital is also the

ability to help others navigate these oppressive systems as well, which leads to the next

form of capital.

Social Capital is the network of relationships of which specialized and additional

resources then become available through. “These peer and other social contacts can
 30

provide both instrumental and emotional support to navigate through society’s

institutions” (Yosso, 2005). Thus, relationships between people who have the desire to

share similar cultural culinary experiences and histories can be interpreted as Social

Capital.

Linguistic Capital can be viewed as “the intellectual and social skills attained

through communication experiences in more than one language and/or style and

emphasizes the connections between racialized cultural history and language” (Yosso,

2005). In other words, the languages (verbal, financial literacy, government literacy) and

lenses (critical frameworks) we utilize to interpret, analyze, and engage the world. In

regards to cuisine, simple understandings such as specific heats to cook specific foods,

specific cooling temperatures to preserve specific foods, serving soup in a bowl, or even

eating with your hands (via particular cultural methods) could be considered forms of

Linguistic Capital. The appropriate languages and lenses used to share cultural culinary

experiences and histories can be viewed as Linguistic Capital.

Familial Capital can be understood as “cultural knowledges nurtured among

familia (kin) that carry a sense of community history, memory and cultural intuition. This

form of cultural wealth engages a commitment to community well being and expands the

concept of family to include a more broad understanding of kinship” (Yosso, 2005). In a

broader sense, Familial Capital is the set of values, perspectives, and goals shared

amongst “family” and is centered on the concept of community. The passing down of

“secret family recipes,” the Linguistic Capital of how they’re prepared, and the powerful

stories behind them are all examples of Familial Capital.

 31

Resistance Capital is defined as the “knowledges and skills fostered through

oppositional behavior that challenges inequality... grounded in the legacy of resistance to

subordination exhibited by Communities of Color” (Yosso, 2005). It can also be defined

as the ability to identify, analyze and deconstruct the inequalities in one’s community and

rooting action from that understanding. Examining with a culinary lens, the determination

to share cultural culinary experiences and histories in the face of and in response to

cultural hegemony, fostered particularly in Eurocentric culinary institutions would be an

example of Resistance Capital.

As explored, Communities of Culture have culinary experiences that can occur as

any of the six types of cultural capital. According to Yosso, there are at least six types of

capital; but extending her framework, I propose another type of wealth - Critical Culinary

Wealth. Critical Culinary Wealth is the set of knowledges and skills that promote well­

being, sustain livelihood, and foster a sense of community through a holistic diet.

Decolonization

In order to access Culinary Capital, it is essential to fully understand the

challenges that we face today, and the challenges our ancestors faced, in striving to do so.

Dr. E.J.R. David’s work on decolonization lays a framework to address our oppressions

by connecting the past, present, and future. According to David:

Decolonization is the process of reducing CM [colonial mentality] by critically

examining common feelings, attitudes, and behaviors that are indicative of CM
among Filipinos and Filipino Americans and tracing it back to Filipinos’
historical and contemporary experiences of oppression. (David, 2011)

David points out that our experiences of racial oppression didn’t just come about

recently, but are rooted in the same racial oppressions faced by our ancestors. In order to
 32

reduce our colonial mentality, we need to be able to connect the oppressions we

experience today to those of our ancestors:

Once oppressed individuals develop a realistic and accurate understanding of their

oppressed historical and contemporary experiences, then they may begin to
confront those oppressive social conditions, a concept called political liberation.
(David, 2011)

Essentially, as with any battle, it is most important to fully understand what one is

up against prior to engaging it. In this case, the battle would be for “political liberation”

and the enemy would be the “oppressive social conditions” hindering one from attaining

it. This is the framework this research embodies as it aims to eliminate cultural hegemony

through historical counter narratives of Filipino American kitchens.

Pinayism

Dr. Tintiangco-Cubales’ concept of Pinayism acknowledges the conventional

male-dominant Eurocentric epistemologies within education and strives to challenge

them by researching and utilizing repressed ways of thinking:

It is an individual and communal process of decolonization, humanization, self-

determination, and relationship building, ultimately moving toward
liberation....Pinayism draws from a potpourri of theories and philosophies,
including those that have been silenced and/or suppressed. (Tintiancgo-Cubales,
2009)

For this research, Pinayism will be explored as an approach to unveil and unlock

the Culinary Cultural Wealth within our communities. By means of documenting oral

histories of Philippine kitchens, the purpose of this approach is to humanize the

participants, allow them to educe what they view is relevant, and validate their

experiences with the hopes of sharing these narratives. According to Tintiangco-Cubales,

“Pinayist educators challenge dominant ideologies by presenting different ways of

 33

utilizing reproductive labor.. .Pinayist educators use their role as teachers to reproduce

people who choose to participate in transformational resistance” (2009).

It is no secret that the kitchen has historically been represented as a gendered

space of production where women are confined to, expected to be subservient, and

dehumanized if they act in contradiction. When culinary gender roles become

normalized, stories of the kitchen being a site of resistance unfortunately get omitted in

the process. Utilizing a Pinayist approach will help Philippine culinary communities

identify distinct challenges faced in order to overcome them and repressed narratives of

success in order to proclaim them. Validation of these Philippine culinary perspectives

and experiences will lead to the documentation into theories and philosophies, ultimately

becoming cultural culinary wealth for the community to share. However, the purpose for

using this approach is not solely for the production of culinary cultural wealth, but to

increase commitment in those who chose to take upon the great responsibility of educing

the culinary cultural wealth within our communities. Hopefully, the process of telling

their oral history in the kitchen will inspire participants to create the same type of safe

and critically dynamic space for other culinarians of color.

Decolonized Diet

A similar approach was taken in Luz Calvo & Catriona Esquivel’s Decolonize

Your Diet: Plant-Based Mexican-American Recipes for Health and Healing. The purpose

of their work, which is much more than just a vegan cookbook, was to convey that the

preparation of food can be an act of resistance (Calvo & Esquivel, 2015). Their recipes

are rooted in resistance as they were conjured up to fight the breast cancer Luz was
 34

battling, prior to writing the book. Through their research, they utilize indigenous,

Mexican plants which hold a variety of potential health benefits. Simultaneously, their

research uncovers the negative impacts of US-inherent ingredients on Mexican-American

culinary culture and health.

This concept assumes that the current food systems in America are unsustainable

to health and unsustainable in production. By understanding the context of how food and

foodways ways can be forms of resistance to normalized systems of oppression the

concept of a “decolonized diet” gives people of any ethnic background a way to identify

their cultural wealth through food and foodways. Thus, the retracing and preparing of

ancestral ingredients can be an act of decolonization in addition to holding nutritional

benefits. By introducing the concept of a “decolonized diet” to the interviewee, I hope to

document a collection of narratives explaining how the kitchen can be a site of resistance

for Filipino Americans. More so, these narratives will be documented with the purpose of

being a resource for building solidarity and supporting “food justice” through the kitchen.

Sites o f Community and Resistance - Rescue Kitchens & Food Justice

Looking at the idea of “food systems” from a more local perspective, the culinary

cultural wealth that comes out of these systems tend to present themselves in a more

relevant fashion. Meaning, by re-examining the concept of a “food system” as a

community, we start to understand how food and food production spaces can be more

responsive to our daily struggles. In her book excerpt, Linda Pierce Allen expands on this

idea of kitchens being more than a space of food production:

The very ideas of the kitchen as a purely domestic space is challenged by

Filipinas who rely on this space to engage in community building and facilitate
 35

the exchange of information. Almost every Filipino community activity takes

place through a communion over Filipino food; entailed in this communion is
ongoing conversation, including an acknowledgement (and recovery) of cultural
history and a dispersal of news significant to the community. The kitchen is
crucial for beginning stages of community development, as it provides the
opportunity to bridge regional differences. (Allen, 2012)

The problem Allen addresses in her article is the assumption that kitchens are

often reduced to spaces of reproductive labor and are not valued for their ability to foster

community building and culinary wealth. This concept directly addresses the concerns

the “crab mentality” experienced by Filipino Americans in the kitchen as it seeks to

embrace our pan-ethnic differences as opposed to using them to further divide us. Allen

highlights the centrality of food to Filipino culture, which is crucial as it supports the

linkage between culture, food, and culinary capital. Adding on to Allen’s concept of

Rescue Kitchens, I believe that these spaces are more than a place of salvation, but also a

site of resistance. However, authors Robert Gottlieb and Anupama Joshi connect this

local concept perception of kitchen communities to a larger global community in their

book, Food Justice:

Food justice is at once a local and global idea...It emphasizes food’s community
value rather than its commodity value.... At the same time, food justice is an
important entry point for other social movements and social justice groups that
have come to realize the critical place of food in the issues they seek to address.
(Gottlieb & Joshi, 2010)

Gottlieb & Joshi are pointing out the severe disproportionality of power in regards

to food systems and communities; and that communities have the right to cultivate their

own nutritious and sustainable food systems. Philippine cuisine has been heavily

impacted by the replacing of indigenous Philippine food systems, largely due to Spanish

colonialism, US imperialism, and US neoliberalism. “Food justice provides a set of

 36

stories and a different type of narrative that has been used as an important tool for

identifying strategies for change throughout the system, from farm to table” (Gottlieb &

Joshi, 2010). So this struggle to sustain one’s culinary culture is a linked oppression that

the Filipino American community shares with the rest of the world.

History and Practices of Filipina/o Cuisine

As mentioned before, there are multiple obstacles that Filipinas/os have faced,

and still face, in order to establish a means of culinarily sustaining our culture in

America. From Spanish colonialism, to US imperialism, to US neoliberalism, we

continue to uncover oppressive themes of Cultural Food Colonialism, Culinary

Multiculturalism, and Hemispheric Orientalism throughout Philippine American history.

However, we have also explored perspectives and approaches to combat these forms of

Cultural Hegemony. This section will categorize Philippine culinary narratives into three

parts: (1) Narratives of Filipina/o Chefs in the Philippines, (2) Narratives of Filipina/o

Immigrant Chefs in America, and (3) Narratives of Filipina/o American Chefs in

America. It is important to note that the analysis of the following narratives are in no way

to critique any particular cooking style, but rather an attempt to shine light on their

culinary purposes and perspectives of Philippine cuisine.

Narratives o f Filipino Chefs in the Philippines

To grasp a more indigenous perspective of Philippine cuisine, this section begins

by looking at the Narratives of Filipina/o Chefs who live and cook in the Philippines. The

main source being examined is Kulinarya: A Guidebook to Philippine Cuisine, which

contains recipes and perspectives regarding Philippine cuisine authored by six Filipina/o
 37

chefs. What I found interesting was the divergence in viewpoints particular chefs had

when grappling the issue of how to classify Philippine cuisine.

Chef Glenda Barretto, chair of the Kulinariya: A Guidebook to Philippine Cuisine

project, addresses in the Introduction the first challenge that the team (she and five other

chefs) faced when authoring this guidebook:

After much debate, the selected recipes were force-classified into courses— even
if Filipinos do not always serve meals by courses. This was done to make the
cuisine more understandable by international norms, and also to make menu
planning, whether for home or restaurant, easier. (Barretto, 2013)

Her statement above depicts the epic battle between indigenous tradition and

outsider ratification; an inner struggle that chefs representing cultural cuisines constantly

experience. Right off the bat, the reader is confronted with the dilemma that these chefs,

including myself, face regularly. Thoughtfully, Barretto informs the reader, as a

disclaimer if you will, that although the recipes have been altered to suit international

norms, they have also been tailored for others to experience and recreate for themselves.

But to expand on the notion of international norms, I believe her statement regarding the

recipes being “force-classified into courses” secretly gives the reader an idea as to whom

the international norms may be reflective of. In my own interpretation, I believe she is

referring to a Eurocentric and American set of norms for two reasons. First, she uses the

word forced, a term which can be implicative of US imperialism in the Philippines.

Second, she uses the word courses, a derivative of the European cuisine, which implies

that dishes are served separately in sequential order. However, prior to the presence of the

US in the Philippines, indigenous practices were to eat family or buffet style.

 38

Editor of the guidebook, Chef Miehaela Fenix, gives an alternative statement to

clarify a more accurate experience of Philippine cuisine in The Culinary History o f the

Philippines chapter of the guidebook:

Filipinos do not eat by courses, so the concept of the appetizer as known in the
West does not translate exactly. The traditional Filipino belief is that even small
tastings will ruin the appetite, rather than enhance it....Pulutan, the closest
translation of “appetizer,” is actually far closer in concept to Spanish tapas, small
tastings best washed down with alcoholic beverages. (Fenix, 2013)

Although Fenix is referring to the concept of pulutan, I believe she is also

edifying the reader of how the inner battle that cultural chefs face, as discussed before, is

linked to misconstruing traditional Philippine culinary experiences. Fenix’s comment on

Spanish tapas is indicative of the cultural influences manifesting in culinary food ways

due to Spanish colonization. I appreciate her comment regarding “the traditional Filipino

belief’ and how altering the way Philippine cuisine is traditionally experienced can

actually “ruin the appetite” as it requires consumers to think a little bit more critically

about Philippine cuisine.

