The Classic Filipino Cuisine And The International Arena
November 30th, 2011 by author
Food food. It’s without a doubt the Filipinos’ most favorite topic. Cooking and eating has always been the core of any family get together. Whether inside a classy restaurant or perhaps at our parent’s house, we relish our meals with gusto. Our preferred dishes are forever those cooked by our parents and grandparents, with no other food able to rival it. Nevertheless, an often recurring question is, “Exactly why no Filipino food built its mark within the international arena?”
Stephanie Zubiri, top chef of The Modern Epicurean Kitchen (MEK), says that the strength of Filipino recipes, that lies in the informal and communal feel, will also be its Waterloo. “Filipino dishes is not focused on offering courses-everything is delivered to the dining table at the same time. It is offered without fresh herb choices to flush the palate or perhaps to top the meal as garnish.”
Old fashioned Filipino food also falls short in elaborate presentation. “The difficulties in marketing comes from the reality that our recipes seem like simple. Remember, you eat with your eyes!” This feature may be related to our country’s lack of royal history, says Stephanie, a History and Geography graduate of the Universite de Paris-Sorbonne. “Just before the Spaniards arrived, what we had were smaller kingdoms. If you have royal families, your meals progress to delight the king and queen.” To illustrate, Thai cuisine has elegant designs and carvings in their dishes of animals and flowers. The Japanese cuisine is renowned for fantastic presentation with fanned slices, molded fruit and vegetables, using the plate to be a frame of a great photo.
Professionally trained at Le Cordon Bleu Paris in oenological and culinary arts, Stephanie treats this as a test in her enterprise, the Modern Epicurean Kitchen. “We must open our food to be more appealing and interesting. This allows us to become imaginative and deconstruct the traditional dishes and blend it with assorted flavors to enrich its classic taste.”
In her Modern Epicurean Kitchen Active demo class entitled Updating The Filipino Classics, she baked chicken thighs marinated with the flavors of the Southern Tagalog classic Bicol Express.