Food video creators weigh in on preservation, innovation, and buying local

By Joseph L. Garcia, Senior Reporter

THERE’s been a palpable resurgence in Filipino food over the last 10 years. New restaurants are either finding new ways to prepare Filipino food, or are showing off with heritage recipes found through copious amounts of research. That, or old favorite haunts are cherished again. But another effect of this is the proliferation of online videos about Filipino food: either it’s just another vlogger discovering an old carinderia (roadside eatery), or an established chef showing their beloved recipes online.

For The Histolinarya Collective’s Roberto Villarcabral and Martin Narisma, food editor at The Fat Kid Inside studios (his boss, Erwan Heussaff, won a James Beard Award in 2023 for his Instagram account that featured Filipino food), talking about Filipino food is a serious business. Nominations for the FEATR YouTube channel under The Fat Kid Inside followed the next year for three documentaries, including their films on chocolate and calamansi (a Philippine citrus), and their series on Filipino salt. As for Mr. Villarcabral, Histolinarya’s (a portmanteau of “history” and “kulinarya” — an approximation of “culinary history” in Filipino) Facebook and Instagram accounts have thousands of followers; and has worked directly with government institutions to promote Filipino food.

In previous interviews, Mr. Villarcabral expressed having a curiosity about Filipino food since before he was 10 years old. This went hand-in-hand with his own enthusiasm for film. This culminated with his 2023 project, The Lost Filipino Cookbook, which transitioned to The Histolinarya Collective. “Food came in before film,” he said in an interview in July over tea at Chef Jessie in Rockwell (where he had served as an intern). “From there,” — he made a schwoop sound — “it just went like that.”

A FOOD JOURNALIST
Histolinarya’s accounts dive deep into historical records and archives to teach viewers about how food used to be: without him, we wouldn’t have found out about tsin-tsáo, a predecessor to sago’t gulaman (a sweet drink with jelly); or a pre-war ensaymada (a Filipino sweet bread) using Bruun butter (a brand that no longer exists in its native Denmark).

He made clear: “They jump right in and assume that I’m just a vlogger, or a content creator. I am neither. I am a journalist by profession. I’m a journalist who happens to have a social media presence that could use that avenue to raise more awareness and change minds for the better.”

He talked about how he works: “By being a journalist, I also get to play detective. I get to do a lot of investigating.” These include interviews, friendly “interrogations,” and research. “Once I get my answers, I start to deduce.”

“I was always curious about food. I also felt our culture was in shambles, and still is. The cornerstone of every nation’s identity is through their heritage. I wanted to tackle that, and raise more awareness so that people could be mindful about who they are at present, and who were the people before them, that made them who they are today,” he said.

MOM’S INFLUENCE
Mr. Narisma, meanwhile, over a Thai dinner in Bonifacio Global City in July, told us about his own beginnings in food. His mother worked as a newspaper editor, a job which entailed long nights. As a boy, he would see his mother eat processed food with her coffee to stay up late. He thought of better things for his mother to eat, and looked up and prepared various pastries for her. “I didn’t even realize I was using a malfunctioning oven back then,” he recalled. “It started with a desire — even though it’s a small thing — to make my mom’s life a bit easier.”

He parlayed this into a career in a restaurant kitchen, which brought him to the kitchens of a food conglomerate where he became one of the faces of their TV and online shows. From there, he transitioned to a role under Mr. Heussaff.

On his personal Instagram account, he also shows videos of himself preparing dishes made with Filipino ingredients, but using them innovatively in things like burgers, bread, and fried chicken (Mr. Narisma has two fried chicken outlets, both displaying Filipino flavors like batuan and Bicol Express; and is a partner of another restaurant Gacha).

As for how he and the team find things to feature on Featr, he said, “Our material, most of our research, really, comes from crowdsourcing, and our great team of researchers, who really go to the provinces before anything else. They go there to confirm and find new stories, experience it themselves; see if it’s true.

“That’s where we start writing, meeting about places, and then finally executing our shoots.”

HERITAGE PRESERVATION
Mr. Villarcabral’s channels advocate for food heritage preservation, as does Mr. Narisma’s professional career. However, they differ in that Mr. Narisma’s personal page has a focus on innovating with what can be found in the past (one of his fried chicken recipes, for example, calls for batuan powder, a fruit better known as a souring agent used in soups).

“How would you know your own country, let alone yourself, if you don’t know what’s actually around you?” said Mr. Villarcabral.

“What made us who we are is because of all the actions of the people in the past — be it the natives, the ones who colonized us, and the ones who traded with us.”

It’s important to preserve these things, just so we can keep our identity, added Mr. Narisma. He talked about some of the islands in the archipelago, once known for their seafood and natural resources, now housing generic joints due to a booming tourist economy. “I wouldn’t want the future generation to be like a hive mind,” he said. “That’s why I give it importance that we still remember where we come from, or at least, our parents and grandparents.”

