Truly a treasure to try out and keep are the recipes and stories in the beloved cookbook “Step Into Our Kitchens: Theresian Recipes and Tales,” edited by our very own Theresian-Cebuana, multi-awarded Filipino-American fiction writer/author Cecilia Manguerra-Brainard.
Cecilia (Baby for short) is a loyal product of St. Theresa’s College (STC-Manila) where she took up high school, and much later, married an American lawyer and settled in California where her love for literature started.
During a memorable 60th anniversary of their HS class, Baby and classmates, amid youthful giggles and updating, decided: “We should leave a small something of ourselves for our families, friends and the next generations.” Hence, this cookbook.
The initial idea was to collect recipes from Theresians of two types: those who cook and those who don’t. Because she is a fiction writer, Baby thought of combining recipes with anecdotes, personal essays, and a brief biography of STC’s much-admired foundress, Belgian nun Mother Marie Louise De Meester.
The book includes over 70 recipes mostly from Theresians, some of whom submitted more than one recipe. These are the chefs, the food bloggers, and those who love to cook. Some have recipes that honor relatives who have “gone on.” Mariquit E. Soriano shares an heirloom piece (Mommy Consuelo’s Chiffon Cake). Rose Cuisia Franco’s brother Jackie contributed (Jackie’s Callos) to the family. Maria Carmen Fructuoso Duarte wanted to honor her mother, Catherine Ann Fructuoso Duarte, by sharing recipes from her culinary notebook, and more.
Among Theresians from Cebu, Patricia Manguerra-Aberasturi, who runs a catering business, introduced a recipe from her Escaño family. The Lardizabal sisters, Noemi L. Dado and Lorna L. Dietz, inherited the baking talent of their late mom, Sally Veloso-Lardizabal, who operated a successful bakery in Cebu.
Some recipes are elaborate, others simple. Baby suggests trying them all, for they’re simply amazing! The list is long, and the book contains more of these familial connections between recipes and families—precious connections that make recipes more than a list of ingredients with instructions, but which infuse recipes with memory, tradition, culture and history.
Happy reading and eating!