‘Also Filipino’ is our next national cookbook

You must buy this book.

For many reasons. First, it’s an elegant hardcover with stunning photographs by Mylene Chung; it’ll look fantastic on your coffee table, very enticing by your bedside for late night reading, and best of all, on your kitchen for its primary purpose as a far-from-ordinary cookbook.

Second, it looks great: full color on matte black pages. Third, it’s filled with recipes, 75 of them, from all over the archipelago, 75 specialty regional dishes that, as the author and auteur so accurately says, “We never had growing up.”

It’s a rediscovery and a redefinition of our national cuisine. Fourth, it’s the newest—and for me, the most compelling—from bestselling cookbook author and auteur Angelo Comsti. His books: Home-Made for the Holidays, From Our Table to Yours, The Filipino Family Cookbook, and Fuss-Free Filipino Food are all worth collecting. But Also Filipino is his primus inter pares.

Angelo literally is first among equals. From his towering height to his ready smile and easy charm and his vast knowledge of all aspects culinary, he’s one of those people that you really can’t miss.

He is a chef, first and foremost,  whose path brought him to publishing. He’s been the editor of two of the most respected food magazines in the country. His latest book cements his reputation. It documents his travels to 22 regions in the Philippines over the course of four years.

It is a one-of-a-kind collection of lesser-known Filipino dishes and the tales behind the people that make them. So, you thought you knew everything you needed to know about Filipino food? Think again.