Exploring Filipino Kitchens

Alexandra Cuerdo is a California-raised, New York-based filmmaker. In this episode, we talk about Filipino restaurants, chefs and Filipino food culture in North America - and why community support is vital for the restaurants featured in her film.

There’s so much more to the story of carabaos - and their dairy - than meets the eye. This episode, we’re talking with Marie Cavosora, who founded a company called CalaBoo and leads a team of dairy entrepreneurs in the Philippines.

We're talking with Clang Garcia about her travel company, Jeepney Tours, and what it was like to collect stories and recipes from around the country to feature in this incredible guide. This episode is about my two great loves!

Cherrie Atilano is the founder of a social enterprise called AGREA, whose goals are to help eradicate poverty for farming and fishing families, alleviate the effects of climate change, and help establish food security in the Philippines. But how does a young Filipina farmer even begin to address those challenges?

This episode, we talk to Rene Alexander Orquiza, a professor whose research and teaching interests focus on 20th century American and Philippine history.

This episode, we’re going to the central Visayas region of the Philippines with Louella Alix, author of a book called "Hikay: The Culinary Heritage of Cebu".

We’re talking with Bryan Koh, author of the book "Milk Pigs and Violet Gold." The illustrations, photos and artwork in Bryan’s books are beautiful. I’m driven by the narrative, structure, and immediacy of his stories - like I feel like I’m there - and constantly think, reading the recipes…that "really, that’s all it takes to make that?"

We can't really "Explore Filipino Kitchens" without going back to the motherland, right? This episode, we're going off the usual path - actually, quite a ways off from my studio in Toronto, back to where it all begins: the Philippines.

What can we learn from our ancestors' diets? This month we’re talking with Dr. Ame Garong, researcher at the Archeology Division at the National Museum of the Philippines.

We’re talking with Francis Ang, the man behind a pop-up dinner series called Pinoy Heritage, a culinary project he started with his wife, Dian, following a trip to the Philippines. For the full story of how that led to the most exciting pop-up dinner series I've ever heard of - one that's grounded in Filipino food traditions - you'll have to listen in.

This episode, we talk about adapting Filipino recipes for modern kitchens with Betty Ann Quirino - an author, recipe developer and prolific blogger at AsianInAmericaMag.com. Betty Ann’s thoughts and experiences on cooking have personally helped me develop confidence in my own cooking abilities - to become part of what keeps global Filipino food culture alive.

This month, we’re talking with Joanne Boston, a founding member of the Filipino Food Movement. We talk about why building community is really about creating experiences that bring people together - and then keeping that momentum going forward, and sustaining it so that people gain a sense of ownership and pride in the places they live in.

How much does an understanding of our past shape how we think of ourselves today? Felice Sta. Maria is the Philippines’ foremost scholar on food history - an award-winning author and advisor to the country’s top cultural institutions, whom I can honestly say has ignited my desire to read as much as I can about food history.

Why does Amy Besa go to great lengths to find a vanishing fruit? I wanted to know where those beautiful ingredients that Amy posts on her Instagram feed come from. What do they taste like and what did it take to get them to the restaurant? How can we use food to better understand Filipinos in general?

Why am I so keen to learn about the history, traditions and culture that surround the food from my homeland? This episode, I share how I fell in love with Filipino food in four stages - and what drives my desire to explore the country's foodways.

This episode, I visit a coffee farm along the foothills of a mountain range in Mindanao province, discover why we need to save the "barako" coffee bean, and chat with the founder of a coffee company with a social purpose.