The role of gastrodiplomacy and tourism in preserving culinary traditions

Image by Nhick Ramiro Pacis from Pixabay.

by Vina Medenilla, Manila Bulletin

The Philippines has a rich culinary heritage that deserves to be preserved and recognized in the international scene.

However, today, many aspects of Filipino cuisine and culture are disappearing and are no longer practiced or consumed.

In order to keep them, identifying and understanding food and culture is vital. How can we accomplish this? One is to communicate with the culture bearers or those who practice and pass down cultural values, traits, and knowledge within their communities.

More important than simply knowing Filipino cuisine and the food culture of various regions is promoting it both in and out of the country.

Gastrodiplomacy and tourism are two powerful tools that can help protect and promote Filipino food and culinary traditions.

This is what Clang Garcia, a Philippine culinary heritage explorer and TV host, spoke about in the second episode of the KainCon webinar series, which is part of the Filipino Food Month (FFM) festivities.

Initiatives of neighboring countries

During the webinar, Garcia shared an example of how Thailand launched a gastronomy branding for their food industry called “Thailand: Kitchen of the World.”

“It’s meant to put the cuisines of Thailand to the world, but more than that, they pushed gastronomy branding to create a demand for their agricultural produce,” Garcia said.

A part of Thailand’s efforts in promoting the Thai food industry is allocating a budget for international ventures.

“If you are an entrepreneur and you want to put up a Thai restaurant in different parts of the world, they will finance you, provided that you conform to the uniformity of the ingredients, hygiene, precautions, look, and branding,” says Garcia. 

These restaurants become an avenue for foreign entrepreneurs and customers to be more familiar with Thai cuisine without having to travel to its origin.

In some ways, it piques the diners’ interest to explore not just Thai food, but also the country’s destinations and culture.

This is where tourism promotion comes in.

Thailand has millions of international travelers, and according to Garcia, most of them go there for food and culture. Traveling is not complete without keepsakes, so the Thai government also made beautifully-packaged products available for tourists. 

“That‘s the beauty of gastronomy, diplomacy, and tourism. If you have the government with you, working side by side with you, then it becomes a very powerful and organized campaign.”

Budget, government alignment, and private sectors are three necessities for the implementation of such gastrodiplomacy campaigns.

Following Thailand’s lead, South Korea also launched the “Kimchi Diplomacy” campaign to promote their cuisine and culture. They began producing and publicizing Korean movies, stars, music, and more.

“They just have to follow the same example. Suddenly, Korean restaurants are dominating different parts of the world.” 

Seeing the efforts of these two countries, Garcia explained, “If you present the traditions [to the world], there will be a sense of appreciation. If you start sponsoring international food and travel shows above it, then it will create curiosity among viewers. They would want to go where you’ve featured kimchi and learn the process, and meet the people they see on the screen.”

Embracing Filipino culinary heritage 

In our case, events like Filipino Food Month give every region in the Philippines a reason to celebrate our culinary heritage, which is expected to develop in time, says Garcia.

When it comes to preserving and promoting Filipino cuisine and culture through gastronomy and tourism, Garcia remains optimistic, adding, “We can do so much more collectively.” 

Traveling locally and supporting local businesses is one way we can help, especially in the midst of the epidemic.

As a local tourism champion, Garcia says, “Sustainability has never been more relevant than now. We have to take care of our environment [and of our heritage] because it defines us as a people and as a destination. If we lose that, who are we going to be? Who are you as a Filipino?”

The KainCon or Kain Conference webinar series covers a variety of themes and features local food industry champions. It goes live online every Tuesday and Thursday from April 7-28, 2022. 

KainCon also includes cookfest and culinary films that aim to raise awareness of preserving Filipino heritage and traditions. This event is led by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), Philippine Culinary Heritage Movement (PCHM), and Slow Food Youth Network Philippines (SFYN).

Filipino-French sisters shine at Madrid Fusion Manila

By: Ginny Mata, FOOD Magazine

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What is cocina avant garde, or avant garde cuisine? It’s a return to simplicity and elegance in cooking, but with a distinctly more sophisticated approach to the manner in which dishes are conceptualized and executed. 

In the spirit of Ferran Adria’s modernist approach to gastronomy, the two Spanish chefs in the afternoon session of the first day of Madrid Fusion Manila discussed the importance of this ethos in their own cuisine: Paco Pérez of Miramar, and Kiko Moya of L’ Escalante. 

Both come from a long line of chefs and restaurateurs, and both did apprenticeships under Adria, so they have a deep appreciation of the role of history, culture, and family values in shaping the way they express their creativity through food.

Pérez has been working in restaurants since he was 12 years old, and is now at the helm of two Michelin starred restaurant Miramar in Llança. Initially founded by his wife Monte Serra’s grandparents in 1939, Miramar has become a reference point for the avant garde cuisine movement today. 

