One of the most highly attended panels was the "New Asian Fusion" session which featured four prominent personalities : New York-based cookbook author and restaurateur Amy Besa of Purple Yam and founder of the Ang Sailing Atin Culinary Heritage Institute, Grace Young, author of Stir Frying to the Sky's Edge and a Saveur editor; Kathy Gunst, cookbook author and chef for the radio show Here and Now; and the celebrated Madhur Jaffrey, cookbook author, teacher and actor.
The panel was described in the program thus: "This workshop will take a fresh look and three Asians cuisines -- Chinese, Indian and Filipino -- and explore their influence in the Indian cooking.,where flavors and ingredients are so popular in many American home and restaurant kitchens today, to Filipino cuisine, which has been slow to gain acceptance by American cooks despite the long shared history in U.S. and the Phippines." The panel seemed to show that Americans are actually very curious and interested in Filipino food. Amy Besa exclaimed, "I had the most questions of all the panelists. Attendees lined up to ask me questions about Filipino food!"
In previous e-zine article, Amy Besa discussed this, "In every conceivable forum taht deals with Philippine food, no one ask why Filipinos love fried chicken, hamburgers and fries. The one question that is constantly ask by both Filipinos and non-Filipinos alike is: Why is our food not mainstream in the U.S. and, for that matter, wherever Filipinos have settled?"
Amy Besa summarized it well, "I had a meeting with Leslie Stoker, the President of my publisher, Stewart Tabori and Chang. She was quite excited that the head of the London-based sales department of their holding company had picked out Memories of Philippine Kitchens for a revised and ipdated edition because of its sales potential. Sales had deemed Memories to be the Philippine cookbook that people go to and wanted to take the oppurtunity to increase its sales all over the world," Amy replied to Leslie, " Yes, this would be good for Filipinos because they feel that their food is largely ignored here and abroad." Leslie look at Amy and said , " Well, ot os because we do not know enough about it. That's why we need this book to solve that problem." That was the answer.
On our tables, in our kitchens, during our family get-togethers, in our daily lives, the answer is in our very own food. We need to talk about it. We need to cook it. We need to share it. My sons grew up in America and, as a second generation Fil-Ams, added, "Make a Filipino food a part of you. Cook ot everyday. It is what we are. It's how Americans know our food!" Amy Besa reiterated, "Eat Pinoy food with love and relish it because there is nothing like it in the world." She added, "Stop saying our food too greasy or too brown. If we keep repeating it, we perpetuate it," Amy insisted . "Just serve it. Adobo is brown but it's delicious! The New York Times even raved about it."
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