Chef Claude Tayag talks adobo in SF book launch

A big crowd shows hunger for Filipino food culture at Chef Claude Tayag’s.book launching in San Francisco. CONTRIBUTED

SAN FRANCISCO – Celebrated Filipino chef, restaurateur, artist and writer Claude Tayag unveiled his latest book, “The Ultimate Filipino Adobo: Stories Through the Ages,” at the Philippine Center in San Francisco on April 21 as part of the celebration of the Filipino Food Month in the Bay Area

The book launch was organized with the Filipino Food Movement, on the sides of the second Friday of the “Filipino Food Market” at the Philippine Center.

Before the book launch, Tayag, accompanied by Filipino Food Movement President Sonia Delen, gave Consul General Neil Ferrer an autographed copy of “The Ultimate Filipino Adobo.”

Around a hundred people attended the launch of “The Ultimate Filipino Adobo” at the Philippine Center’s Kalayaan Hall, where Tayag shared his take on one of the Philippines’ quintessential dishes that is loved by Filipinos and Americans alike.

Keesa Ocampo of the Filipino Food Movement hosts the book launch of Chef Claude Tayag’s “The Ultimate Filipino Adobo: Stories Through the Ages” at the Kalayaan Hall of the Philippine Center in San Francisco on 21 April 2023. CONTRIBUTED

“We cannot have just one kind of adobo. In the Filipino context, adobo is a cooking method with vinegar as its primary source of liquid… The soy sauce is just one of the seasonings. The flavoring varies from household to household, region to region,” Tayag said during the book launch, moderated by Keesa Ocampo of the Filipino Food Movement.

During his talk, Tayag emphasized that the adobo is a cooking method and a cooked dish that is representative of the Philippines’ cultural diversity.

Ige Ramos, one of the book’s editors, described “The Ultimate Filipino Adobo” as “perhaps the ultimate compendium of adobo recipes and stories in the early 21^st century.”

Filipino food historian Felice Santa Maria said that the book “not only traces the transformation of a dish so dear to generations of families and cooks; it is itself a notable statement of what adobo has become as of its publication.” She added that “interpretations for Filipino adobo will continue wherever Filipinos settle, work, and win friends.”

“The Ultimate Filipino Adobo” is the second book in the Philippine Foreign Service Institute’s gastrodiplomacy series, after “Pancit 101: Dishes of Luzon.” According to retired Ambassador Jose Maria Cariño: “The conduct of international relations becomes easier when the participants are provided delicious offerings.” Both books are available at the Consulate’s Sentro Rizal Library.

Tayag gained recognition in the U.S. after giving American celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain a tour of his home province of Pampanga, the Philippines’ “culinary capital,” in the TV show “No Reservations” in 2009. In the said episode, Tayag introduced sisig, a Kapampangan delicacy that Bourdain predicted to become “the next big thing” in the U.S. Sisig, along with adobo, is now among the top-of-mind Filipino dishes in America.

The last Friday of the “Filipino Food Market” will take place at the Philippine Center on 28 April 2023—featuring a Philippine food and travel panel discussion by the DOT Office in San Francisco, to be headlined by Filipino American event planner and travel enthusiast Anthony Schlander of “Anthony Presents.”