Although the Philippines is currently an independent nation, the narratives above

allude to how significant the impact of colonialism and imperialism still have on chefs in

the Philippines and how they perceive their own cuisine. I am grateful that these chefs

from the Philippines have articulated a struggle which we cultural chefs in America

experience as well.

Narratives o f Filipina/o Immigrant Chefs in America

This next subsection examines narratives of Filipina/o immigrants who became,

or continued their career as chefs in America. Examining Philippine cuisine from this
 39

particular perspective inherently takes into account the initial experiences of Philippine

cuisine not being consumed in the Philippine, but on an outsiders’ land. In turn, this

internal battle, discussed before, transforms into interpersonal struggles and

accomplishments experienced by immigrant Filipina/o chefs.

Referring back to Dr. Dawn Mabalon’s essay, “As American as Jackrabbit

Adobo,” there were very powerful narratives of strength and resilience which resided

within the kitchen:

Filipinas/os turned to their family networks and kin and to fellow immigrants to
survive, constructing a social world and ethnic identity grounded in their
provincial ethnic and class identities and shaped by new cultural traditions borne
of the world they now inhabited. The unique Filipina/o American cuisine they
created was a powerful symbol of their collective struggle to survive despite
overwhelming odds. (Mabalon, 2013)

As discussed in the Introduction, Mabalon’s research shows that in this unique

experience of the Philippine American diaspora, Philippine immigrants were culturally

starved yet had the strength to survive significant aspects of their indigenous cultural

wealth in a land which never wanted them to. The concept of kitchens being a site of

resistance are seen when these spaces allow for communal healing and rebuilding.

The last narratives of Philippine Immigrant Chefs in America being examined are

those of Chef Romy Dorotan and Chef Amy Besa. Their perspectives are drawn from the

book Memories of a Philippine Kitchen, which was examined in the Introduction:

To fully understand and appreciate Filipino food in context, one must consider the
importance of hospitality and generosity—two of the most universal aspects of
Filipino culture....Filipino food is also an expression of cultural passion and
pride. (Besa & Dorotan, 2012)
 40

Their perspectives draw directly into the very heart of this research; to show that

food is power. In a sense, they are highlighting distinct aspects of Philippine cuisine,

“hospitality and generosity,” which have no bearing on the food itself, yet are so crucial

to the Philippine culinary experience. It is in this Philippine culinary experience in which

Chef Romy embodies and takes pride, as I have experienced firsthand.

Narratives o f Filipina/o Chefs in America

Although the two previous subsections refer to the constant tensions cultural chefs

face, this final subsection highlights Narratives o f Filipina/o American Chefs in America

and focuses on their perspectives regarding replenishing and reproducing cultural wealth

through Philippine foodways. Marvin Gapultos recounts vivid examples of how he

replenishes and reproduces his cultural wealth in his book, The Adobo Road Cookbook.

When phone calls weren’t enough, I found myself in the kitchens of my mom, my
grandmother, and my aunties, learning alongside the women of my family who,
combined, have hundreds of years of experiences honing and perfecting our clan’s
specific recipes... .Filipino food can be more than simply “trendy”— it is an
incredibly diverse and complex cuisine with a multitude of indigenous variations
and global influences (Gapultos, 2013)

The example above is a familiar experience for many Filipina/o Americans who

have taken on the mantle of surviving their family recipes. He expresses how the

matriarchies in his family accumulate centuries of cultural wealth, which he regularly

seeks guidance from. His desire to survive his family recipes exemplifies how kitchens

are still a site of resistance today, for survival is a form of resistance. The last message

Gapultos tries to convey in his narrative above is that Philippine cuisine demands a

critical perspective in order to experience beyond an outsider’s description of a trendy

bite. “Above all else, Filipino food is largely shaped by individual family traditions and
 41

customs. The same dish made in one household will greatly differ from that of the

household next door. It is this diversity that makes Filipino cuisine so wonderful”

(Gapultos, 2013).

The final narrative source, Beyond Authenticity by Martin Manalansan, examines

ways Filipina/o American chefs interpret Philippine culture and one of the biggest issues

faced when reproducing that cultural wealth in the kitchen:

Authenticity, whether it applies to people, food, or other experiences, pivots on

the notion of origin or roots.. .authenticity thrives on the idea of the essence and
purity of origins and selfhood that are conventionally understood as unchanging
or static.. ..There is nothing inherent in the food that make it “authentic”; rather,
authenticity emerges from the shifting standards, conventions, cultural and class
backgrounds of the person authenticating the phenomenon at hand.
(Manalansan, 2013)

Manalansan explains how counter-intuitiveness the concept of authenticity can be

when being used to describe food, especially any ethnic food. If culture is to be

understood as dynamic, then essentially there are endless varieties in regards to what is

considered authentic. I believe his narrative above cautions using the terms authentic and

authenticity in regards to food due to its potential to be divisive. For example, my mother

has been making me adobo every week for my entire life, and has been making it the

same way since I was a child. I invite a friend over who too has eaten adobo for the

majority of his life, however, he says, “this is really good, but I don’t think this is

authentic adobo.”

In the Philippines, the cuisine is depicted by its region or province of origin

(Cebuano, Kapampangan, Visayan, etc.), each culinarily unique in their own way.

However, when being experienced in America, the taste of Philippine cuisine transforms
 42

into a beautiful hybridity of over 7,000 islands, in true Kapwa nature. In order to soak in

the true essence of Philippine cuisine in America, this aspect of Philippine cuisine cannot

be ignored when experienced.

Conclusion

Understanding why Philippine chefs experience certain challenges, or

achievements in America can hopefully lead to the validation of perspectives and thought

processes. The documentation of their narratives, theories and philosophies can be

identified as cultural wealth. By understanding the context of how food and foodways

ways can be forms of resistance to normalized systems of oppression, the concept of a

“decolonized diet” gives people of any ethnic background a way to reclaim their cultural

wealth through food and foodways.

This thesis insists that our communities should never underestimate the power in

feeding our families. Let’s not get lost and consumed in the clout of cultural hegemony

preventing us to do so. By unlocking our Critical Culinary Wealth, the power of food

becomes more valuable than any conventionally monetary perspective regarding it.
 43

Cultural Food Capital

Cultural Food Capital is the shared and relatable culinary experiences amongst

communities of color. It is also the knowledges of one’s culinary ancestral roots. It can be

seen as pride in one’s cultural cuisine. This chapter examines the Cultural Food Capital

of Filipina/o American chefs in the San Francisco Bay Area. Regarding this particular

regional experience, this chapter will look at culture, its relationship to food, and how is

food an example of shaping Cultural Food Capital through exploring the notions of

identity, home experiences, and out of home experiences. But to give a richer context to

the Philippine American narrative, I describe Cultural Food Capital using three prominent

aspects of the Filipina/o culinary experience: sawsawan, komunidad, and maasim.

Sawsawan

A literal translation of the word sawsawan would be “dipping sauce.” However,

within Philippine culture, various dipping sauces of pads (fish sauce), vinegar, calamansi

juice, chili peppers, soy sauce, garlic and other aromatics are a form of culinary

personalization. The ability to make one’s own dipping sauce offers complete control

over what you eat, some would say. While a social group partakes of the same dish, each

individual may come away with a different experience. This is how chef and writer

Michaela Fenix translates the Philippine concept of sawsawan. Building upon that idea,

the concept of sawsawan can also be used to portray the various Filipina/o culinary

identities within the US. We all have different styles of dishes, both here in America as

well as in the Philippines. This is inescapable in the Philippines, due to its archipelagic

nature, but in America, it is a different story. The following narratives of the five
 44

participants attest to the vibrant diversity that spans Philippine cuisine in the San

Francisco Bay Area.

Upon interviewing Chef Chel Gilla, I was frozen in awe as this was the first time I

had ever seen the founder of Tselogs, the premier silog powerhouse in San Francisco. In

her own words, she describes silogs as “a way of introducing non-Filipino to our

food.. ..if they see just beef, you know, egg oh I know that, oh rice oh I know that.

They’re like, “Ah it’s Filipino” (Chel Gilla). Essentially, silogs are a three part

combination of rice, fried eggs, and a protein that can range from cured sweet pork to

deep fried milkfish, both of which Chef Chel Gilla serves in her restaurants. Silogs are

categorized by the protein selected; tapsilog would refer to tapa (dried beef) served in the

form of a silog. Cleverly, the name of her restaurant is a phonetic twist on the word silog.

A huge draw for the Tselogs brand is the late night accessibility her restaurants

offer, satiating silog cravings until midnight on weekdays and 3AM on weekends.

Although her first location closed, she now successfully operates three Tselogs

restaurants, two in Daly City and one in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco.

I’ve been an avid Tselogs supporter since its first brick and mortar on Mission St. and

Templeton Ave., so the entire interview was an oblivious moment for me. However, in

the beginning of the interview, she appeared a bit fidgety. But then I realized that was just

an attribute of her sizzling personality. When asked about her first memory of Filipino

food, the sizzles simmer down for her to share the richness of why she opened Tselogs. In

Gilla’s family in the Philippines, the cooking was done mostly by household helpers,

called “kasama sa bahay.” In the United States, Gilla began missing certain foods. “How
 45

I came about building Tselogs is the frustration of not having the specific food that I am

looking for over here and it’s not available,” she said. “[I said,] If I could just open a

place in which it will provide the kind of Filipino food that I am accustomed to, it would

be great. And that specific dish is called tapsilog” (Chel Gilla).

The takeaway here is that Cultural Food Capital can still be possessed and

produced even if you or your family isn’t proficient in cooking. Which alludes to the idea

of food being more than just a bite. With the bubbling success of Tselogs, currently

operating three San Francisco locations, Chef Chel Gilla’s silog powerhouse is a

testament to the shared cravings of the communities she serves. Following up her

response, she eloquently describes the culinary variety characteristic to the Philippines

while maintaining pride for her own native style as she describes her tapa (dried beef),

and the sizzling reemerges:

Tapa from Ilocos or Pampanga or different parts of the country are so different
how we prepare it. And ours in particular, it’s either you love it or you hate it. We
serve our tapa sweet. It’s called Paranaque Tapa so we get a lot of hate from news
because of the tapa. But at the same time that's the tapa that I like. And If you
don’t like our tapa, build your own restaurant. I’m just kidding! (Chel Gilla)

Here, Chef Chel Gilla tastefully describes the inherent regional nature of the

Philippines influencing the culture of Philippine cuisine. Throughout our interview, she

spikes in emotion and simmers in sincerity, creating a trough-like rollercoaster of an

experience. As much as Chef Chel Gilla may have been joking about building your own

restaurant, that is a reality that Chef Jay-Ar Pugao faced when finding and providing

access to Filipina/o vegan cuisine in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has been laying

down the foundation of vegan Philippine cuisine in the San Francisco Bay Area since
 46

1998.1 remember the first time trying his food and laughing to myself at how convincing

the vegan meat substitute was, similar to how convincing his words are. When asking

Chef Jay-Ar Pugao how he preserves his understanding of Filipino food in America, the

smoothness of his responses become more and more indicative of his purpose as a chef.

For Pugao, the key to delicious Filipino food is in the sauce and seasonings, not in the

protein source.

“I mean, you know what I do right?!? Yeah, hahah Well I just say that because

even saying that I do Filipino vegan cuisine is an oxymoron in itself. So, how have I

preserved it? I mean, the Filipino sauces” he firmly claims. “I know how to do sauces

from scratch, because to me, that's what Filipino food is. It has always evolved region to

region. If you want to do adobo, you want it chicken adobo? do you want adobo

kangkong? Do you want eggplant adobo? What do you want? Right. Because it's the

sauce” (Jay-Ar Pugao).

Chef Jay-Ar Pugao’s response is another iteration of food being more than just a

bite. Highlighting of the “saucey” characteristic of hearty, and often times meat/seafood

based, Philippine dishes, he is able to broaden their accessibility to vegans and those with

dietary restrictions. In regards to our interview, there’s a particular Oakland swag that

rolls off Chef Jay-Ar Pugao’s tongue and fingers as he serves an unapologetic indignance

that is both creamy and sweet throughout his responses. Although there seems to have

been an overall boom in vegan cuisine throughout the San Francisco Bay Area for the

past five years, Chef Jay-Ar Pugao has been doing it for for over a decade prior to the
 47

boom. It is this unapologetic indignance which exemplifies pride in one’s cultural

cuisine.

Piggybacking off of this notion of pride, Chef Lee Opelina also exemplifies pride

in his cultural cuisine while developing a new iteration altogether. He is the executive

chef of Province SF, a series of Philippine influenced fine dining pop up dinners. Having

the privilege to sit in on one of his dinners, I was able to experience American ingredients

bursting with Filipino flavors; a sensation which he certainly aims to achieve in his

cooking. When asking where he sees himself in the expansion of Philippine cuisine in the

Bay Area, Chef Lee Opelina delivers a fresh perspective on how he is redefining

Philippine cuisine.

