California has a unique quality where people from around the world can find ingredients with similar flavors to their own countries. It’s never the same, but that’s not always a bad thing.
Sonoko Sakai made the art of Japanese cooking a foundation in the kitchen. She is a Japanese food writer and cooking instructor who has integrated her culinary skills to the California pantry.
Isa Fabro incorporated Filipino flavors and textures to the American palette. She’s a critically acclaimed chef who’s created an ongoing dialogue in the Filipino food movement in Los Angeles.
Cecilia Leung’s experiments with her Cantonese heritage and American upbringing to re-create classics with her own twist. She is a self-taught pastry chef who’s recipes have gained recognition over the years.
These three Asian American foodies are breaking barriers in today’s food industry. Their key ingredient: authenticity.
When it comes to cooking international foods, authenticity makes its way into the conversation. USC Visions and Voices hosted a panel with Sakai, Fabro and Leung, diving deeper into what makes their food “authentic.”
Sakai recognized the different flavors in California produce and made it a part of cooking. She talked about her experience through her pickled plums recipe umeboshi and that even produce grown in the same location can vary by season.
“I decided that authenticity really comes from within each cook,” Sakai said. “This is rice grown in California, and may not have the same stickiness as the rice in Japan, but I think this is authentic to me because this is what I grew up here.”
Leung, who grew up working in her family’s Cantonese restaurant connected memories as a component to flavors in her recipes.
“The sake that it evokes that memory is enough,” Cecilia said. “Because food evolves and ingredients evolve.”
Isa Fabro rediscovered the Filipino food she had as a kid and started cooking it in a creative way. She tried to capture the flavor of mango in peak season in the Philippines in her recipe for Mango Royal that she published in NY Times Cooking.
“I think it’s so important to connect food to where it comes from and how we have a role,” said Fabro.
Fabro referred to her experience being a female line cook in a restaurant, but this quote stood out to me:
“You can’t hide who you are in the kitchen either.”
Part of the beauty of cooking is being able to leave a part of yourself in the dish. It’s what makes anything you make, authentic.
If you stuck around to the very end of the webinar you would have seen Cecilia Leung’s demonstration on how to make wontons. I came ready to follow along with her in my own kitchen. I adapted the quantities to my taste, but you can find her recipe here.