By IVY LISA F. MENDOZA
Felice Prudente Sta. Maria was seven years old when she got her first Betty Crocker recipe book. At 10, she received a "How to Entertain" book, a gift that delighted her to no end.
"They were gifts that I really appreciated. The ‘How to Entertain’ book had tips for every occasion like anniversaries and birthdays which I took to heart. I learned to bake cupcakes at a very young age from these books as well," recalls Sta. Maria.
It is no wonder then that inspite of her many interests – as a writer, a researcher, a cultural manager and as a policy maker with the UNESCO, Sta. Maria has never forgotten her love affair with food and culinary history.
Take for example her latest book "The Governor General’s Kitchen: Philippine Culinary Vignettes and Period Recipes 1521–1935" published last year by Anvil Publishing Inc. What started out as hobby of collecting vignettes from historical sources about food origins, production, consumption and even etiquette, would turn out to be an unprecedented volume of amazing stories and data about Philippine food and food ways.
"I accumulated the manuscript and tucked it away in my drawer for 20 years. I did all the research but had always felt that it was not yet the right time to put it out. Only in 2004 did I hire a researcher to go through all these thesis at the UP library to help fill the gaps. But all this time, it was just me doing everything," relates Sta. Maria.
This endeavour, she describes, is typical of the rest of her life.
"I always look for what is missing, that has always been my style. Since the kind of food books that were coming out were all recipes, or if ever they are historical, they are being told from the first person approach, I felt there should be at least one book that tells how things came to be. For instance, before the revolution, only 1000 Spaniards were living on this archipelago. But when and how were they able to change Filipino food as we know it now? Or how did the cacao get here considering that they were brought on galleons and permission to bring seeds from Mexico was very hard to obtain?’’ Sta. Maria poses.
In the meantime, in between cooking and other home-related commitments, Sta. Maria’s sincere interest in bringing to life what happened during the period from 1521 to 1935 remained. She approached research always with a brand-new excitement that ceaselessly grew and grew.
‘’I came across a receipt for a bottle of wine and it felt like being transported to that era, I felt as if I was touching the person. Who bought the wine? For what occasion? There was always a dramatic appreciation of what were the 400 years like,’’ she enthuses.
Taking off from Blair&Robertson’s 50–volume ‘’The Philippine Islands,’’ Sta. Maria let herself be lost in the richness of the materials she found, among which, in her own words:
"In this book, you will meet Ah Sing, cook of governor-general William Howard Taft at Malacañang palace in 1901, and Asing, Jose Rizal’s cook in his Hong Kong home in 1892. One can also learn about how champagne is manufactured through a flyer squirreled away by Rizal in his pocket diary, or make bologna sausage following a handwritten recipe found among his personal papers;
The florid poetry of an 1861 Tagalog fiesta invitation card; the silly antics of crockery’s best friend, Agapito Makapinggan, and the serious efforts to teach good manners through classroom drama. How nuns, loyal to the vows of silence, use carabao-horn spoons to maintain silence during meals. How the well-heeled and the noble prepare their elegant banquets and balls in the late 19th and early 20th century;
The hand-size Philippine flag-inspired menu card from the famous Malolos Congress celebration, perhaps the only one to have survived from the 1898 dinner; the original menu card used at the 1907 crowning of the statue of Our Lady of the Rosary, known popularly as Virgen de la Nava l enshrined today at Sto. Domingo church in Quezon City;
The circumnavigation’s first picnic in the Philippines, efforts to stem hunger in a pioneering Spanish colony; he mythical pygmy Dinahon who introduced kalan and palayok; he origins of the carinderia, early lumpia and how pancit came to these lands;
An 1851 adobo recipe with the contemporary preparation; preparing Gateau Sans Rival the way they did in 1932, and Food for the Gods in 1922; experimenting with a tamales recipe from 1834, and lechon sauce from 1790; mixing over 24 cocktails and temperance drinks from the 1920s and 1930s, including the famous Lintik, which is to Manila what the Sling is to Singapore...’’
In this book, Sta. Maria answers through anthropological discussion many questions which most of us have never even thought of asking, like - how did sugar get to Philippine shores? When did Filipinos start using sugar vice the panocha? From anato to toyo, how did we arrive at using instant ingredients today? Why did our great grandmothers pray one rosary decade while caramelizing leche flan to perfection? Is the word ‘’pansit’’ intrinsically Chinese or a linguistic Filipinism?
The book also contains about 100 recipes which Sta. Maria says may not taste as fantastic but are still relevant today.
Edited by Maya Besa Roxas, he book design was executed by Guillermo Ramos with the cover inspired by the 1920s art deco style of the eminent French illustrator George Babier.
GETTING TO KNOW
OURSELVES MORE
Sta. Maria says she is most proud of her work but admits it is far from over.
"This is an accumulation of things that helped us get to who and where we are but there are still a lot to be done as far as culinary history is concerned. I feel that I have not yet exhausted the Philippine archive,’’ she explains.
The author is hopeful though that her book would create an impetus among historians and food lovers to come up with their own work in this genre. She believes that it is only by looking back that Filipinos will realize that our food is dynamic.
"That will make us defend it to death. I call that pride with affection and understanding,’’ she quips.
She is also looking forward to that day when a strong sense of culinary history, a masterplan even, will be developed. Never mind that that the Filipino has incorporated foreign influences into our cuisine. There is no point in quibbling about it, Sta. Maria stresses.
‘’Why make a fuss about it. Everything we do here is ours, its our own flavor. For instance, McDonalds has come up with a Filipinized version of their burger, so we can claim that is ours. The Italians never had tomatoes before in their food, that ingredient was just imported. But they claimed it and it’s theirs. Chili came from the West but the Thais used them so much that they have been incorporated into their culture. We should always keep an open mind about the dynamics of culture.’’
This country, she says, is in dire need of "stories and histories that document culinary heritage on the family, community and ethno-linguistic levels.’’
"Unless culinary schools for specialized study and home economists teachin in basic education are re-acquainted with the fineness of Philippine culinary culture along with its accoutrements,, they cannot be expected to pass on the knowledge nor further refine culture,’’ Sta. Maria writes.
Meanwhile, new concepts continuously churn out from Sta. Maria’s innately creative and inquisitive mind, and she need not wait for another 20–year interlude to get them all rolling at the same time. Five book projects are keeping her busy — one on Philippine fiestas with Alejandro Roces, two myth-based children’s books; "Rice cake Dreams,’’ a collection of essays on food which she is co-editing with Erlinda Panlilio; an ethnic sci-fi fiction; and a book-glossary of food terms from the Spanish to the present times, the perfect companion to "The Governor General’s Kitchen.’’
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