Introducing the history and philosophy of Filipino cuisine to the children of the diaspora

By Cristina DC Pastor

It is still winter in New York and if you perhaps sometimes catch yourself dreaming of languid days in the Philippines, they will be filled  with the golden sun, the warm sea, and of course the island cuisine that makes the Philippines the land of our hearts.

There’s a book that takes you back to nostalgic times in the Philippines, a little escapism that brightens up a bit of our wintry New York lives. 

“100 Years: Recipes from an Archipelago” written by Ann Marie Manhart is worth a read. I got to know Ann Marie from the grand dame of Philippine Cuisine in America, Amy Besa. 

Ann Marie is an Austrian citizen who permanently resides in Vienna. But In February this year, she comes to pay New York a visit, a state she lived in for a few months in the `90s, furthering her culinary prowess at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park.

She writes about her childhood in the Philippines growing up in her grandma’s restaurant in Pangasinan which is turning 100 years old in 2028. Her book is a veritable treasure chest of much-loved Filipino family recipes.

She recounts that these dishes are cooked in their family restaurant where the produce is as close to the source as possible.  The milkfish, prawns, crabs, squid were just caught a few hours before they reach Dagupeña Restaurant’s kitchen. The vegetables are from local farmers or backyard gardeners.  The meats are from small-scale farmers.  And sometimes, the fish they serve are from their own fishponds as well.  Each recipe comes with an accompanying story, about family, the origins of the dish, the provenance of the ingredients.

It is a heartwarming story of a family with humble if not impoverished beginnings, who overcame challenges by hard work, an uncompromising food philosophy, and the love for entertaining and making their guests feel at home. It is also the story of how the Philippines is today; how it evolved, as seen through the lens of a young girl, now a woman who has made another country her home, but still feels very much connected to the place where she was born. It is perhaps a sentiment we all share as Filipino Americans.

Asked about why she wrote the book, Ann Marie says that she wants the children of the diaspora, like her own child, to have an insight on how it is to grow up in the Philippines and mostly to know what people ate, how people treated produce, the philosophy behind our cuisine. She opined that it can be an additional basis for the Filipino cuisine we cook in our own kitchens, with foreign ingredients.

An example she gives is when she cooks sinigang in Vienna, which she doesn’t do with mixes. 

“I just based it on my grandma’s 1928 recipe. Except, I use local fruits like apricots. Apricots turn sour upon cooking.  All you need to do is put a few of the de-seeded fruits in the pot, that you don’t even need to strain the sinigang broth after.”

She further opines that Filipino cuisine can be adapted to anywhere one lives. You just need to learn about the local ingredients that are alike or that will produce similar results to the ones our ancestors used, and you will have spectacular results.

Asked what brings her to New York, she says: “I want to show my son New York, the city I wanted to live in. I wanted to move here several times. But fate had different plans.”

After her culinary studies in New York, she went back to Manila where she did the rounds of fine dining restaurants and then eventually spent eight years teaching culinary arts and entrepreneurship at the School of Hotel and Restaurant and Institution Management of the College of Saint Benilde. It was also during those times that she took up her MBA and then started producing vacuum packed marinated milkfish products in her home province Pangasinan.  After dealing a lot with fish harvests and a challenged environment she decided to set her sights on environmental studies.

“I applied at Columbia University, but I got waitlisted and was urged to apply for the next year.  So, I said, I would do my environment studies in Vienna where my then boyfriend, now husband lives. I stayed put.”

After her studies, she ran her own consultancy firm for five years. The firm dealt with resource management, with a specialty on food waste reduction. 

“Motherhood was a new thing for me. It overwhelmed me. I decided to be a full-time, hands-on mom,” she said.

Now, Ann Marie fully devotes her time to motherhood and writing.  She has also contributed environmental articles to the Philippine Daily Inquirer. “100 Years: Recipes from an Archipelago” is her first book. 

For more details about the book, visit https://www.100yearsrecipes.com/