The New Filipino Kitchen

An engrossing, page-turner of a cookbook. Brian McGinn, Emmy-nominated director and executive producer, Chefs Table You may not realize that Filipino Americans are the second-largest Asian American group living in the United States, especially when you compare the number of, say, Japanese, Thai, and Korean restaurants to Filipino ones. Theres a lot of speculation about why Filipino food hasnt taken off the way other Asian cuisines have, but one things for sure: theres something for everyone here. Lauded as the next big thing by the likes of Anthony Bourdain and Jonathan Gold, Filipino food can be somewhat difficult to define, as it melds indigenous dishes with myriad foreign influences from Chinese and Spanish to South East Asian and even American. And as Filipinos have left their archipelago and set down roots all over the world, it has proven to be a highly adaptable cuisine, lending itself to different diets, preferences, and ingredients. The New Filipino Kitchen collects 30 recipes and stories from expat Filipinos, all of whom have taken their favorite dishes with them, preserving their food memories and, if necessary, tweaking their recipes to work in a new environment or, in the case of some chefs, a more modern context. With contributions from the White House executive chef Cristeta Comerford, Bocuse dOr Europe winner Christian Andr Pettersen, 2015 MasterChef New Zealand runner-up Leo Fernandez, five-time Palanca Award winner and poet Francis Macansantos, and the Food Buddha Rodelio Aglibot, this is a multifaceted, nuanced introduction to the world of Filipino food and food culture.