Ours is no longer the oily, brown cuisine of Asia

Kasa Palma chef Aaron Isip joins us in celebrating the Manila Bulletin’s 125th anniversary with all the ways life has become better and tilts his toque off to the Filipino chefs and restaurants that are cooking up a storm in the world

Back in the day, B.S.M. (Before Social Media), when I was still a young cook in Paris working my way up the ranks, physical and verbal violence were the norm in most, if not all Michelin-starred restaurants all over Europe. I remember being thrown at with hot pans, the casual jab on the chest, or the quick kick on the leg, paired with the yelling and cursing in French…these were all daily events at work, “part of the job,” they say. With the dawn of social media, these violent acts quickly disappeared since anyone with a smartphone can be a videographer nowadays and an angry chef de cuisine can be “cancelled” in one click of a button. So life in the kitchen is now so much better.

Also, we now have new machines that can make life in the kitchen a breeze, such as a Pacojet or a Ninja CREAMi, which costs a fraction of the Pacojet ice cream machine. Things like digital thermoplungers, such as ANOVA, make sous-vide cooking so much easier now. Want to learn a new technique in the kitchen or learn a recipe? Youtube, Instagram, and TikTok can give you tons of content!

In the business side of things, advertising and marketing your own business is now as easy as 1…2…3, thanks to social media. Almost every existing business in the modern world has its own social media account. Got a special menu to offer? A promo at your restaurant? Feature a new dish? Create a reel on Instagram or TikTok! There are now so any avenues to share what have because of social media. It’s never been easier to get the word out.

Thanks to these modern advancements, to top it all, Philippine cuisine no longer has the bad reputation it used to have as the oily, brown cuisine of Asia. Now, most people know that our cuisine is flavorful, colorful, filled with so many fresh and diverse marine produce and abounds with tropical fruits, due to our geography and climate. Ube has gone viral everywhere! So many Filipino restaurants and chefs are now proud to cook our food all over the world and people are noticing. We now have Filipino or Filipino-led Michelin-starred restaurants! And it’s only the beginning! 

So many Filipino restaurants and chefs are now proud to cook our food all over the world and people are noticing.

I would like to wake up to the day Filipino chefs and restaurants are at par with our Asian and even Western counterparts!