And Tabligan's.
All About Artisanal Food
By Eric S. Caruncho
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 10:31:00 08/14/2010
Filed Under: Food
When it comes to good food, small is beautiful
THERE used to be a time when the phrase “untouched by human hands” was considered a mark of quality when it referred to food. From farm to dinner table, everything was produced by efficient, sterile machines, to minimize the risk of contamination by germ-ridden humans.
Now, of course, we know better.
Large-scale mechanized food production by faceless corporate factories may bring affordable processed food for the masses. But at what cost?
When was the last time you ate chicken that didn’t taste of the antibiotics, growth hormones and whatever it is they put in the feed? Or believed that the “cheese food” in your sandwich was really cheese and not some kind of homogenized edible wax?
At the same time, we have become more food-obsessed than ever, thanks to the plethora of cooking shows, celebrity chefs, culinary academies and the flood of information flowing through the worldwide web.
As a result, we are slowly turning into a nation of finicky eaters: free-range this, organic that, pure pesticide- and preservative-free whole foods the way God intended them to be.
The latest buzzword in the culinary world is “artisanal,” meaning food produced only from the best ingredients, in small batches, by people who are passionate about making the best possible product, whether it’s cheese, bread, pastries, sauces, salad dressings or a cherished family recipe.
To get a handle on the current trend towards artisanal food, we turned to chef and food expert Mitos Benitez Yñiguez.
Mitos’ passion for good food runs deep: her family has run the Mario’s Restaurant franchise -an institution in fine dining-since 1971. After several years of running the original Mario’s in Baguio City, Mitos and her cinematographer husband Boy Yñiguez recently opened the Hill Station restaurant at the newly-restored Casa Vallejo hotel, a historic Baguio landmark.
Hill Station promptly won a devoted following, thanks to Mitos’s signature “slow food” such as lamb estofado, smoked paprika roasted salmon, Cambodian coriander and garlic chicken, tuna tataki, short rib ragu on homemade fettucine and her own signature tapas, all made with local ingredients.
More to the point, she has also begun to sell her own artisanal food products such as tuyo in olive oil, mango chutney, granola, sesame mirin and salsa monja.
SIM caught up with her in Baguio City, where she channels her formidable energy toward making Hill Station the go-to place for good food.
Sunday Inquirer Magazine (SIM): What the hell is “artisanal” food anyway? Isn’t it just a fancy Martha Stewart way of saying “homemade”?
Mitos Benitez Yñiguez (MBY): Yes and no. “Artisanal” refers to hand-made, as in crafts and furniture, and hand-made breads, jams, cheeses...So in food it means a lot of care has been put into making that product. And since it’s hand-made, not a big quantity is made, as opposed to commercial products produced by the millions by industrial machines, that have uniformity in look, color, taste. For example, I make my own breads at Hill Station and make a few loaves a day just for the day. No two loaves look exactly the same. So it dosesn’t just mean home-made. To me, artisanal (when I see shops abroad with that sign) means superior quality.
SIM: When did this trend hit the Philippines?
MBY: In the last 10 years or so, when culinary schools started sprouting around the country, the trend of artisanal food started, what with more young students enrolling in culinary schools and jumping into the food industry. But I believe that the Philippines as a country has been a major player in artisanal food since our lolas and great great grand-lola’s days, with stuff like ensaymada, pan de sal, tsokolate tableya, suman, pastillas de leche, “Majestic ham” since 1946, Ilocos bagnet, Baguio longganisa, and so on. These are the old stuff we know from our childhood made by our lolas themselves since there were no stores to buy them from. Today most households still produce delicacies the same way their lolas did. Or we buy the specialties from the provinces when we travel, because we know that only one person in that town makes it and makes it best.
SIM: Is the trend related to other trends, such as organic produce?
MBY: Not necessarily, but more often than not, organically-grown ingredients are used. The term “organic” really came from the West (USA, Japan, Europe), because the food in those countries has been commercially produced for so long that they had to go back to organic ways for health and environmental reasons. This in turn started a new trend and became a great marketing tool, a way to charge higher prices. In this country, it’s still not extraordinary; buying from a household instead of a store is still cheaper. It’s the big cities like Manila that have followed the Western way of thinking and have bought into the marketing ploy of artisanal and organic. Ask a lola in the province who has made kesong puti for the last 50 years and she wouldn’t know what you’re talking about!