I think I’d like to see myself as just like a good restaurant as opposed to labeling
myself as just a Filipino restaurant. And yeah, I might get a little bit of flak from
that. You know especially with Filipino people saying my food doesn't typically
look like any normal Filipino dish. I mean you could look at any of my dishes and
it is not what you would normally see but I'm just trying to carve out my own
niche and my own style that I don't think other people are doing. So if I can take
Filipino cuisine say your normal Filipino food with it on one and you would have
liked American food on the other end. I want to be in the middle. (Lee Opelina)

It is amazing how he hosts these pop up dinners in his own home, however, it was

a long road getting to this point for Chef Lee Opelina. He started out at the Ritz Carlton

Dining Room in San Francisco working his way up with Chef Ron Siegel, who is now a

popular chef specializing in French cuisine. After five years there, he moved to Hawaii to

open up a restaurant called “Vintage Cave.” Upon moving back to California to pursue

his dream of opening up a Filipino restaurant, he returned to his previous restaurant

which has been rebranded as “Parallel 37.” Just within the past two years, he left Parallel

37 to focus all his efforts on Province SF.

 48

Chef Lee Opelina’s story of time investment is one all of the chefs interviewed

can identify with. Building off that understanding, Cultural Food Capital can manifest as

other forms of investment as well. The most obvious investment being in food. It is this

very principle of “investment in food” that I get to share with one of my culinary idols,

Executive Chef of Poleng Lounge, Tim Luym. After Poleng Lounge had closed down, he

helped open a similar location in San Mateo called the Attic, where we held a surprise

celebration for my father’s 60th birthday. Although the Attic didn’t have all of the same

favorites that were served at Poleng Lounge, Chef Tim Luym openly accepted any

request I had (particularly the local butterfish ceviche in coconut cream). That was the

first time in my life, a chef, had done something specifically for me. In a way, my

accounts of meeting him were investments in my exploration of Filipino American

cuisine. Still shaking in disbelief as I’m interviewing him, Chef tim Luym recounts his

experiences as a child forming his culinary purpose with cool and soothing humility:

They [my parents] always had an emphasis on if it’s anything that you put into
your body, and we needed money for it, they’d always be happy to support that.
Whether it’s food, or just things for the health. Not material things but things for
investing in your body. As a kid sometimes you don’t understand the value. The
reason I’m saying that is because I think that helped build the foundation of how I
got to where I got to. (Tim Luym)

Chef Tim Luym is now the Executive Chef of Buffalo Theory located in the Polk

Gulch neighborhood of San Francisco. Before that, he was the Consultant Chef at The

Attic, a reiteration of Poleng Lounge (unfortunately closed). On the bright side, The Attic

is still operating to this day and Chef Tim Luym still keeps close ties with them. At some

point during the interview, both Chef Tim Luym and I had a coincidental revelation; we
 49

both went to the same high school-Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose,

California. At that moment, I was flooded with pure disbelief.

He was my first culinary role model, but realizing that we also shared similar

experiences throughout our upbringing gave me hope in continuing to pursue my culinary

endeavors. Born in Manila, and of Chinese and Philippine descent, his family migrated to

the US when he was 3 years old for work opportunities and a better education system,

especially during the 80’s. Chef Tim Luym grew up all throughout the Bay Area, initially

in San Francisco, then San Mateo, and then Palo Alto. However, he spent his initial high

school years in the Philippines, first attending a school in Cebu, then transferring to

another in Manila. Eventually, he ended back in San Jose, California where he finished

high school and completed college.

This notion of sharing similar experiences is a form a Cultural Food Capital as

shared experiences centered at the crux of any culture. Tying back to the initial sawsawan

example of possessing Cultural Food Capital regardless of one’s experience with their

cultural food, Chef Aileen Suzara also shares this similar experience. Growing up, she

experienced drastic environmental changes and didn’t eat much home cooked Filipino

food. She was born in Washington, then lived in the Mojave Desert for a short period of

time, but spent the majority of her childhood in Hawaii. Now living in Oakland,

California, her admiration and soulful imagination in culinary exploration have

developed into her very own pop up series called “Sariwa,” which specializes in seed to

table Philippine cuisine. Upon asking her to tell me a story regarding her first experience
 50

with Filipino food, Chef Aileen Suzara recounts her earliest memory of food, in general,

with her bright and bubbly demeanor.

I remember being 4, and eating bbq chicken in Houston, sitting on a miniature

lifeguard chair... .Often people love to talk about learning from their lola or kinda
having these traditions passed on but I always felt that my first connection to
filipino cuisine was through filipinized processed american foods. Through the
corn beef, the spam, the vienna sausages. A love of microwaves in our household.
(Aileen Suzara)

Chef Aileen Suzara’s connection is one many Filipina/o Americans can relate to.

Physically being in America means that you won’t have access to everything that was

available in the Philippines. That is an issue Filipina/o Americans have faced upon first

touching this land. In a sense, the pairing of American microwaves and Filipina/o cuisine

is connection that speaks volumes to the experiences that Filipino Americans have as

they consume their cuisine in public America. It goes back to the concept of Cultural

Food Colonialism. Microwaves were never used in the Philippines and the cuisines there

never really depended on them, as they were an American invention. However, their

emergence have certainly impacted Philippine foodway, and in some cases, erased

indigenous foodways. Which is why Filipino Americans take pride in their dishes,

regardless of not having all the exact ingredients that were used in the Philippines,

because it is a way of maintaining our identity.

Growing up in the suburbs of Santa Clara, it was easy for Filipina/o families to

lose track of indigenous foodways and cravings for them. American food chains like

McDonald’s and Chili’s were all around my neighborhood, however, my parents rarely

took me to them. One time I saw a commercial for Red Robin and asked my mother if we

could go, to which she scolded me for even asking. It’s not like there were any around the
 51

Bay Area during the 1990s-2010s. But when I found out that they sold “endless french

fries” at their chains, part of me felt that was the reason she kept me away from American

chain restaurants in altogether. To keep me away from the unnecessary things in life that

may cause me to forget my cultural roots, regardless of their luring sirens and easy

accessibility.

Santa Clara is right in the heart of Silicon Valley, primarily what this city is

known for. The tech-culture that started here has now spread across the entire Bay Area. I

bring this up because there is a culture that is a spreading across the Bay Area that is just

as important, the Filipino American culinary culture. It was during the early 2000s that

more and more Filipino Americans started critically thinking about Filipina/o cuisine and

developed alternatively purposeful perspectives about it. A lot of these perspectives are

centered around the concept that food is power as control over what you eat impacts your

identity formation.

Komunidad

The term komunidad in Tagalog directly translates to “community;” both of

which are terms I use to describe my cooking philosophy. In describing what Filipino

cuisine is, Chef Michaela Fenix descriptions of sourness (maasim), saw saw an, and family

style (komunidad) are the guiding themes for understanding Cultural Food Capital.

However, it was difficult to identify a direct translation of the term “family style” without

losing the cultural meaning of the term, as with any culture to culture translation.

Through this reflective process, I thought it would be appropriate to use the term

komunidad to depict the commonality, among family, friends and neighbors to grow,
 52

harvest, cook, and share food with one another in the Philippines, as described by Chef

Michaela Fenix in Kulinarya: A Guidebook to Philippine Cuisine.

One place we can look back at for Cultural Food Capital in the form of

komunidad is our memories of what we ate growing up. I was blessed to have a mother

who was thoughtful and practical in the kitchen. I was probably an asshole kid growing

up that complained about food a lot, but as I reflect with a more critical lense, I can only

remember the endless variety of Philippine dishes my mom would make almost every

day. To this day, it mind-boggles me how she and many other families continue to put

Philippine food on the family table on a daily basis, with all the exhaustingly time

consuming processes, and still have time for themselves. Because of the extensive prep

work needed in Philippine cuisine, it is understandable how certain dishes include a

variety of different ingredients.

Soaking deeper into the concept of family style and experiences of Cultural Food

Capital at home, it is important to recognize that komunidad can be experienced in a

variety of ways. When asked how he knew what Filipino food was, Chef Jay-Ar Pugao

uses his community to describe the experience:

It was always just food. Whether it’s waking up to sinigang to eat, fried rice, or
fish and eggs. To me that was just regular when I grew up. Coming home after
school and eating afritada or kare-kare or something my mom just cooked to me
was like cool. I would even invite friends from my class to just come home and
eat with me, which they did. That’s just what it was. (Jay-Ar Pugao)

Bom in the Philippines, Chef Jay-Ar Pugao immigrated to the US when he was

six years old, and has resided in Oakland, California ever since. Keeping it real, in saucy

fashion, he explains how he never really identified with a Filipino community growing up
 53

because there were primarily Blacks and Browns (Latinas/os) in his neighborhood. Chef

Jay-Ar Pugao laughs as he describes his friends scarfing down his mom’s food without

even knowing it was Philippine cuisine. His experience is an example of how cultural

food isn’t just for the people of that culture, but for people from all communities. This

pride that Jay-Ar Pugao has is a form of Cultural Food Capital for as long as he carries it

and shares it with others. What is also significant about this story are the shared

experiences he had with his Black and Brown friends surrounding Filipino food as well,

through which solidarity is built.

Another participant who experienced a temperature shocking change at a young

age is Chef Aileen Suzara. The move from the Mojave Desert to Hawaii at the age of

eight certainly impacted her experiences with Filipino food at home. It was difficult for

me to imagine any sort of “life” out in the Mojave Desert. However, Chef Aileen

Suzara’s lively recollection of her childhood certainly reshaped how I identify and

appreciate life, particularly in the most unseeming of places. Luckily, for her sake, this

move gave Chef Aileen Suzara the chance to completely submerge herself into a world of

culinary accessibility:

When we later moved to Hawaii, that was a chance to be in that topical ecosystem
where there's layers of culture. You have agriculture side by side. I mean you still
have the industrialized processed foods but you also have foods that very much
resonate with island living. And so that's when I think it started to become more
alive on a day to day sense. Yeah. (Aileen Suzara)

The fact that Chef Aileen Suzara maintains such a strong hold of her Cultural

Food Capital through her connection to processed Filipino foods, yet continues to push

forward with seed to table Filipino foodways is just a mere reflection of the dynamic
 54

individual she is, both in her craft as well as in person. Her optimism is evident as she

celebrates the opportunity to draw resources from multiple communities. Another chef

who began his craft at a young age is Chef Tim Luym. He describes a warm, heartfelt

taste of his role in the kitchen and the lessons he took away from his mother:

My chore was being the rice boy so I had to clean the rice and wash the rice and
make sure there was enough for the family for dinners. I’d always be in the
kitchen just helping my mom out because my brother would be out with his
friends and my sister had her own thing. I was always around the kitchen (Tim
Luym)

“Even when we’d eat Top Ramen growing up, my mom would only use lA of the

packet and she’d add chicken breast and vegetables in there” Luym said. “There were

always these subtle things where she cared about food and what we were eating.” Chef

Tim Luym’s ability to retain values imparted by his mother and instill them in his

cooking philosophy is just another example of Cultural Food Capital as he is able to share

those values with his various cooking staffs throughout his culinary career. For Chef Tim

Luym, investment in food is a value which constantly resurfaces throughout his

interview. On the notion of values, Chef Jay-Ar Pugao highlights the importance of color

and its connection to nutritional value. When asked about Filipino table spreads, he

responds with a boldness that sears a connection between health, presentation, and

culture.“Table spread for family dinners and parties make up Philippine culture. Just

cause we take meat out of the equation doesn’t mean it’s not Filipino, cause when you

talk Filipino culture, I’ll dress a table!” he boasts! “That's what we do. If it looks

gorgeous and it looks nice, that’s because I want you to enjoy it too.” To elaborate on

how he dresses up tables, he articulates how color plays a significant role:

 55

Color is actually nutritional balance. When you think about, we should add some
greens, that’s because your body wants you to eat some greens. It makes you want
to pop out. If you think you want some reds, it’s because your body is requiring
the nutrition that’s in an bell pepper. When it comes to dressing a table, you let
your eye lead you let your color lead you, but bring some balance to it. (Jay-Ar
Pugao)

Chef Jay-Ar Pugao expresses how he maintains this cooking philosophy even

when it’s just his immediate family at home. His recount of what he ate the week before

this interview begins with a bistek made from soy protein, to which he adds green beans

to add a little color to the dish. His wife then makes a salad to add to the table, which all

together, works to bring both visual and nutritional balance to their family meal. Another

participant who shares the same passion for culinary presentation is Chef Chel Gilla.

Although she didn’t cook much during her childhood in the Philippines, that didn’t stop

her from enjoying and soaking up all the culinary ancestral roots she could, whether it

came time for big family fiestas or just a family dinner:

In the Philippines, we get excited with the company. Growing up, we cannot eat
unless everyone’s on the table. It's kinda like a feast with the company of people
that you love, your family. However, if you go to a party, that’s a completely
different thing. They present it in a way where it's festive, it's colorful. It’s
inviting. And it looks expensive.

When describing vibrancy of the presentation, Gilla expresses how “they actually

have special plates for parties, we don’t use that. It’s up there. And we only use it once a

year. How come all our guests get to enjoy it, but not us?” she frustratingly questions.