“We’re now the third generation, and we’ve been living there for more than 30 years,” shared Pérez. With an emphasis on using food as a canvas to transmit emotions, Pérez makes sure that his dishes evoke strong feelings and sensations in his customers.

Photo by author.

For instance, guests are welcomed with a drink made with hydro-honey from their very own bee farm, and a first course of “honeycomb” that was been filled with different ecological essences like nasturtium, honey, different leaves, and flowers like sorrell and begonias.

Photo by author.

At the congress, he showed us how to “create this feeling of the easterly wind, of being under the sea.” Out of plastic waste carelessly left by humans in the sea, they fashioned a vessel to look like a beautiful beach scape, which they use as a plate for oyster powder, decorated with algae jelly, clams, an emulsion of mussels and cockles, codium (special seaweed), soaked almonds, blended caviar in cream, with a final touch of foam from the sea – “all of them adding up flavors from our influences and our experiences”, he explained.

Moya is the second generation chef of his family’s one Michelin starred restaurant L’Escaleta (‘Grand Staircase’ in English) in Alicante, Valencia. The landscape – the sea, the mountains, and the land – all play a crucial role in their culinary philosophy. “Everywhere is magical,” said Moya, “and so we pay tribute to our culture and our environment in our dishes.” Locally sourced ingredients from their native Spain such as saffron and rice take on greater meaning when framed in this context.

Photo by author.

“Saffron is very important in Spanish culture,” says Moya, “and we are able to protect it and save it in this way”. Using Spanish saffron, Moya created a sabayon, making a custard with freeze-dried saffron roses, topped with freshly harvested pollen and freeze-dried raspberries for additional sweetness.

Photo by author.

 Given the importance of paella in Spanish cuisine, rice is another essential ingredient in their kitchen. “When we talk about sustainability,” he explained, “it’s best to use different varieties of rice from all over the Spain, because as chefs we have the obligation to make the customer interested in the story behind the dish.” 

Their Sticky Rice with Cod Cheeks and Cod Tripe is one of the more emblematic dishes of L’Escaleta. Here we see the blending of the mountains (rice) and the sea (cod). “We’re also defending our traditional cooking, by giving it a different viewpoint,” he affirmed.

FILIPINO-EUROPEAN FLAVORS

With the goal of long-term sustainability in mind, today’s chefs and restaurateurs are seeking to cut down or eliminate food wastage in their kitchens. Filipino-European chefs Josh Boutwood and the Levha sisters exemplify this ethos perfectly.

Multi-award-winning young Filipino-British chef Chef Josh Boutwood has apprenticed in restaurants in Sweden (Svaneholm), Copenhagen (Noma) and the UK. When he came back to the Philippines, he has since been receiving high praises for his work with The Bistro Group of restaurants, as well as his new restaurant, The Test Kitchen in Makati.

His menu changes constantly, sometimes minute to minute, depending on what ingredients are available. 

“We don’t like to repeat a dish,” he said, “but we will take a tenderloin and use it in five or six different ways throughout the week.” He likes to pickle vegetables and infuse vinegars, to “preserve produce, and allow things to age naturally, thus deepening their flavors.”

Photo by author.

 To illustrate this, Boutwood made a beautifully composed dish of seared scallops with pickled gherkins, pickled cucamelons, lemon cream, cucumber jelly, with a little elderflower, sprinkled with botarga (fish roe that has been salted and dried).

Photo by author.

 He will use “ugly” vegetables too, pickling and dehydrating them, then grating them for texture (carrots) or plating them (pickled radishes) on top of dishes like seared steak which has been glazed with a complex, peppery sauce.

Boutwood is set to open a second restaurant soon. “It will be a zero-waste restaurant,” he said, “so we will be composting on the roof, brewing, pickling, and fermenting.”

Photo by author.

 Much anticipated was the presentation of Filipino-French sisters Tatiana and Katia Levha of Le Servan, a modern bistro in Paris, France that opened to instant acclaim three years ago. 

Tatiana, the head chef, trained at three Michelin-starred restaurants such as L’Arpege and L’Astrance. But they wanted to work together, and so with Katia handling the front of the house, they opted to open a more casual place serving affordably priced meals. 

Their food may be French, but there are unmistakably Asian, and yes even Filipino, hints to their dishes. Tatiana remarks, “Asia is kind of a trend [in France]. People are getting more and more open about spicy food, fried food. We feel more and more people are excited about Filipino flavors and food.” And it helps that they have been exposed to a lot of Filipino food, thanks to summer trips to the Philippines while growing up.

For the sisters, sustainability isn’t a trendy by-word, but a daily concern for them, primarily as a way to maximize the quality ingredients they purchase. They demonstrated this frugality with two dishes—a pork belly with an adobo-style sauce, followed by fried wonton ravioli that used the leftover vegetables from the pork belly dish. 

Tatiana said: “With these two dishes, there’s hardly any trash. This rotation works for us—to buy the most beautiful products and to offer it at affordable prices.” 

She added: “We choose what’s seasonal, healthy, beautiful and sustainably grown always.”