SIM: When did Filipino foodies become so knowledgeable about these things? Or have we always been so?
MBY: I believe we’ve always been so. If one comes from the province, or from a family whose recipes passed from one generation to the next, Today the climate has changed with overpopulation in the cities, a faster pace of life, etc. This has caused a boom in commercialized food, instant noodles, instant fries, microwaveable foods, “ready to fry” food, and so on. Everything has been made more convenient for the working mom, etc. Following the West in food trends, we are once more going back to “artisanal” or “organic” foods.
SIM: Describe your own food journey, with emphasis on your own food products.
MBY: Both my grandmothers were GREAT cooks! My paternal grandmother, Rosenda “Senday” Lavadia Benitez was from Pagsanjan, and during the summers, my working mother and father would send us to stay with them, mostly to give them (my folks) a break from their four rowdy kids, barely a year apart. There we ate by the river on banana stalks and banana leaves on a raft with a thatched roof. Lola made the best chicken pork mole, and we had inihaw na dalag grown in her fish pond, fern and snails from the river cooked in coconut cream, kesong puti, etc.
My maternal grandmother Titona Garcia Villarreal, on the other hand, was my “Spanish” grandmother, who joined us when I was in 5th grade and we moved to Baguio. So the legacy of Spanish food wafted through our kitchen and flowed in our veins, as she cooked our favorite staples like fabada, carne frita, tortilla de patatas, lengua, callos, paella, cocido, leche flan, arroz con leche (my favorite!) with cinnamon.
It was my mother, Nenuca Villarreal Benitez, who was eternally busy (workaholic mom) who would take the time to bake our bread, cakes, puddings, etc., just so our baon was never store bought. In the ’60s, the electricity in Baguio fluctuated so much that my mom could only bake at night (no gas ovens yet in those days) when the current would stabilize, and at midnight or 1 a.m. she would wake us all up if we wanted to come into the kitchen for a fresh batch of hot cinnamon rolls (meant for baon the next day), and that’s what midnight snacks meant to us. We only had sandwiches for lunch baon and the funny thing is, I envied my classmates who brought rice, tocino and egg in their lunch boxes. Sometimes I would trade my sandwich for their rice lunches, and it was always a fair deal for both parties. Funny thing is, even if I have a gas oven from the first home I’ve had, I too am a “midnight” bread baker. Not from fluctuating electricity but from working in the day, and having more time to myself at night after everyone goes to sleep.
Jams, pickles, salsa monja, granola, smoked fish, salad dressings, sagada kumquats, etc. I’ve always liked experimenting and making, simply because not much was available in the stores in Baguio. European delis did not exist so one had to do it one’s self if one wanted good food.
SIM: How did you develop them? How did you market them? Who’s the market?
MBY:Many recipes were from friends who were fellow foodies, and I just have this inborn instinct of changing and tweaking recipes till I get the taste I want. I sold to friends who ordered at first, then joined the organic farmers who sell their produce in Mario’s Baguio and the Cafe by the Ruins, and it just spread by word of mouth. Today I have a shelf in my restaurant which has become a booming pasalubong corner for diners and hotel guests who stay at Casa Vallejo.
Now at Hill Station, everything is home-made, from pasta to sun-dried tomatoes, ice creams (made with carabao milk), salsa brava (bright red hot sauce from siling labuyo, garlic, olive oil, organic roma tomatoes, etc.)
SIM: Are there any food processing guidelines for would-be food artisans? (expiry dates, preservatives, etc.)
MBY: Start with the best quality, freshest produce. Do not scrimp on good ingredients and you will never fail. I do NOT use any preservatives on any of my products up to this day. Natural preservatives are what keep the shelf life, like honey, olive oil, vinegars. Long slow cooking times is also a must, nothing rushed or made fast and instant. Yeah, you could say it’s just a good old-fashioned way of doing things.
Source
Yeah Soph and I had to take a second look at that shelf on our way out. I promised myself to come back for those bottled fish in olive oil. I want to stop thinking about it now. Hehehe.
A few hours before Soph and I went down to Manila, we had lunch with Sir Ben at the famous kambingan in Scout Barrio called "Tabligan's" and found that they served great, great [post-meal] coffee FOR FREE. S.Ben tells us he saw the staff make it with vanilla and egg yolk. It's at par with the coffee they serve in Ionic!