“Presentation is not important when it's just us, but when it comes to other people, I guess

it's a Filipino thing that you want to please other people” (Chel Gilla). During our

interview, Chef Chel Gilla and I discussed the concepts of home, humbleness, and

hospitality, particularly in Philippine culinary culture, and how they are ways of
 56

maintaining knowledges of ancestral roots, pride for those roots, and a means of sharing

them. Through our adding back and forth, our mixed topic discussion developed into a

shared understanding of Filipino food. A mixture which can be described as a salted duck

egg salad with chopped tomatoes and freshly squeezed calamansi. Each a prominent

component of komunidad, yet seamlessly balancing and complementing the other

components throughout this beautiful dish experienced as the Philippine American

culinary culture.

Maasim

The process of how we describe or label food is a challenge that will forever be

both liberating and frustrating, for what can be restorative for one can be an ignorant

opportunity for another. I’m referring to the pride one feels when they see a Pinay, Chef

Charleen Caabay, win the “Chopped” competition on The Food Network, but also see

Bobby Flay and other chefs carelessly misuse their white privilege to culturally

appropriate any ethnic cuisine with no repercussions on that same network. However,

when Filipino Americans experience their cuisine outside of their homes they often face

sour ordeal.

The technical translation of the word maasim is “sour,” however, Doreen

Fernandez describes the concept as “binding, flavor to flavor, undertones to accents,

sweetness to sourness” (1994). Regardless of the ill proportioned, uncalled for, and sour

challenges we Filipinas/os constantly face upon stepping outside our “family style”

spaces in America, there is still a distinct sweetness in the sourness which we will never

escape. As it is so wholeheartedly embraced in Philippine culture, our ability to celebrate

 57

our sour moments becomes a form of Cultural Food Capital. Chef Michaela Fenix

describes this counterpoint of sour and sweet, or sour and salty, as a distinct characteristic

of the way Filipinos eat. But in America, maasim also characterises our culinary

experiences

I loved Philippine food when I was at home, but I hated it when I wasn’t at home.

When I say home, I’m referring to the safe spaces where I know I can eat a proper

Philippine meal and not have to look over my shoulder for the judgemental eyes of

people who just don’t get how I eat my food. With my hands! Many other Filipinas/os

have experienced various forms of cultural estrangement in America, the feeling of

having to change your ways to fit into the society around you, whether it be in school or

at work. Upon asking to recall his first memory of Filipino food, Chef Jay-Ar Pugao

describes how the culinary vibrance his family celebrates at home turned into sour

experiences at his mother’s workplace. He stirs up a solemn pot as he remembers first

identifying Filipino food with a sense of shame and being made fun of:

I’m like, oh, my food smells in my mom’s work place. I get it, we eat fish and
we’re not ashamed of it. When my mom goes to work and she puts it in the
microwave, then she gets ridiculed and that’s the stuff I remember. Where I’m
like, oh, is this not cool? Is this not cool to have and eat in public? I think there’s
a little bit of shaming around it. (Jay-Ar Pugao)

Despite the sour encounters faced at work, they had no bearing on the pride Chef

Jay-Ar Pugao’s family had in their cuisine, which is another example of Cultural Food

Capital. Speaking of workplaces, the kitchen is where cultural chefs often respond to ill

proportioned, uncalled for, and unsavory challenges from the outside world. One person

who constantly mangles with these challenges is Chef Lee Opelina. With his focus on
 58

fine dining influenced by Philippine cuisine, it’s easy to see why the notion of

“authenticity” is inescapable. However, when asked about how he engages with the term,

he crisply responds with dollops of reasonability:

But you know for someone to say that my food's not authentic, like I'm putting all
these hours trying to produce it. I think it's authentic to me. I'm not pouring out a
packet of Knorr sinigang powder or anything like that. I'm actually producing
something. I'm not buying pan de sal from a bakery and posing it as mine or like
I'm not doing a technique or a dish that I saw someone else do and passing it off
as my own. You know what I mean? As far as that, to me I think my food is 100
percent authentic. (Lee Opelina)

Granted he exudes a welcoming demeanor, there is no mistake in the sharpness in

Chef Lee Opelina’s voice when he explains what he is trying to do with his technique-

driven cuisine. Continuing on the complexity of Filipino food, Chef Chel Gilla jumps out

of her seat and slams her hand on the table when connecting attitudes toward Filipina/o

cuisine in relation to the time consuming effort required to prepare it:

Our food is really super complicated and how we prepare our food is intense. And
Filipinos expect it to be cheap. The profit margin for Filipino restaurant is very
tiny. I mean, I’m sure you’ve cooked right? How long do we prepare the kare-
kare! And then you sell it and a Filipino would expect, “Oh that’s only $ 8 .1 can
make it better.” I’m like, there’s no respect there. (Chel Gilla)

Chef Chel Gilla describes an example of how Filipinas/os in America are more

inclined to socially reproduce sour impressions than to celebrate sweet memories out in

public “safe” spaces like Filipino restaurants. However, her sweet and joyous attitude

regarding the kitchen, and life in general, reminded me to remember the deliciously

exciting experiences I had when I was a child lining up at the Goldilocks on Aborn Road

in San Jose, California.

 59

My earliest memories of turo turo restaurants, like Goldilocks, were spent looking

up at the steam rise from the hot pans. However, it was also during this time that

restaurants like these were looked down upon and had a reputation for being cheap or

greasy. I wasn’t tall enough to see what dishes were available, but I remember anxiously

to to get carried so I could see what were in the piping hot pans. I am not alone on this

hotpan craving. Chef Tim Luym describes a similar experience of anticipation for turo

turo restaurants and how how the food has probably “been stewing there for hopefully 3

days, I don’t know how old it is, it’ll probably taste better, and as these dishes stew in

these hot boxes, they just get better and better. Let’s celebrate that” (Tim Luym).

Tim Luym is right in that we should celebrate the turo turo aspect of our culture

as he shows his respect for all forms of Filipino food. It is important to respect the power

that these restaurants have in providing safe spaces to celebrate our culture. As Philippine

cuisine evolves in America, we must remember to respect the spaces that allowed us to

experience our culture during a time when it wasn’t really understood or accepted in

society. We are currently living in a time where Filipina/o cuisine is becoming more and

more palatable to outsiders and I am thankful for turo turo restaurants for creating the

foundation for our generation and future generations to do so.

Dialing back to experiencing Filipino food outside of one’s home, the following

narratives of Chef Aileen Suzara and Chef Chel Gilla display a brilliant perspective of

experiencing a diasporic return through Philippine cuisine. Although born and raised on

different sides of the world, they were both able to rediscover a particularly sweet

connection with Filipino food through their culinary endeavors. Adding on to her
 60

experiences as a child, Chef Aileen Suzara recounts an exciting visit to the Philippines

which left her in awe and helped shape her culinary purpose:

As a kid I just ate everything. But that was the same year actually when the family
decided to go back to the Philippines. So you know in our home we were eating
kind of fast food Americanized Filipino food. In our homelife. And then, getting
to go back to the Philippines with family and their first time going back after 26
years. That just kind of poured in very early memories. You can kind of get
imprinted when you're a kid and I think. Just suddenly. Finding this vast world of
food and flavors and family, something that was a complete departure from living
in the Joshua Tree Desert. It was a world of contrasts. (Aileen Suzara)

Chef Aileen Suzara’s cultural blossoming following a first time visit to the

homeland is an experience people from all communities of color can empathize with. It

is memories like these and our ability to retain them that characterize what Cultural Food

Capital is. In contrast to Chef Aileen Suzara’s story, Chef Chel Gilla experienced the

juicy blossoming of an entrepreneurship after moving to America. After earning a B.A. in

Asian American Studies as SFSU, she worked at Merrill Lynch moving stocks and

bonds. However, she spikes the table again when recalling the restaurants she dined at

with her Merrill Lynch co-workers scrutinizing the miniature portions and their

ridiculous prices. It was experiences like this which impacted Chef Chel Gilla’s culinary

purpose as a chef. She then follows up telling how she got out of the stock market right

before it crashed, and if she hadn’t left when she did, she wouldn’t have been there

talking to me. Although she got to celebrate the sweet moment of escaping the crash, she

still had to encounter a few sour squirts upon first opening Tselogs:

And so I left Merrill Lynch, you know, and opened Tselogs. And a lot of people
were actually disappointed because I’m the first Filipino restaurant that opened
something, just making tselog as our main dish. And we don’t even serve kare-
kare, caldereta, those complicated dishes. Mostly, you know that tselog is
 61

something you get that from Gateway or Superstar. And they’re owned by
Chinese people. They see the strength in that. (Chel Gilla)

Referring back to the notion of shared experiences, silog restaurants throughout

San Francisco and Daly City were known as cheap, greasy spoons, which I'm sure carry

the same reputation in the Philippines and throughout Asia. These restaurants also

specialized in their personal servings for working class people on the go, as opposed to

restaurants which serve fiesta family style dishes, which certainly impact their reputation.

However, Gilla’s story also highlights the connection we share with the Chinese

community through our culinary foodways and emphasizes the power inherent with that

connection. Regardless of wherever they were born, raised, or had initially experienced

Philippine cuisine, these chefs confirm that the experience can be sour, sweet, exciting,

and even similar to other cultures. But any understanding of Cultural Food Capital should

involve understanding the history and relationship of any culture to the land it is

experienced on. Filipino Americans came through different pathways into the United

States. “There is a history of Filipino American cuisine that everyone in the diaspora, or

anyone who’s not Filipino, really needs to recognize as our social history, our food

history,” said Aileen Suzara. “It’s so linked to agriculture and migration and resistance”

(Aileen Suzara). As we become more in tuned with the land that we are on, Philippine

chefs in the Bay Area have developed alternative ways of celebrating and sustaining our

culture on this land. These new methods of sustaining our culture in America can be

viewed as Responsive Capital, explored in the following chapter.

 62

Responsive Capital

Responsive Capital is the hope and self-determination cultivated through the

production of one’s cultural cuisine. It is also the collectivism that communities of color

develop through culinary experiences. It can also be seen as actions that address negative

or inaccurate perceptions of one’s cultural cuisine. This chapter examines the Responsive

Capital of Filipinas/os in the San Francisco Bay Area. Regarding this particular regional

experience, this chapter will look at how care for our minds through learning about food,

our bodies through producing food, and our soul through sharing food.

Throughout this chapter, I use a mixture of Western philosophy and Eastern

dialect to to give a richer context to the Filipino American narrative. Although the terms I

use may not render an adequate translation acceptable to those of either Western or

Eastern descent, it is through the process of self-determination that I apply these terms to

my experiences and to this research, which I see myself a part of as well. The terms I use

to describe Cultural Food Capital are: Pagkainpara sa Ulo, Pagkainpara sa Katawan,

and Pagkain para sa Puso.

Again, I understand that the terms I’ve presented don’t necessarily provide a

translation that is phonetically or conceptually sufficient for either Western or Eastern

perspectives. But perhaps, it may be kind of translation needed for communities who find

themselves bridging multiple identities with no other translations to identify with. My

translations highlight the western concept of “holistic care” while using words from my

own indigenous language that carry specific meanings to me and the Filipino American

community. With the framework of holistic care, this chapter explores how food is used
 63

to nurse the mind, body, and soul through the experiences of Filipinas/o Chefs in the San

Francisco Bay Area. Alternatively, the narratives of these chefs also provide insight as to

how care can be provided through the head, hands, and heart.

Pagkain para sa Ulo

The phrase Pagkain para sa Ulo roughly translates as “food for head,” although

“food for thought” is the Western term from which the phrase is derived. In any case, this

section examines how the chefs interviewed exhibit care for the mind, head, or Ulo

through their culinary experiences and philosophies.

What better way to nourish the mind with culinary skills than by learning hands

on in an actual restaurant kitchen? Chef Chel Gilla takes this approach when training the

staff in her restaurants. She had the opportunity to work in the business sector of Jollibee

and was able to apply the skills she gained there to develop the Bay Area household

name, Tselogs. Her future goals still remain deeply tied to the kitchen, but now she is

focusing on being able to pass on both the skills in the kitchen as well as in the office to

the following generations to come.

To give Gilla’s story below a little context, the State of California currently does

not offer any culinary apprenticeship programs. However, she reflects on recently being

approached by a consultant from the California Department of Industrial Relations

regarding starting an apprenticeship program based within her Tselogs restaurants. She

joyously simmers upon the opportunity presented to her:

I see it as divine that I'm going to build this school. And I know that I need
probably fifteen, even 100 Tselogs, in order for me to accomplish that goal. And I
am blessed to have an amazing team of people that actually stayed with us and I
was able to retain them .... And I focus myself on really making someone advance
 64

and better themselves and things like that. And I’m glad I didn’t even like, you
know, I didn’t know that someone would just come up to us and say, “Hey, you
wanna have a school?” I’m like are you friggin kidding me? That’s why I’m here.
Like, come on! (Chel Gilla)

State funded apprenticeships in the kitchen are rare in America and don’t exist in

California yet. However, to see a Pinay pioneering this movement through Filipina/o

cuisine is truly groundbreaking and responsive. Gilla’s experience is an example of food

as power; the power to educate through food. This passing on of Philippine culinary

traditions through education of kitchen skills is certainly a form of power as well.

