FOOD has always been with us. Our ancient forebears harnessed what was edible in our locality. They roasted, fried, boiled or ate raw the bounty of the sea, the edible flora and fauna in their fields and forests. The ways of cooking and the food available to them broadened as the centuries passed and people from other lands came, bringing with them other ways of preparing food. They brought new ingredients to the Cebuano table like maize, potatoes, flour, butter and cheese, olives, apples and grapes. These days, food from other lands are readily available in restaurants, hotels and supermarkets, and somewhere along the way, our food tastes have changed and have become more international than local.
Will our food heritage get lost with all the international influences in our country? Not if Jessica Avila can help it.
She has never studied culinary arts. But she grew up with her maternal grandparents, Angel and Filomena Cabatingan, on the island of Bantayan. They lived in a huge house that continually entertained guests. Her grandparents had a kusinera (female cook) and had, on call, other kusineras to help in the kitchen when visitors came.
Priests after misas cantadas would always have breakfast at the Cabatingan home. Every May, her grandmother would have Flores de Mayo which entailed giving refreshments every day. And every May 31, the place would have a grand event to co-celebrate her grandfather’s birthday, and for Angel Jr. and her tita Marie C. Manuel. Of course, every Holy Week saw a procession of guests at her grandparents’ house. Lechon, hamonada, pancit, chicken-potato salad, chicken relleno, leche flan and other dishes were always on the festive table.
Jessica came to Cebu City for her studies when she was in Grade 2, but all her vacations and all summers were spent in Bantayan where, even though she did not have to work with the kusineras in the kitchen, she somehow learned how certain foods should be prepared, how they should taste.
After her college studies, she worked (and still does) as life underwriter with Sun Life Financial, which, for her, is really her occupation. Cooking as a commercial venture came unexpectedly when her husband Valeriano “Bobit” Avila and his friends decided to open a restaurant in 1979, Chikaan, which she managed. She has since been involved in other restaurants (along with a catering business)—Tia Nena’s, Café Valeriano, Port Seafood, Chika-deli—but it is her Chikaan’s Cebuano food specialty that gave her the opportunity to bring Cebuano food to other places like Hotel Nikko/Manila Garden/Hotel Dusit, Heritage Hotel, and to Singapore, Hong Kong, Penang (Malaysia) during the Department of Tourism’s promotion of Islands Philippines. When she was president of HRRAC (Hotel, Resort and Restaurant Association of Cebu), the association used to have a regional food festival and once, she showcased the foods of Region 8.
Jessica says that for her food promotion, she does a lot of research. For the past 10 years, she has promoted Cebuano food with Marco Polo Plaza Cebu’s Sugbusog. And during Independence Day celebrations, she has also promoted Filipino food (of other regions) there.
Her philosophy on heritage cuisine is not just Cebuano but also the other regions of the Philippines. She says, “We grew up with them. We inherited our recipes from our mothers, our grandmothers. Other influences we adapt to our taste. We will never forget our lechon, served as is or in several other ways, after most of the meat has gone. Nothing beats our tinolang manok with green papaya, malunggay and green chilis. Our buwad is a hit even in five-star hotels and our lowly ginamos can be upped to international standards by sautéing it in olive oil, with tomatoes and onions. This is the kind of cooking I know best and I tell the chefs I train, that if they want to be their own entrepreneur, their own catering business, to go into heritage cuisine. People like food they are familiar with and heritage food costs are not so high because the ingredients are available locally. I like to leave behind a legacy especially for the young chefs to learn how to cook Cebuano heritage cuisine.”