By Eric S. Caruncho
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 10:31:00 08/14/2010
Filed Under: Food
When it comes to good food, small is beautiful
THERE used to be a time when the phrase “untouched by human hands” was considered a mark of quality when it referred to food. From farm to dinner table, everything was produced by efficient, sterile machines, to minimize the risk of contamination by germ-ridden humans.
Now, of course, we know better.
Large-scale mechanized food production by faceless corporate factories may bring affordable processed food for the masses. But at what cost?
When was the last time you ate chicken that didn’t taste of the antibiotics, growth hormones and whatever it is they put in the feed? Or believed that the “cheese food” in your sandwich was really cheese and not some kind of homogenized edible wax?
At the same time, we have become more food-obsessed than ever, thanks to the plethora of cooking shows, celebrity chefs, culinary academies and the flood of information flowing through the worldwide web.
As a result, we are slowly turning into a nation of finicky eaters: free-range this, organic that, pure pesticide- and preservative-free whole foods the way God intended them to be.
The latest buzzword in the culinary world is “artisanal,” meaning food produced only from the best ingredients, in small batches, by people who are passionate about making the best possible product, whether it’s cheese, bread, pastries, sauces, salad dressings or a cherished family recipe.
To get a handle on the current trend towards artisanal food, we turned to chef and food expert Mitos Benitez Yñiguez.
Mitos’ passion for good food runs deep: her family has run the Mario’s Restaurant franchise -an institution in fine dining-since 1971. After several years of running the original Mario’s in Baguio City, Mitos and her cinematographer husband Boy Yñiguez recently opened the Hill Station restaurant at the newly-restored Casa Vallejo hotel, a historic Baguio landmark.
Hill Station promptly won a devoted following, thanks to Mitos’s signature “slow food” such as lamb estofado, smoked paprika roasted salmon, Cambodian coriander and garlic chicken, tuna tataki, short rib ragu on homemade fettucine and her own signature tapas, all made with local ingredients.
More to the point, she has also begun to sell her own artisanal food products such as tuyo in olive oil, mango chutney, granola, sesame mirin and salsa monja.
SIM caught up with her in Baguio City, where she channels her formidable energy toward making Hill Station the go-to place for good food.
Sunday Inquirer Magazine (SIM): What the hell is “artisanal” food anyway? Isn’t it just a fancy Martha Stewart way of saying “homemade”?
Mitos Benitez Yñiguez (MBY): Yes and no. “Artisanal” refers to hand-made, as in crafts and furniture, and hand-made breads, jams, cheeses...So in food it means a lot of care has been put into making that product. And since it’s hand-made, not a big quantity is made, as opposed to commercial products produced by the millions by industrial machines, that have uniformity in look, color, taste. For example, I make my own breads at Hill Station and make a few loaves a day just for the day. No two loaves look exactly the same. So it dosesn’t just mean home-made. To me, artisanal (when I see shops abroad with that sign) means superior quality.
SIM: When did this trend hit the Philippines?
MBY: In the last 10 years or so, when culinary schools started sprouting around the country, the trend of artisanal food started, what with more young students enrolling in culinary schools and jumping into the food industry. But I believe that the Philippines as a country has been a major player in artisanal food since our lolas and great great grand-lola’s days, with stuff like ensaymada, pan de sal, tsokolate tableya, suman, pastillas de leche, “Majestic ham” since 1946, Ilocos bagnet, Baguio longganisa, and so on. These are the old stuff we know from our childhood made by our lolas themselves since there were no stores to buy them from. Today most households still produce delicacies the same way their lolas did. Or we buy the specialties from the provinces when we travel, because we know that only one person in that town makes it and makes it best.
SIM: Is the trend related to other trends, such as organic produce?
MBY: Not necessarily, but more often than not, organically-grown ingredients are used. The term “organic” really came from the West (USA, Japan, Europe), because the food in those countries has been commercially produced for so long that they had to go back to organic ways for health and environmental reasons. This in turn started a new trend and became a great marketing tool, a way to charge higher prices. In this country, it’s still not extraordinary; buying from a household instead of a store is still cheaper. It’s the big cities like Manila that have followed the Western way of thinking and have bought into the marketing ploy of artisanal and organic. Ask a lola in the province who has made kesong puti for the last 50 years and she wouldn’t know what you’re talking about!