Another chef who is also educating the youth through farming and food ways is

Aileen Suzara. As mentioned before, Aileen Suzara didn’t eat much Philippine food

growing up. However, when she was eight years old and living in the Mojave Desert, she

stumbled upon a Philippine cookbook, Recipes o f the Philippines by Enriqueta David-

Perez, that changed her outlook on Filipino food for the rest of her life:

This cookbook was kind of like finding a book of magical recipes I had no
understanding of and I was just so intrigued as a kid. I brought this to my mom
and was like, “What is this book? What are these ingredients? What does this
become when it’s cooked? That just really sparked an early love and obsession
from my early age about trying to recapture something that I didn’t even know
yet. (Aileen Suzara)

I too have childhood memories of wanting to cook because of recipes I found in

my mother’s Philippine cookbook. Unfortunately I cannot recall the name of my

childhood Philippine cookbook, however, I remember scouring through my mother’s

drawers looking for that single cookbook, which was treated more like a binder, and held

handfuls of loose leaf papers with recipes written on them. Time and time again, I would

ask my mother if we could make a new dish that sounded cool and delicious. My
 65

experience, as well as Chef Aileen Suzara’s are examples of how recording histories,

cultures, and recipes can lead to inciting passion about something that hasn’t even been

experienced yet. This process of addressing our minds through culinary means can be

seen as Responsive Capital.

Continuing on the topic of feeling passion about something that hasn’t even been

experienced yet, Chef Tim Luym tells the story of how he used his “secret menu” at

Poleng Lounge as a two pronged fork. As a means of piquing interest in indigenous

Filipino food, his secret menu had white people in his restaurant looking over their

shoulders and asking their waiter which dish this or that was on the menu. On the other

prong of the fork, he was also providing a “family style” avenue for those enamored by

culinary experiences reminiscent of the Philippines. He recounts memories of white

people ordering the bagoong string beans off the secret menu because they saw others

ordering it, but refusing to try a bite after smelling it up close. Granted, he would

elegantly describe bagoong as a sauteed shrimp paste, the description wouldn’t prepare

any outsider for its robust aroma. It was “jedi mind tricks” like these, that Luym

ingrained throughout the descriptions on his menus to engage people with Filipino food.

Continuing on the story of his secret menu, he recalls the birth of his famous sizzling

sisig:

I wanted to use things that people are throwing away and show that these are the
delicacies. We’re doing the real sisig: pig’s head, a little more meat in there, had
the textures on the sizzling platter, offered it with the chicharones, the eggs. It’s a
secret menu. Then it would be a secret menu for homies ... We had certain things
on the secret menu like skewered gizzards, almost like yakitori. We started
skewering all kinds of stuff, chicken skin and stuff like that. We weren’t a yakitori
joint but this is stuff we eat in the Philippines too. We just grill it up. (Tim Luym)
 66

Chef Tim Luym cuisine is indicative of his exuberant personality, steaming with

addicting wholesomeness. I know this from over ten years of experiences enjoying his

cooking. In our interview, he described how he likes to play mind games with his

customers in the sense that he tactfully avoids using keywords that may trigger any

uneasiness when describing indigenous dishes which may not yet be palatable to lesser

informed Americans just yet. As he depicts the story of the sizzling sisig menu

description, I melt in another “aha moment” as I recall reading the very menu description

ten years ago. “We can’t put pork face on the description or people will freak out. So we

put pork medley. And only if people asked what the pork medley consisted of, would we

tell them what was in it.” This amazing ability Chef Tim Luym has, to maneuver

decisions of the mind of his customers, while simultaneously drawing them in with

curiosity, is an example of how cultural chefs care for the mind through culinary

foodways. By refraining from the negative aspects and highlighting positive aspects of

his culture, also this form of mental care becomes an example of Responsive Capital.

These chefs don’t just use their culinary skills to teach skills and cultural histories,

they also use it to impart the humanizing values they’ve learned along their journey. In a

sense, they all use the kitchen as a site of resistance to respond to the oppressions they

face in their own lives. Which in turn, creates a collectivist culture amongst Filipina/o

chefs within the San Francisco Bay Area.

Circling back to the discussion regarding Chef Chel Gilla’s future school, she

passionately describes the values which are already ingrained in the mentorship program

currently implemented and continuously refined at all three of her Tselogs locations:
 67

We’re already teaching financial management, time management, second

chance... .why would you teach second chance? If you show them grace, they’ll
show that to people also. If we hire another person that is hopeless they’d have
that compassion and become patient with them. The restaurant is about people, it's
teamwork, you can’t do it alone. It’s hard work. These essential things that make
your heart grow and expand and get inspired, we focus on that. (Chel Gilla)

Chef Chel Gilla’s drive for her future school thrives upon the understanding that

food IS power. During our interview, I brought up the phrase “food is power,” to which

she, once again, jumped out of her chair and slapped the table. “I like that and I will use

that! So I will definitely plagiarize and tell my people that....” Our lively discussion was

all in good fun, but reflecting back on our interview, Chef Chel Gilla and I really shared a

moment of collectivism upon realizing that we both have passions for food and

education. It is this kind of collectivism that allows individuals to develop stronger

relationships, particularly in a more responsive manner.

The bond which we developed just from our first encounter, the interview, is one

which we have built upon even after the interview process. In fact, this entire interview

process of collecting oral histories was my own form of self care and helped me

demystify and address a lot of the questions and concerns regarding Filipino food that

have been rattling in my head. Upon having those blank spots filled in my culinary

awareness, chills were constantly sent down my spine and raised through the hairs on my

forearms.

Pagkain para sa Katawan

Speaking of the the back and arms, the term Pagkain para sa Katawan translates

as “food for the body.” However, I’m also using the word body in the same way western

perspectives use the terms “student body” and “body of land.” This section focuses on the
 68

ways Filipina/o Chefs in the San Francisco Bay Area exhibit Responsive Capital

depicting examples of how they are responsive to physical bodies, as well as bodies of

people and bodies of land, through food.

How chefs actually produce and manifest experiences which they yearn can be

seen as Responsive Capital. This can range from the foods we choose to eat to the foods

we choose to cook, which takes into perspectives of both consumers and producers. A

reality that critics of Philippine cuisine need to come to grips with is that we are not in the

Philippines. Following up his response on the topic of authenticity, Lee Opelina sheds a

bright and searing light on the intersectionality of consumers, producers, and location:

That’s great to keep cooking authentic style, the food you can find on the islands.
You’ll get the flak from the people that are used to eating the food from the
Philippines and tasting someone else’s food that’s trying to replicate it, and I think
that’s kind of where you get the problem. Because they’re trying to replicate
something that they’re used to.

“What I’m trying to do and what a lot of people can do is try to develop a whole

different cuisine.” said Opelina. “It’s almost like Filipino-American cuisine. It’s

something totally different than what they would normally find in the Philippines.” (Lee

Opelina) Opelina’s perspective directly ties back to what Mabalon wrote regarding the

cuisine of the earliest Filipina/o immigrants, “the unique Filipina/o American cuisine they

created was a powerful symbol of their collective struggle to survive despite

overwhelming odds” (Mabalon, 2013), both attesting to Responsive Capital.

Within the San Francisco Bay Area, the Filipina/o community has largely

survived off of and depended on turo turo establishments, as mentioned before. However,

there is a disconnect in the transitioning of generations following the same

 69

footsteps....the exact same footsteps, which is perfectly fine. Unfortunately, our

community struggled when it came to supporting alternative styles of Filipina/o cuisine,

and this disconnection with community came from our disconnection with the land we

are on, a challenge which we still face today. Fortunately for the San Francisco Bay Area,

we have individuals in our community like Chef Aileen Suzara who are trying to rebuild

a connection to the land we are on through the production of Filipino food. Tracing back

to her seed to table approach, she explores the boundaries of tradition and survival as she

describes “adobo” being her favorite dish to cook.

I really appreciate it because of it’s versatility and because nobody agrees on i t ...
I’ve often heard the thing that “Everyone needs to standardize and kind of have a
can of Filipino food” and I don’t think we need to. Biodiversity exists in plants
and it can exist in our recipes. (Aileen Suzara)

Her take on adobo is indicative of her hope for Filipina/o cuisine in the future.

This hope involves substituting indigenous Philippine ingredients, which aren’t available

locally, with local ingredients that have similar properties and flavor profiles. This

process is one experienced by many cultural chefs in America and is also an example of

Responsive Capital. Taking the concept of substituting ingredients to another level,

nobody has been producing vegan Philippine cuisine longer than Chef Jay-Ar Pugao. Not

only does he respond to the health needs of the Filipina/o community in the San

Francisco Bay Area through his cooking. He also responds to the cultural needs of our

community addressing the fact that “we can eat good and nobody has to suffer.” What is

important to remember is how Filipina/o American cooking is particularly meat heavy as

opposed to cooking in the Philippine provinces, which is more about seafood, vegetables

and rice. So in a sense, vegan is actually going back to the indigenous diet, especially the
 70

diet of working people in the rural areas. Describing in detail his method of caring for

Philippine culture through his cuisine, Chef Jay-Ar Pugao dashes instructions left and

right on how he prepares his afritada:

I'm putting alternative proteins so when I do soy chicken afritada, The textures are
super similar. And some people don't even know, you treat it right you cut it right
you rip it apart. Make it look like chicken breast. Some people don't even know.
In my experience you know. But. It's vegan. It's soy protein. I mean so that's the
angle I took with it. But I'm preserving it because of the sauce. And to me you
know if I'm Filipino and I'm making this. No one can tell me that it's not Filipino
although many have tried. (Jay-Ar Pugao)

At this point, I’m slapping the desk like Chef Chel Gilla because I start to make

the connection as to how I had the opportunity to try No Worries food truck about three

years ago. My old apartment on the border of the Potrero/Mission neighborhoods in San

Francisco was directly across the street from the San Francisco General Hospital. Chef

Jay-Ar Pugao continues his story describing why that is one of his primary locations:

I bring the food truck to Kaiser in Richmond and to San Francisco General
Hospital. A huge reason why I go to those locations is a lot of their patients are
elderly Filipinos. They particularly ask for my truck to be there because a lot of
their patients are elderly Filipinos. That’s why I do it, it’s for us. (Jay-Ar Pugao)

It is amazing how Chef Jay-Ar Pugao’s vegan food business directly addresses the

health concerns of Filipino Americans, which are primarily linked to diabetes, high blood

pressure, and obesity. But his experience of developing vegan Philippine cuisine is just

another example of Responsive Capital. His endurance as a chef in this sector attests to a

hope that is intergenerational and culinarily intriguing as he has been laying down the

foundation of vegan Philippine cuisine in the Bay Area, CA since 1998.

In addition to how we care for our bodies, or our communities, Filipina/o Chefs in

the San Francisco Bay Area also keep in mind non-Filipino communities when given the
 71

opportunity to share that care. When describing how she narrowed her menu down to the

power house one-pager it is today, she simultaneously keeps in mind all of her potential

customers, Filipina/o or not:

And I interviewed a few restaurateurs, even before I opened Tselogs. That okay,
“What is your best seller?” So you know of course they all talk about kare-kare,
blah blah blah blah. I’m like okay but uh what else? And like, you know what,
forty percent of our profit is coming really from silogs. I’m cool with that. So I’m
like I’m gonna just focus on silogs. (Chel Gilla)

The inception of Tselogs was a response to the lack of accessibility to silogs

experienced by Chef Chel Gilla. But in true eclectic nature, she also expresses her

concerns about the accessibility of Filipino food to non-Filipinos as well. It is this culture

of collectivism that Chef Chel Gilla is trying to foster within her food, her kitchen, and

even her mentorship program. Her cultivation of safe havens through the kitchen space

can be viewed as an example of Responsive Capital.

Pagkain para sa Puso

The final term I use to describe Responsive Capital is Pagkain para sa Puso,

which translates to “food for the soul” in English. In America, I’ve heard variations of the

phrase. Particularly, in Black American culture, the term “soul food” is used to describe

the types of meals eaten on slave-based plantations for they were indeed hearty meals

needed to endure the brutal and inhumane conditions of slavery. As upsetting as this

history may be, it also reminds us that food is more than a bite. It gives us the power to

overcome the smallest chores to the most insurmountable challenges we face everyday,

both as children and as adults.

