What is Filipino food and what does it taste like? Chefs explain

With some 12 million people across more than 100 countries, the Filipino diaspora is one of the largest in the world.

Yet the food of the Philippines isn’t as widely known as some Asian cuisines. Fans of the cuisine argue that adobo — chicken or pork braised in soy sauce, vinegar, garlic and peppercorn — should be as recognizable as phad thai, ramen and shrimp dumplings. 

As more Filipino chefs gain international recognition, the popularity of Philippines cuisine is gaining traction. In 2015, Antonio’s Restaurant — helmed by Filipino Tonyboy Escalante — was the first restaurant in the Philippines to break onto the World’s 50 Best list, debuting at No. 48.

In 2016, Bad Saint, the Washington, D.C., restaurant launched by the James Beard award-winning chef Tom Cunanan, was named the second-best restaurant in America by Bon Appetit magazine. That same year, Manila’s Margarita Fores was honored as Asia’s Best Female Chef by the U.K.-based 50 Best organization.

Yet insiders say struggles to popularize Filipino food come from stereotypes abroad as well as issues within the Philippines.

Cheryl Tiu, a Manila-born food journalist and founder of the Miami-based events website Cross Cultures, attributes some of the problem to “hiya,” meaning shame in Tagalog, the national language of the Philippines.

“We were colonized for so many years, and we were made to think that anything imported was better,” said Tiu. “Thankfully, today’s generation has been loud and proud about our heritage.”

Television hasn’t been helpful either, said Tiu.

“We’ve also received so much bad press in the sense that some of our dishes were ‘Fear Factor-ized,'” she said. “Many associate all our food with that.”‘

Some of those sentiments were echoed by Paris-based Filipina chef Erica Paredes.

“It almost seems as though we never thought that our food was good enough to put on the global stage,” she said.

Seared scallops with fennel and sinigang (a clear sour soup traditionally made with tamarind) and Korean-style fried chicken with adobo sauce are just some of the dishes Paredes is making at the Parisian cafe Mokoloco, a stint which has garnered praise from Vanity Fair and other press.

“Nowadays there’s more pride and fire in a lot of young chefs to be authentic, and that includes incorporating flavors that bring us joy and comfort,” she said. “It’s as if we were waiting for permission, but now – no more.”