SIM: When did Filipino foodies become so knowledgeable about these things? Or have we always been so?
MBY: I believe we’ve always been so. If one comes from the province, or from a family whose recipes passed from one generation to the next, Today the climate has changed with overpopulation in the cities, a faster pace of life, etc. This has caused a boom in commercialized food, instant noodles, instant fries, microwaveable foods, “ready to fry” food, and so on. Everything has been made more convenient for the working mom, etc. Following the West in food trends, we are once more going back to “artisanal” or “organic” foods.
SIM: Describe your own food journey, with emphasis on your own food products.
MBY: Both my grandmothers were GREAT cooks! My paternal grandmother, Rosenda “Senday” Lavadia Benitez was from Pagsanjan, and during the summers, my working mother and father would send us to stay with them, mostly to give them (my folks) a break from their four rowdy kids, barely a year apart. There we ate by the river on banana stalks and banana leaves on a raft with a thatched roof. Lola made the best chicken pork mole, and we had inihaw na dalag grown in her fish pond, fern and snails from the river cooked in coconut cream, kesong puti, etc.
My maternal grandmother Titona Garcia Villarreal, on the other hand, was my “Spanish” grandmother, who joined us when I was in 5th grade and we moved to Baguio. So the legacy of Spanish food wafted through our kitchen and flowed in our veins, as she cooked our favorite staples like fabada, carne frita, tortilla de patatas, lengua, callos, paella, cocido, leche flan, arroz con leche (my favorite!) with cinnamon.
It was my mother, Nenuca Villarreal Benitez, who was eternally busy (workaholic mom) who would take the time to bake our bread, cakes, puddings, etc., just so our baon was never store bought. In the ’60s, the electricity in Baguio fluctuated so much that my mom could only bake at night (no gas ovens yet in those days) when the current would stabilize, and at midnight or 1 a.m. she would wake us all up if we wanted to come into the kitchen for a fresh batch of hot cinnamon rolls (meant for baon the next day), and that’s what midnight snacks meant to us. We only had sandwiches for lunch baon and the funny thing is, I envied my classmates who brought rice, tocino and egg in their lunch boxes. Sometimes I would trade my sandwich for their rice lunches, and it was always a fair deal for both parties. Funny thing is, even if I have a gas oven from the first home I’ve had, I too am a “midnight” bread baker. Not from fluctuating electricity but from working in the day, and having more time to myself at night after everyone goes to sleep.
Jams, pickles, salsa monja, granola, smoked fish, salad dressings, sagada kumquats, etc. I’ve always liked experimenting and making, simply because not much was available in the stores in Baguio. European delis did not exist so one had to do it one’s self if one wanted good food.
SIM: How did you develop them? How did you market them? Who’s the market?
MBY:Many recipes were from friends who were fellow foodies, and I just have this inborn instinct of changing and tweaking recipes till I get the taste I want. I sold to friends who ordered at first, then joined the organic farmers who sell their produce in Mario’s Baguio and the Cafe by the Ruins, and it just spread by word of mouth. Today I have a shelf in my restaurant which has become a booming pasalubong corner for diners and hotel guests who stay at Casa Vallejo.
Now at Hill Station, everything is home-made, from pasta to sun-dried tomatoes, ice creams (made with carabao milk), salsa brava (bright red hot sauce from siling labuyo, garlic, olive oil, organic roma tomatoes, etc.)
SIM: Are there any food processing guidelines for would-be food artisans? (expiry dates, preservatives, etc.)
MBY: Start with the best quality, freshest produce. Do not scrimp on good ingredients and you will never fail. I do NOT use any preservatives on any of my products up to this day. Natural preservatives are what keep the shelf life, like honey, olive oil, vinegars. Long slow cooking times is also a must, nothing rushed or made fast and instant. Yeah, you could say it’s just a good old-fashioned way of doing things.
Source
Yeah Soph and I had to take a second look at that shelf on our way out. I promised myself to come back for those bottled fish in olive oil. I want to stop thinking about it now. Hehehe.
A few hours before Soph and I went down to Manila, we had lunch with Sir Ben at the famous kambingan in Scout Barrio called "Tabligan's" and found that they served great, great [post-meal] coffee FOR FREE. S.Ben tells us he saw the staff make it with vanilla and egg yolk. It's at par with the coffee they serve in Ionic!