 72

Around the age of seven, my mother often read me stories from the book

“Chicken Soup for the Soul.” At the time, I knew they weren’t cookbooks, but they

helped me understand the concept of the soul, and that it was something that could be

nourished. Although the stories in the book never really had an emphasis on food, they

helped me understand how ingrained food is in the fabric of the unexplainable. Chef Tim

Luym describes this phenomena describing how the menu for Poleng Lounge came to be:

I just wanted bar bites and to have fun pika pika type stuff, pulutan type stuff.
Then it dawned on me that I think we should do something that’s closer to the
soul. Everyone says, ‘Do what your gut feeling tells you to do,’ so then it really
just became a simple menu of adobo wings and my favorite dishes I would like to
eat when I went out in the city [Manila]. (Tim Luym)

Chef Tim Luym’s experience refers to the soul as an internal inclination that some

would define as purpose. More so, this notion of inspiration coming from the “gut” is

indicative of the connection between food and the unexplainable. The ability to follow

one’s gut feeling, or soul, can be viewed as a form of Responsive Capital. However, in

addition to looking at the concept of soul from an individual standpoint, it can also be

viewed as an indescribable relationship between people and land. Aileen Suzara describes

this relationship in the work she is doing around the seed to community movement

through sharing Philippine cuisine:

There's sometimes this sort of elitist view of farm to table. It’s become sort of a
marker of Affluence. But For me, getting back to the roots of food is, it's not
about that social marker, it's something far more ancestral. So I think for me when
it comes to preservation is saying how can we. Eat more in tune with where we
are. Have a connection with farmers and not just a slogan. But really having a
relationship and finding out this Other History. (Aileen Suzara)

Chef Aileen Suzara’s collaborations with the Filipino/American Coalition for

Environmental Solidarity (FACES), the Sama Sama Cooperative, and the Asian Farmers
 73

Alliance are testaments to her what she is trying to do with Philippine cuisine. The

relationships she continues to build in this niche of seed to community are all examples

of Responsive Capital. Her ability to educate the youth on eco-sustainable farming skills

through Philippine cuisine shows how this type of Responsive Capital is also a form of

power.

Connecting back to the idea of caring for the soul, a participant who thoroughly

embodies this concept is Chef Jay-Ar Pugao. Throughout his interview, he is swift to give

particular details as to what he wants to experience when telling me a story. The same

applies when he prepares his Filipino vegan food for his customers. Referring to how the

No Worries food truck operates, he boldly describes his role in his mobile kitchen:

Quality Control! And that always means wipe it up, make sure the bell peppers
are on top. I always take care of the portions, everyone’s gotta get some red, like
3 bell peppers. It’s fast paced as a food truck but I always keep that in mind.
When you want adobo, it’s 8 pieces of the soy protein, it’s 6 pieces of the
eggplant, and 3 tomatoes on top because I want you to experience every bite just
the way I would. It’s always taken care of. We really put love into it. Because,
WE CARE. The flavor, hopefully that's the easy part. But we want to make sure
you have a really good experience. (Jay-Ar Pugao)

In Chef Jay-Ar Pugao’s eyes, quality control ensures care being put into every

single bite. In congruence with the other chefs, flavor is just an aspect of the entire

Philippine culinary experience. His determined responsiveness to his customers’ needs

allow them to experience a taste of his soul both through the food he prepares and the

interactions at the counter. Also in congruence with the other chefs interviewed, he loves

what he does in the culinary field.

This sentiment of doing what you love can be an extremely daunting undertaking

for any individual. In the United States, pursuit of a culinary career isn’t the first dream
 74

most parents have for their Filipina/o American children. As we grow up, people tend to

disassociate from the sentiment of doing what you love and gravitate towards more

economical or practical means of making money. However, Chef Chel Gilla, with her

gleaming gazes of hopefulness, depicts her rich and soulful life, regardless of living in a

trailer home which she is also grateful for:

And a lot of us would just rather be going to school, get paid, stable, comfortable,
and for me I mean. I don’t believe in living a comfortable life or a secure life. I
want to be free. I want to do what I love. Even if it’s difficult. I think that’s living.
And I think that's the heart of what I do. And food is an avenue and I love food. I
mean don’t get me wrong, along the way now I’m a really good cook. And it's
amazing because we're able to inspire most, if not all of our workers to become
passionate about food as well. (Chel Gilla)

Chef Chel Gilla beautifully describes what makes her heart tick in the kitchen.

The term puso refers to heart, but the stories of these chefs show that it also means so

much more. It’s a fiery sense of passion for cultural food that matches the temperature of

a broiling oven. It’s the loudly paced heartbeating chefs experience when trying to

execute a dish in a timely manner. It’s the preservation of ancestral foodways and the

connections we develop with sources of our ingredients. Sometimes, it’s simply just a gut

feeling.
 75

Resilient Capital

Resilient Capital is the maintenance of critical joy, amidst the endless experiences

of counteraction, throughout the exploration of one’s cultural cuisine. It is the risks taken

and sacrifices made to continue exploring one’s cultural cuisine. It can be seen as the

skills communities of color develop to preserve their cultural cuisines and change the

oppressive cultures around food. This chapter examines the Resilient Capital of Filipina/o

Americans in the San Francisco Bay Area. Regarding this particular regional experience,

this chapter will look at past experiences that have helped preserve cultural cuisine,

current mentalities that embody resilience in preserving cultural cuisine, and future plans

on building community through cultural cuisine.

In Chapter 3, the terms used to describe Critical Culinary Wealth were derived

from Chef Michaela Fenix’s description of Philippine Cuisine in Kulinarya: A Guidebook

to Philippine Cuisine. Reflecting upon that title, I paint the stories of Resilient Capital as

experienced by the participants with the three following terms: Kulinary Privilege,

Kulinary Babaylans, and Kulinary Kasamas. I could have used the word “culinary,”

however, I chose to use the word “Kulinary” because these narratives are centered around

the Filipina/o American experience. My interpretation of a mixed Filipino American

philosophy is incorporated throughout the descriptions of these Capitals.

Kulinary Privilege

Throughout my privileged experience of collecting their oral histories, these

Filipina/o Chefs exuded a hearty humility that allows them to continue their craft amidst

the pushbacks and cold shoulders. They have associated this humility to experiences of
 76

risk and sacrifice made in the kitchen, and these experiences act as capital that fuel their

culinary journeys. The process of humbleness through survival of setbacks is an example

of how critical joy is maintained. The acknowledgement of risks and sacrifices paying off

in future kitchens compliment these experiences being a form of Capital.

This idea of Resilient Capital as the risks and sacrifices endured for the

preservation of a cultural cuisine is not unique to Filipino Americans, but to most

immigrants surviving in America. Chef Chel Gilla is one of the three participants born in

the Philippines. However, of the three participants, she had the longest upbringing in the

Philippines and was the eldest upon first immigrating to the United States:

I come from you know a poor background and I believe that people need a second
chance. I think just coming to the states, because I grew up in the Philippines and
came here when I was 16, is already a chance. And for me, as a minority, a
woman, and not really speaking english when I first got here, I’m like oh my god
I’m like at a disadvantage. What do I do? I need to educate myself (Chel Gilla)

Her story highlights the unique relationship between the United States and the

Philippines. As a young adult, Chef Chel Gilla understood that it was a disadvantage in

America if you weren’t male, white, or fluent in English. Although she emphasizes the

challenges she underwent linked to this relationship, understanding her positionality

between these two nations helped her derive the self-determination to overcome those

challenges. After opening three locations throughout San Francisco and Daly City, Chef

Chel Gilla is living proof that the risks and sacrifices one makes in the pursuit of culinary

exploration can be perceived as empowering forms of Resilient Capital. When asked

about her current positionality in dynamics of Filipino American history, the foamy

humility in Chef Chel Gilla’s voice permeates my eardrums:

 77

I think living in the Bay Area is a privilege because we’re close to Asia, we have
a lot of Filipinos here, we are not having a hard time finding a distributor when it
comes to spices and products. I’m glad we have patis here. For example, I love
cooking salmon in gata, and you need patis with that. Salmon is not a popular fish
in the Philippines, not only that it's expensive. It's not available, and it's something
that the mass cannot afford. I actually never had salmon in the Philippines, I’ve
only had it here. That's Filipino American food for me. It’s making something
available here, but with the way we cook things and a little bit of twist, it's a
marriage of both cultures and ingredients. (Chel Gilla)

Poetic dollops of gratitude and self-determination continue to drop throughout our

interview, which could be found in the other interviews as well. Another emerging

indicator of Resilient Capital in their culinary narratives was the theme of redefining

Philippine cuisine through ownership of Filipina/o American culinary philosophies.

Attributed to this theme of redefining Filipina/o food is the ability to grow a culture of

individuals who understand and find self-determination through producing their

interpretation of Filipina/o cuisine. Refer back to creating new identity in Chapter 3,

referenced by Opelina, the narratives of turo turo restaurants tell of how these chefs

sustained a foundation for creating this new identity.

As mentioned in Chapter 3, the Filipina/o American culinary culture, throughout

the San Francisco Bay Area, has grown over the past twenty years. It would be foolish to

think that this growth isn’t a result of the sacrifices of parents and guardians who raised

the individuals spurring this growth. The interviewees, and myself included, tattoo to

these risks and sacrifices onto our culinary philosophes wearing them in the kitchen to

fuel our cultural resilience.

Examples of cultural Resilient Capital can be found when reflecting upon the

culinary decisions made by the loved ones who raised and fed us growing up. Chef Lee
 78

Opelina’s technical style of cooking is congruent to his experiences with Filipino food as

a child. When asked to tell a story about how he first experienced Filipino food, he

crisply describes the strength of his mother and how she embodied it in their family

kitchen:

She worked at least two jobs pretty much throughout my whole childhood. So
cooking at home wasn’t always something that she could do all the time. I have a
brother and sister, there's three of us in the house. And for my mom to help raise
us, I know she did some side jobs and things like that. And I know one of the
things was cook boxed lunches to bring to her work. And so she would make
these big giant pots of like pancit or something and then she would just put them
in the little styrofoam boxes and then she would take them and sell them. (Lee
Opelina)

Privileged to experience his version of kare kare, I remember him decorating the

plate with a roasted eggplant / balsamic vinegar puree in a large circle that connected all

the other separate, yet cared for, aspects in the dish. However, it was incredibly humbling

to hear Chef Lee Opelina connect his mother’s late nights of making chicken stock for

her Filipino boxed lunches to his own late nights preparing for Province SF dinners. This

labor, almost solely women's labor, of making food to sell has been critical to the survival

of families both here and in the Philippines. She's working several jobs PLUS her

catering side business. “The very ideas of the kitchen as a purely domestic space is

challenged by Filipinas” writes Allen. “To engage in community building and facilitate

the exchange of information” (Allen, 2012) has been the purpose of Rescue Kitchens, and

is clearly evident throughout the narratives regarding women in this research.

Another chef who invested close ties with his mother through the kitchen is Chef

Tim Luym. As a young adult, he made it a priority to keep family first, before his

multidimensional artistic endeavors. In celebratory manner, he describes the comparison

 79

of food to music, in regards to trends and marketability. More surprisingly, Luym

highlights the eerie similarities between the Food Network and MTV, specifically in

regards to culinary multiculturalism and video killing the radio star. He even mentions

how a restaurant critic’s review of Poleng Lounge saved the restaurant from the brink of

closing in its first year. He further elaborates on that kind of power occurring in the

American media culture and how it can also be detrimental. But when describing the

changes he unquestionably made in the kitchen to help support his mother, he serves a

warming description of how he resiliently began to carve his identity in America as a

young adult:

My mom had some health problems and so I couldn’t work the p.m. shifts
anymore. I got transferred to the a.m. shift but what was available in the a.m. was
baking and pastry. What ended up happening was I transferred to baking and
pastry so that evenings I’d have more family time. And I could supplement my
income also DJing in the evenings. (Tim Luym)

It was surprising to hear how Chef Tim Luym pursued a musical career while

simultaneously building his culinary repertoire. Along with Chef Chel Gilla

acknowledging herself as an artist and Chef Jay-Ar Pugao’s use of color to influence his

culinary decisions, these narratives attest to the artistic identities which these chefs foster

in addition to their culinary identities. To give more context to the alternative identities

chefs foster, Chef Aileen Suzara vibrantly shares the memory of how she refocused her

purpose in the culinary field:

Okay! I found out my lolo was actually going to be an agriculturalist before he

became a pilot. That was like one generation ago beyond my parents, like, so
close but so far, you know, from our day to day. That set me off in a direction
where I decided I didn't want to work in a restaurant. I wanted to learn how to
farm. So I did. I was very fortunate. It was a privilege for me. (Aileen Suzara)
 80

Chef Aileen Suzara radiates critical joy before even speaking a word. Regardless

of the moment, there is a sense of hopefulness that she knowingly emits when talking

about how we should engage Filipino food. I resonated with her craving for the culinary

joys within indigenous Philippine culture, regardless of its limited accessibility growing

up. Although there weren’t many Filipino restaurants in Santa Clara during my

childhood, I was still privileged to eat Filipino food almost every week thanks to the

efforts of my parents.

The extensive prep time needed for most Philippine dishes was touched on in

Chapter 3, however, I want to expand on that concept. I wasn’t affluent growing up, but

my parents were still able provide all the basic necessities their children would require,

and much more. Money was always tight, and often, I would only see my parents in the

evening. This was a testament to the long hours they both worked to take care of their

four children. I perceive this ability to simultaneously work and prepare Philippine food

for the family as a sacrifice that my parents made to ensure that I would still be connected

to and grateful for my cultural roots, regardless of where I was.

