While some women fear the fire, others become it.
From their inception a mere year ago, The Entree.Pinays, as they're known, have been aiming to set the culinary world ablaze by shedding a light on the food of those who came before them and, on the ever-evolving cuisine that defines them as Filipinos.
Meet 'The Entree.Pinays'
A sisterhood of six creative, food-loving Melburnian Filipina entrepreneurs, The Entree.Pinays is made up of co-founders Fides Santos-Arguelles and Grace Guinto; Felis Sarcepuedes, who is in charge of community building; culinary curator Kristina Náray; media manager Sandra Tan; and photographer and visual designer Maysie Lecciones.
"We resonate with the whole notion of being called The Entree.Pinays," Grace shares, "Entrée being the first course of a Western meal and, Pinays being the Tagalog word for Filipino women."
Meet The Entree.Pinays Source: The Entree.Pinays
With a passion for Filipino cuisine in common, Grace and Fides found each other through Instagram. After several photo likes and comments, the two decided to bring their gastronomic connection offline.
Grace shares that Fides reached out to her via direct messaging, asking to meet to talk about ideas on how to raise the profile of Filipino food. Grace was on maternity leave at that time, and was on the fence about going back to work full-time or taking a career hiatus. While she needed to sort out what she wanted to do, what was unquestionable was she just "couldn’t say no to [Fides'] offer of Lets talk about Filipino food."
The duo soon became six. Felis and Grace met through their siblings, while Felis came to know about Kristina through the Filipino food she sold at South Melbourne Market. On the other hand, the group asked Sandra to join them after she followed and interacted with them through Instagram; and Maysie became a member after doing photography and digital work for the team.
The six now set out to find and create events to elevate and promote Filipino food, with Fides sharing, "When we speak to our fellow foodies, we’re always asked where they can eat good Filipino food. And the answer is always Well, do you know a Filipino family? There's nowhere we can confidently say yes, go here, go there. So we thought - is there an opportunity for us to do this?"
Melbourne Food and Wine Festival: Barrio
Through Fides' connections from her former government career, the group is now elevating Filipino cuisine through one of the biggest platforms around - the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival.
For the first time in the history of the iconic festival, Filipino cuisine will be part of its programme.
The group's first ever food event is under the umbrella title 'Barrio'.
"Barrio means 'neighbourhood', for those who may not know. We wanted to create a series of events that celebrate that and, communicate that to an audience outside of our community," Sandra shares.
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'Barrio' will be featuring four of the biggest Filipino names in the culinary world - Jordy Navarra of Toyo Eatery in Manila; Nicole Ponseca of Jeepney and Maharlika in New York; Yasmin Newman, celebrated author of 7000 Islands: Cherished Recipes and Stories from the Philippine; and Melbourne's own Ross Magnaye of Rice Paper Sister.
"[Our chef's backgrounds] really speak to the diaspora that is the Filipino community," Sandra says, adding, "We are creating an opportunity for all of these people to converge, put their own spin on Filipino food and, show that each person has their own story to tell within a cuisine that is [also] so diverse within itself."
Tickets for the Barrio dining series running from March 12 to 13, as well as the talk to be given by Nicole Ponseca, Yasmin Newman and The Entree.Pinays on March 11 are now sold out.
For those interested to learn more about Filipino cuisine, Nicole Ponseca will also be giving a Masterclass on March 10 at the House of Food and Wine at Melbourne's Malthouse Theatre.
Purpose, pride and palate
While Barrio is The Entree.Pinay's biggest project yet, the group sees their participation in the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival as only the first step to their ultimate purpose of bringing Filipino cuisine to the forefront.
"I think people have been curious for a long time [about Filipino food]. We just haven’t shifted the narrative to this scale before," Fides shares, adding, "It starts as an education piece. What comes after that is an appreciation and then hopefully a demand to experience [the cuisine] even more,"
And for The Entree.Pinays, their experience of the cuisine has always revolved around cultural pride for Filipino food, and an appreciation for both puristic techniques, and re-imagined gradations of the familiar.
According to Sandra, their group is focused on "keeping the traditions but also showing what people are doing now."
Traditional pancit and, re-imagined chicken inasal and barbecue sio-bao: "It's about keeping the traditions but also showing what people are doing now." Source: The Entree.Pinays
Sandra also says that despite the "cultural cringe" some may get from counter-mainstream Filipino dishes and ingredients, their group is about making these palatable "to a crowd that isn’t as educated about Filipino food. Food like dinuguan [blood stew] - it’s almost like Spanish morcilla [blood sausage]. Why can’t we also embrace dinuguan in the same light?"
Grace agrees, adding that due to our cultural inclination to assimilate in "wherever land we find as our second home," we tend to adapt and contain our cuisine within our own community. She muses that while she "never really wanted to bring sinigang [sour and savoury soup] or anything like that [for lunch] in primary school," pride for Filipino food has been revived in younger Filipino-Australians like her child who "doesn't want a sandwich for lunch, but sinigang in a thermoflask".
"Now, us being parents and older generations of Australian Filipinos, we’re wanting to talk about it a lot more. We’re not hiding behind the fact that it’s not as good as Thai cuisine or not as good as your Vietnamese," Grace shares, adding, "Once we actually take pride in our own cuisine and our own culture, then other people will follow and take notice."
"Once we actually take pride in our own cuisine and our own culture, then other people will follow and take notice." Source: The Entree.Pinays
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