When both of them feature something on their pages, it’s another day that a forgotten flavor wins back. When we lose a flavor, we lose more than just a taste: we lose a way of life. That doesn’t seem to matter in the city, where they both live, but as Mr. Villarcabral said, “We must take note that the Philippines is not just one culture: it’s an amalgamation of several. What may not be relevant to us might have been something meaningful to someone.” As Mr. Narisma said, “Just because you don’t eat ampalaya (bitter gourd) doesn’t mean it’s bad for everyone. Some people will like it; some people just don’t know about it yet.”

With Mr. Narisma, we talked about authenticity: How authentic will something be when one adapts it for the future?

He used his example of making an Italian focaccia, but using kiniing, the cured meat of the Cordilleras. “Not a lot of the Filipinos know that we do that. Most of them, when you say ‘smoked,’ they’d always go for things like Italian preserves,” he said. “Okay, fine. But number one, it’s expensive; we really don’t have that. Number two, who are you helping? By using kiniing in our videos, we don’t have millions and millions of followers, but the few people who watch — it’s very effective. People ask where to buy it.”

NEW MEDIA
They gave several reasons for presenting Filipino food through videos: the written word exists, after all; but then the world also moves.

“I feel like writing will always be effective,” said Mr. Narisma. “But that medium has been around for a while. As we get older and new generations are able to access media, I guess they digest videos easier. It’s easier for them to retain (when) they see it.”

Mr. Villarcabral remembers a time when he wanted to raise awareness for all sorts of issues as a boy, and figured that he would do that with cinema. “That didn’t pan out professionally.” However, he found out that “The best way to do it is in the most accessible medium, which is cinema. People go to the movies, have a good time. Rather than me being preachy and writing about it, why don’t I entertain people?”

His goals were — and still are — to educate, inform, and enlighten about political, social, and economic movements, but using food as a starting point. “Something that everybody would just agree on.

“They can bicker about religion, about political affiliations. But one thing that people would just sit down and agree about is food,” he said. “Each of them somehow has a craving.”

“Food just breaks down barriers and brings people together.”

REPRESENTATION
Both say that their videos are viewed by Filipinos, here and abroad, and even people who are not actually part of the worldwide Filipino community. The world teems with cultures, but both men take a stand on why Filipino food deserves a voice. “We have been silenced for such a long time,” said Mr. Villarcabral.

Mr. Narisma talked about his experiences watching Filipinos and Filipino food, as translated through international channels on TV back then. “Every time Filipino food comes up — even until now — people think ‘it’s oily, it’s fat, it’s too rich; it looks yucky, it’s all just stews.’”

“There is no material for them to see,” he said in a mixture of English and Filipino, while also noting that the shows he watched back then may have gotten their recipes and impressions from third-hand accounts. “It’s never firsthand accounts, where a person comes to the Philippines to live here for years and then try to explore the food itself.

“Representation is still important,” he said in a mixture of English and Filipino. “Once you gain (a position) where people listen, you can start bringing up more important stuff,” he said. “We tried our best not to be political, but we still pay attention to things.”

Mr. Villarcabral continued, “We never got that platform to speak about our plight as a people. Whether we live here in the archipelago, or when we migrate to another country. What is their story? How did they live through all of the struggles and hardships to get to where they are today?”

He gave as an example, the cultural hegemony that the United States has held since after the Second World War. Since then, “It’s always been their perspective. We’ve always seen the world through their eyes.”

BUYING LOCAL
We’re often told that buying and consuming local helps in preserving culture, as well as helping your fellow Filipino. You can, and you should, but it doesn’t fix all of the problems. For one thing, it’s been pointed out that several of the artisanal food and ingredients that are often featured can be more expensive and harder to find than what’s readily on shelves.

“The consumer is just influenced by what is being marketed towards them,” said Mr. Villarcabral. Therefore, the onus is on producers and the government to step up.

“It’s not just about preserving,” Mr. Narisma said in a mixture of English and Filipino. “I think it’s convincing people to be more open to change and modernization.”

He talked about old-school ways of farming and production that do not produce high yields, or crops and species that become endangered because of a lack of modernization in agriculture. He remembers Guimaras mangoes, for example: the island was once one of the top producers of the fruit. But because of lack of support, they weren’t able to catch up to their Southeast Asian neighbors in modernizing the harvest. The Filipino fruit would arrive abroad bruised, and then fall out of favor. He talked about coffee farms he had once visited in Cavite, but due to a lack of support (and the farmers selling their land for cash), several have since closed. “I want our country, our people, to be well-known in a better way,” said Mr. Narisma.

“Be competitive. Make your price accessible (by making) your tech more innovative. Make more innovations. Make your tech more efficient,” said Mr. Villarcabral.

Mr. Narisma said, “It’s not the producers, it’s not the consumers also. I think it’s the people who are in charge of our systems here.”