Kulinary Babaylans

Babaylans are regarded as Healers, Warriors, and Religious Leaders in indigenous

Philippine culture, and they are still evident today. Predominantly, these positions were

often held by women, which alludes to the herstory of indigenous matriarchies in the

Philippines. With full respect and reverence, I want to extend the concept of babaylans

into the kitchen space, as kitchens can be sites of healing and resistance. I use the term

babaylans to show that the emotionally rigorous work being done by these chefs in the
 81

kitchen can be healing. Which compels me to title this subsection Kulinary Babaylans,

defining Resilient Capital using the experiences of Filipina/o Chefs in the San Francisco

Bay Area.

With the understanding that the road ahead for most cultural chefs is incredibly

stressful and extremely unforgiving, a certain kind of Resilient Capital emerges through

weathering of this bumpy journey. The ability of chefs from communities of color to

exude critical joy throughout the endless bouts of doubt and disapproval can be identified

as Resilient Capital. For many Filipina/o Americans, the freedom to pursue any career

choice is seen a privilege. However, many Filipina/o American chefs in the San

Francisco Bay Area continue to face backlash from their families and friends who

thought that pursuing a culinary career would be a waste of that privilege. One chef who

gracefully discussed how she got through this was Chef Chel Gilla. She reflects upon

people questioning her pursuit of Tselogs during such a turbulent time in her life and how

she managed to get through it:

When my parents separated and I had to actually take care of both my mom and
my sister; my mom’s disabled. So imagine the hardship, but I’m only looking at
the potential. Like, man, I can do this. So make the long story short, I want to
make sure that those people that are interested to be in the industry have that
chance and opportunity. (Chel Gilla)

Chef Chel Gilla worked her way out of the poverty she experienced as a child and

committed herself to a life that enables others to experience the same self-determination

she does. Her culinary philosophy, structured throughout Tselogs and its mentorship

program, is an example of the Resilient Capital held by Kulinary Babaylans. Her story of
 82

supporting her family as well as the needs of her community, while instilling hope within

others is a gripping taste of what Kulinary Babaylans do.

Even the work Chef Jay-Ar Pugao does in the kitchen is physically healing and

his long time commitment to this work is indicative of his Resilient Capital as a Kulinary

Babaylan. Upon concluding our interview, I gave him the opportunity to share anything

we may not have cover, to which he soulfully depicts his attitudes toward his naysayers:

I think I’d like to touch on the fact that for a long time the Filipino community
really didn’t show me any love. Maybe not me, but No Worries. I think folks who
knew me knew I was in it for a bigger reason and they showed me love. People
showed me love, but when people saw No Worries, we would often get clowned
in the beginning. People would laugh at us. I later came to realize that was a
reflection of people’s own insecurities. Either afraid to try something new or not
wanting to detach from their old habits. And really.. ..It’s all, all good. It’s all
okay because I still do this and I’ve never been one to shun people. Like, if you
don’t want this, then don’t have it. Naw, If you don’t want this now, it’s okay.
Whenever you want, I’ll be right here. (Jay-Ar Pugao)

This phenomena of getting flak from one’s own community can be interpreted as

a form of “crab mentality,” and in a way, explains how that mentality can manifest. On

the contrary, Chef Jay-Ar Pugao’s poise to gracefully stride past those engaging him

counteraction is an example of maintaining critical joy. The ability of cultural chefs to

excel within their particular culinary niches maintaining critical joy can be seen as

Resilient Capital.

Despite the challenges the world may present, there is no escaping the inner

struggles we deal with on a personal basis. Unfortunately, our internal struggles are often

provoked by the oppressive confrontations we constantly experience and the unjust

institutions that seem impossible to change. Referring back to E.J.R. David’s concept of

Colonial Mentality, when the coercive systems become a never ending battle, it gets
 83

easier and easier to give up one’s culture, “just go with the flow” and subscribe to the “if

you can’t beat em, join em” type of thinking. When the will to resist these coercive

systems begin to fade, consent to these oppressive conditions arise, and a social

reproduction of consent primes the marginalized generations in the future to be confused

and conflicted about their identity and agency.

Chef Aileen Suzara’s work with Sama Sama Cooperative is an example of a

Kulinary Babaylan’s commitment to change the community’s culture around food.

Starting a cycle of resistance at a young age is an incredibly powerful way to develop a

strong foundation of critical perspectives. Not only does Chef Aileen Suzara teach her

students how to farm, she educates them on how food connects humans to one another.

When asked about why she cooks Filipino food, she brightly responds what she tries to

portray in her food:

Ultimately I came to Filipino food because I loved it personally, but then I

realized that there’s a bigger collective story that wanted to be told. The love of
agriculture, our land based traditions in the Philippines but also here in California
and even across the rest of the country; there’s such a relationship. I really want to
bring that to the front. (Aileen Suzara)

By means of transporting energies, herstories, and remedies through food, the

work of these Kulinary Babaylans embody the idea that food is much more than a bite.

This ability, to utilize food to skills in order to preserve cultural cuisines and change the

oppressive cultures around food, is the Resilient Capital of Kulinary Babaylans. Chef

Chel Gilla engrains her philosophies of how she embodies this form of Resilient Capital

just within the name of her restaurant. As she’s indignantly describing, and slamming the
 84

table, about how to enhance the culture of the Filipino food experience in America, she

so eloquently describes the meaning of her restaurant:

T.S.E.L.O.G.S. - To Show Excellence, Love, Outstanding Gratitude and Self

worth. So gratitude and self worth is kind of like, not against each other but you
have to always be grateful, always be grateful but at the same time if no one is
grateful, you have self worth. You don’t have to thank me, I know who I am. And
I think that’s what’s lacking. Sometimes Filipino, even Filipino American, it’s
both. It’s actually passed on. (Chel Gilla)

In an effort to stop this cycle of repressive thinking through critical culinary

explorations, Kulinary Babaylans like Aileen Suzara, Chel Gilla, Amy Besa, Michaela

Fenix, Dawn Mabalon, and even Jay-Ar Pugao continue to lay the foundation for

exploring cultural food and education, particularly in the San Francisco Bay Area. The

efforts of these Kulinary Babaylans, and others across the US, are examples of how chefs

can responsibly educate future generations of cultural foodways, critical culinary

perspectives, and ways of enhancing the cultural food experience in America.

Kulinary Kasamas

Within the San Francisco Bay Area, I’ve always understood the term Kasamas as

your friends, people you could mentally and emotionally see eye to eye with, or even

folks you’re comfortable hanging out with but don’t see often or at all. I’ve continued to

experience community based organizing and development ever since my culinary

awakening during my time at the University of San Francisco. My experience working

with the San Francisco Filipino community continues to inform my understanding of the

term Kasamas, and what that term could mean in the future.

As we are currently redefining what Filipino food is in America, just sharing this

particular passion in exploring Philippine cuisine can connect people to be Kulinary

 85

Kasamas. Upon concluding our interview, Chef Chel Gilla warmly thanked me for the

opportunity to share her story and mentioned to me, “Knowing the fact that you have the

passion and I share that with someone is such an encouragement,” she told me. We came

to an understanding that, regardless of our initial experiences with Filipino food, that we

can still share passions and future aspirations for Philippine cuisine in America.

Although I grew up in Santa Clara, CA, my food experiences with Philippine

cuisine have since expanded throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. After high school, I

moved out of Santa Clara, CA to attend the University of San Francisco. During my time

in college, I serendipitously met Chef Tim Luym for the first time at his old restaurant,

Poleng Lounge. It was such an emotional experience interviewing Chef Tim Luym,

because it felt as if I was coming full circle to the birthplace of my Philippine culinary

journey, nearly ten years ago. He recalls the story of working with one of his mentors,

Dominic Ainza, and how they were able to develop a sense of community with one

another through producing Philippine cuisine:

I was fortunate to work with one of my mentors, Dominic Ainza. He came from
Mercury. He’s an O.G. Filipino chef. I came from fine dining, he came from
running his own restaurant. He taught me the value of how to manage staff and
the realities of stuff I was doing. He had the practical experience that I didn’t
have. Both of us working together actually created the whole Poleng legacy. The
team effort. (Tim Luym)

As I came up with the term Kulinary Kasamas, I started remembering all the

times the chefs interviewed would refer to one another, without even knowing they were

part of the same project! Upon telling him who else was being interviewed, Chef Jay-Ar

Pugao replies, “You have folks on your panel that I really look up to like Tim.” When

recalling the meltdown of his first service opening the No Worries Vegan foodtruck, he
 86

humbly responds “The first person I called was Dorn” to help him understand what went

wrong. Chef Jay-Ar Pugao gives a shout out to Chef Aileen Suzara praising her for her

particular skills in the kitchen, “I hired Aileen to work for me, and I love working with

Aileen, she has fresh eyes and knows how to work with the produce and really

knowledgable about the seasonal vegetable.” Then, when interviewing Chef Aileen

Suzara, she sporadically shares her love for her Kulinary Kasamas rejoicing, “If you need

to know anything about Philippine American history, just read Dawn Mabalon’s book

Little Manila is in the Heart. Shout out to manang Dawn!” Chef Jay-Ar Pugao sums up

this concept of Kulinary Kasamas as he explains how the folks who have been on the

scene and have looked up to, and the folks in the professional kitchens, are the same as

the chefs he works with in the community.

Chef Lee Opelina provides decadent and tasteful approach on how Kulinary

Kasamas push each other to further develop their craft, as well as foster the relationships

they create along the way. During our interview, he neatly describes how the kitchen has

been more than a space of cooking for him:

Once I started cooking I made a lot of really close friends at different stops. You
know, I'm still close to the chefs that I worked for and the people that I've worked
with and they've been huge influences as they've gone on and done other things
and I'm following their paths. You know, it's making me push a little bit harder
too to just kind of be there with them. (Lee Opelina)

As we were chatting over one of his dishes (a chilled asparagus tamarind soup

with puffed quinoa), he mentions that he is good friends with Top Chef participant Chef

Sheldon Simeon. At that point, my friend Vince, who I had brought along, coughed and I

had shouted, “You mean Sheldon!” To which I slapped the shoulder of my friend Vince
 87

who is an exact doppelganger of Chef Sheldon Simeon. Chef Lee Opelina stops whisking

the soup, drops the pot, looks at Vince, turns around to the sink, and cracks up laughing. I

bring this up because it is rich experiences like these that help change the culture around

cultural food while maintaining the integrity of the indigenous experience. The ability to

see more of ourselves in one another, especially through food, is an essential element of

community development.

Chef Lee Opelina doesn’t follow many Filipino chefs, and neither do I, however

that shouldn’t deter us from whom we develop community with. Recalling Chef Jay-Ar

Pugao’s experience of his Black and Brown friends eating Filipino food at home with

him is an example of how cultural food can be used as a bridge between different

communities of color. Serving his final perspective during our interview, he dishes upon

the concept of community development and how food should be approached:

This is political work. This is not only environmental justice, this is social justice
work.... I’m not even talking about animal welfare, and I’m not even really
talking about planet sustainability.. ..I’m talking about taking care of our people.
(Jay-Ar Pugao)

As explored through the previous chapters, there are many ways to provide care,

to the mind, body, and soul, through cultural foodways. This section, in particular,

focused on how Filipina/o American chefs embody this with one another. However, Chef

Chel Gilla describes how chefs can be Kulinary Kasamas not only with other chefs, but

also with the community we feed. Upon ending our interview, she leaves a sweet golden

nugget in regards to approaching the individuals we are privileged to serve:

If you view yourself as equal to the person you are serving, you will treat the
person you are serving differently... .Most of the time, you might forget the food,
 88

you might. But you will never forget how those people make you feel and how
they serve you. (Chel Gilla)

In a sense, Chef Chel Gilla leaves us with a simple understanding of how we

should engage one another as human beings and how it factors in how community is

developed. The aspect of rich experiences in Philippine cuisine certainly impact the ways

our communities develop; one which I hope more Kulinary Kasamas continue to build

upon when sharing Philippine cuisine.

 89

Conclusion

When the concept of race is introduced into the discussion of food, the power of

food can be seen as either cultural hegemony or cultural wealth. By documenting oral

histories, or even just remembering our culinary food ways, we are actively reclaiming

our critical culinary wealth. As stated in the Introduction Chapter of this thesis, food is

carelessly thought about and ignorantly engaged, but if food is critically engaged with

mindfulness, food becomes much more than just a bite. Food has the potential to become

a source of power. By reclaiming our critical culinary wealth, we reclaim the power, the

ability to control our foodways and how they are explained, that colonizers and cultural

imperialists expropriated and often distorted.

Critical Culinary Wealth

The application of Tara Yosso’s model of Community Cultural Wealth to food

results in the concept of Critical Culinary Wealth. It is made of three types of Capital -

Cultural Food Capital, Responsive Capital, and Resilient Capital. The goal of Critical

Culinary Wealth is not to criticize what you eat or who you are. In fact, it is centered

around recognition and validation of the culinary and dining experiences we’ve gone

through with our families, friends, and on our own, that have shaped us to be the

individuals we are today. To begin the journey of harnessing Critical Culinary Wealth,

communities of color can start by examining past food experiences, current food habits,

and future culinary aspirations. Referring back to the purpose of conducting oral

histories: we need not look for stories about our people written by others, but rather, we

should take the responsibility of learning from the unwritten stories of our people and
 90

share them with our communities of color. These unwritten stories are right under our

noses, in our everyday food practices.

Cultural Food Capital

The knowledges of one’s culinary ancestral roots can be as simple as knowing the

difference between tapas from different regions in the Philippines to being as intricate as

knowing how to elegantly dress a table for a family fiesta. The pride in one’s cultural

cuisine can be seen as choosing to consume one’s cultural cuisine, amidst societies at

work or school advising otherwise. The biggest example of shared and relatable culinary

experiences among communities of color can be understood as the desire for chefs to

redefine Filipino food and the flak they continue to receive for doing so. However, it is

these shared experiences of flak that create a strong foundation for community

development.

Responsive Capital

The actions that address negative or inaccurate perceptions of one’s cultural

cuisine can range from re-creating and sharing dishes you have personal connections with

to greeting the people you are serving with passion for the food you are serving them.

The hope and self-determination cultivated through the production of cultural cuisine

ranges from the inspiration a little girl finds when she opens a Filipino cookbook for the

first time to the development of the first culinary mentorship program in California.

Examples of the collectivism communities of color develop through culinary experiences

can range from the opening of restaurants that serve food that the community craves to

using the kitchen as a space for individuals to foster their second chances.
 91

Resilient Capital

The risks taken and sacrifices made to continue exploring one’s cultural cuisine

include working forty-plus hour weeks and still getting home to prepare cultural food for

the family. This so that they can still experience a major element of their culture, despite

living in America. The maintenance of critical joy, amidst the endless experiences of

counteraction, in the exploration of one’s cultural cuisine can be as simple as having a

positive outlook towards your naysayers, even after twenty plus years, to keeping a

hopeful demeanor when frustrations in your personal life are keeping you from pursuing

your dream.

The skills communities of color develop to preserve their cultural cuisines and

change the oppressive cultures around food can range from the skills and techniques

chefs exchange in the kitchen to how chefs name their restaurant. In chef Chel Gilla’s

restaurant, T.S.E.L.O.G.S. - To Show Excellence, Love, Outstanding Gratitude and Self

worth, the philosophical concept of her restaurant incorporates skills that all communities

of color can use in the struggle of cultural culinary resistance.

Culti
Cultural Food Capital
>ital • Critical Culinary Wealth Responsive <

Figure 2
 92

Each Capital is represented, throughout Chapters 3-5, by the oral histories of the

chefs interviewed. Although each of these capitals are distinct, communities of color are

able to experience them simultaneously. There may be individuals who perceive a

particular experience as more than just belonging to one type of Capital. They may even

experience a type of capital that has not yet been identified or defined. Though

individuals may have similar experiences, they may perceive those experiences as

different types of Capital as well.

Referring to the question marks in Critical Culinary Wealth visual above, there

may be other types of capital under the Critical Culinary Wealth model that have not

been identified yet. My hope is that other communities of color will utilize this model and

eventually expand upon it. The historical documentation of immigrants, communities of

color, and those indigenous to this land has gone through a gradual eradication over the

course of US colonialism and neocolonialism. In order to optimize the full potential of

the Critical Culinary Wealth model, communities of color should work together in the

struggle to build a foundation of solidarity for future generations.

Research Limitations and How to Expand on Them...

In my participant pool, three chefs were born in the Philippines, while the two

other chefs were bom in the United States. Although the experiences of the U.S. born

chefs differed greatly from those born in the Philippines, more research should be

conducted to better understand how the Philippine Diaspora impacts particular Filipino

American foodways. Thus, pushing forth a culture that celebrates Philippine culinary
 93

differences and fosters spaces to experience a “diasporic return” through food. The nature

of this study is highly subjective, however, I am certain that should this research be

continued, additional themes of similarity would arise. The hope is that these additional

themes would be used to better understand our communities and organize in resistance to

oppressive institutions more effectively.

As previously described, interview participant requirements were as follows: (1)

Those who were cooks and those who cooked Philippine cuisine professionally in the

Bay Area, (2) Identifies as Filipina/o or Filipino American, and (3) Identifies as part of

Generation X. Although I would like future research on Filipino American cuisine to be

done by individuals who identify as Filipina/o or Filipino American, I hope the outcomes

of this future research can be utilized by all communities of color. But in regards to

expanding the other limitations of my participant requirements, one way this research can

be built upon is by seeking the narratives of Filipino American chefs who cook outside of

the Bay Area of California. Expanding this research to encompass more areas throughout

America will definitely yield additional outcomes and will help make the connections

between the Philippine Diaspora and Filipino American foodways. The other limitation

that can be extended was the requirement of participants to identify as part of Generation

X. This requirement inadvertently singled out a majority of turo turo restaurants, which

had a restricting effect on this research.

For this research, I limited my participant pool to five chefs. However, should this

research be expanded, the sample number of participants increases as well. As mentioned

in Chapter 1, establishing rapport with the participants is necessary in the process of

 94

documenting oral histories. In order to increase the participant pool, it will also be

necessary to develop new ways of creating safe spaces for chefs to share their stories

from the kitchen. And I encourage future research to build upon the five categories of

Philippine American cuisine (comfort, vegan, seed to table, pan-Asian, and fine dining)

as a foundation for redefining Philippine cuisine in America.

Contributions

Regarding the field of Asian American Studies, it is firmly hoped that this

research becomes an example of how researchers of color can utilize to build on each

other’s work to strengthen all of our communities. In addressing the matter of “crab

mentality,” I purposefully chose to review resources primarily authored by scholars of

color. With that perspective in mind, the goal of this research was also to identify the

knowledges and skills, inherent within our community, in order to help our community.

The Asian American Studies Department at San Francisco State University has fostered a

nurturing and supportive environment for students, such as myself, to encourage research

about topics that other academic institutions might dismiss. My hope is that this research

can be used to develop a “culinary” Ethnic Studies or Asian American Studies course at

San Francisco State University.

To all Filipina/o American Chefs and aspiring cooks, I hope this research gives

you a sense of hope throughout your journey. As difficult and uncertain as the road ahead

may appear, my hope is that this research gives you a bit of comforting reassurance that

you are not alone on your journey. And for the chefs who have contributed their
 95

narratives to this research, and other similar projects before, I hope this work helps carve

your stories within the fabric of Filipino American History.

With regard to cultural food critics and culinary connoisseurs, I hope this research

confirms that food is more than just a bite: That dishes being “reviewed” are actually

inter-generational manifestations of indigenous cultural foodways and should be

respected as such. With this respect of cultural food in mind, I also hope that a culture of

“celebrating the privilege” dilutes the current “criticizing the plate” perspective.

Meaning, I hope those who are privileged to enjoy Philippine cuisine in America can

unapologetically encourage others to celebrate the culinary experiences they love and

abstain from unnecessary negative comments that stunt the progress of Philippine cuisine

in America. And lastly, I hope this research has encouraged any reader, scholar or critic,

to cook more. It is through the process of cooking that we can find more to celebrate than

to criticize.

Future Direction o f Research...

Although the majority of my research contributions are tied specifically to the

field of Philippine Culinary studies, my purpose of research and theoretical outcomes are

rooted in Ethnic Studies. As I’ve mentioned before, this research is not only for

Filipinas/os or Filipino Americans, but for all communities of color. In the future, I hope

to see examples of Critical Culinary Wealth Capitals identified by chefs and researchers

of other ethnicities. Thus, building upon the Cultural Food Capital of relatable culinary

experiences shared among communities of color.

 96

Aside from theoretical application of this research, this work is intended to help

readers to be much more mindful about what they eat. This goes beyond making your

own food. I would like people to be more conscious about institutions that exercise the

manipulative power of culinary multiculturalism and take action against them. One

possibility might be the development of online watchlists listing restaurants guilty of

cultural appropriation, because Responsive Capital can range from individual choices to

organized, nationwide acts.

I aim to continue exploring the pairing of food production and education.

Developing an informed, comparative perspective on food service in public schools

throughout the San Francisco Bay Area in relation to food served at tech companies

throughout the Bay Area, CA. The food served to our youth parallels of the quality of

education they are receiving. My future goal is to explore this pairing, both inside a

school setting, as well as outside, and to cultivate our Critical Culinary Wealth, preserve

our cultural cuisines, and combat the cultural imperialism around food.
 97

REFERENCES

Allen, L. (2012). Filipinas in the Deep South: Reading Domestic Oral Narratives as Sites of

Politicization and Community Building. S.. Walton, B. Carpenter (Ed.), Ethnic Heritage

in Mississippi: The Twentieth Century. University Press of Mississippi, pp. 309-333.

Babbie, E. (2016). The Practice o f Social Research. 14th Ed. Boston, MA. Cengage Learning.

Barretto, G. (2013). Introduction. In M. Fenix (Ed.), Kulinarya: a Guidebook to Philippine

Cuisine. Mandaluyong City, Philippines: Anvil Publishing Inc. pp. 3-4.

Besa, A. & Dorotan, R. (2012). Memories o f a Philippine Kitchen. New York, NY. Stewart,

Tabori and Chang.

Brayton, S. & Millington, B. (2011). Renovating Ethnic Identity on Restaurant Makeover. Social

Identities: Journal fo r the Study o f Race, Nation and Culture. Vol. 17. Issue 2.

Calvo, L. & Esquibel, C. (2015). Decolonize Your Diet. Vancouver, BC. Arsenal Pulp Press.

David. E. J.R. (2011). Filipino-American Postcolonial Psychology: Oppression, Colonial

Mentality, and Decolonization. Bloomington, IN. AuthorHouse.

Fenix, M. (2013). The Culinary History of the Philippines. In M. Fenix (Ed.), Kulinarya: a

Guidebook to Philippine Cuisine. Mandaluyong City, Philippines. Anvil Publishing Inc.

pp. 9-20.

Fernandez, D. (1994). Tikim: Essays on Philippine Food and Culture. University of California.

Anvil Publishing.

Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy o f the Oppressed. New York, NY. The Continuum Publishing

Company.
 98

Gapultos, M. (2013). The Adobo Road Cookbook: A Filipino Food Journey - from Food Blog, to

Food Truck, and Beyond. North Clarendon, VT. Tuttle Publishing.

Gottlieb, R. & Joshi, A. (2010). Food Justice. Cambridge, MA. The MIT Press.

Gramsci, A. (1971). In Hoare, Q., & In Nowell-Smith, G. Selections from the prison notebooks

o f Antonio Gramsci. New York: International Publishers.

Heldke, L. (2003). Exotic Appetites: Ruminations o f a Food Adventurer. New York, NY.

Routledge

Lee, E. (2015). The Making o f Asian America: A History. New York, NY. Simon and Schuster.

Mabalon, D. (2013). As American As Jackrabbit Adobo: Cooking, Eating, and Becoming

Filipina/o American Before World War II. R. Ku, M. Manalansan, A. Mannur

(Ed.), Eating Asian America: A Food Studies Reader. New York, NY. New York

University Press, pp. 147-176

Manalansan, M. 2013. Beyond Authenticity: Rerouting The Filipino Culinary Diaspora. R. Ku,

M. Manalansan, A. Mannur (Ed.), Eating Asian America: A Food Studies Reader. New

York, NY. New York University Press, pp. 288-302.

Padoongpatt, M. (2013). Oriental Cookery: Devouring Asian and Pacific Cuisine during the Cold

War. R. Ku, M. Manalansan, A. Mannur (Ed.), Eating Asian America: A Food Studies

Reader. New York, NY. New York University Press, pp. 147-176.

Perks, R. & Thomson, A. (1998). The Oral History Reader. New York, NY: Routledge

Orquiza, R. Jr. (2013). Lechon with Heinz, Lea & Perrins with Adobo: The American

Relationship With Filipino Food, 1898-1946. R. Ku, M. Manalansan, A. Mannur

 99

(Ed.), Eating Asian America: A Food Studies Reader. New York, NY. New York

University Press, pp. 177-185.

Strobel, L. (2015). Coming Full Circle: The Process o f Decolonization Among Post-1965

Filipino Americans. Santa Rosa, CA. Center For Babaylan Studies.

Smith, J. (1990). The Frugal Gourmet on Our Immigrant Ancestors: Recipes You Should Have

Gotten from Your Grandmother. William Morrow & Co.

Tintiangco-Cubales, A.G. & Sacramento, J. (2009). Practicing Pinayist Pedagogy. Amerasia

Journal. University of California, Los Angeles Press.

Xu, W. (2008). Eating Identities: Reading Food in Asian American Literature. HI. University of

Hawaii Press.

Yosso, T. (2005). Whose culture has capital? A Critical Race Theory Discussion of Community

Cultural Wealth. Race Ethnicity and Education. Vol. 8. Issue 1. pp. 69-91. DOI:

10.1080/1361332052000341006.