For Jam Melchor, to cook means cooking Filipino
It’s an exciting time for Filipino food. Our cuisine has been abuzz, gaining recognition from all corners of the globe.
For this, we have our new generation of Filipino chefs from around the world to thank. At their restaurants, near and far, the young ones who’ve proudly embraced their roots are creatively interpreting Filipino food to the delight of their patrons.
Our digital creators who showcase the diversity of Philippine cuisine have also played a significant role in inspiring foreign food personalities and locals alike to take a deeper interest in Filipino food.
At home, there is also a newfound yearning to cast light on age-old recipes, cooking techniques, Indigenous food, and ingredients.
A prominent voice in the “renaissance” of Filipino food is chef Jam Melchor. He is the founder of the Philippine Culinary Heritage Movement, with the mission to preserve Philippine culinary heritage and gastronomy.
It was through the tireless efforts of Melchor that Filipino food was given recognition as an art form. This eventually led to the declaration of the month of April as “Buwan ng Kalutong Filipino.”
Melchor, as head of the Slow Food Youth Network Philippines (an affiliate of Slow Food International), supports the transformation of food systems toward sustainability and equitable access to good, clean, and fair food.
He is also a college professor in culinary arts, hospitality, and tourism at St. Scholastica’s College Manila. Melchor also serves as the executive chef at the residence of the Ambassador of the United States to the Philippines.
The young and accomplished chef hails from Pampanga.
To him, home is where food is more than just nourishment—it is memory, tradition, and identity. To cook was a calling for Melchor. “I didn’t go into the kitchen because I had to, I went in because I was drawn to it.”
He intimated that his culinary path from the beginning was anchored on a deep sense of cultural pride. Melchor owes who he is today, primarily, to the women in his family who cook as they did generations before, and who continue to uphold their food customs and traditions.
He credits his evolution to the farmers, home cooks, food historians, cultural workers, market vendors, and chefs he encountered along the way.
Filipino food
Passionately, Melchor describes what Filipino food is to him. It is memory. It is our collective history—layered, diverse, resilient.
Filipino food is about woven tales of migration, colonization, adaptation, and survival. It is beyond ingredients and techniques—it’s about people, identity, and connection.
Our food, the dishes we enjoy, in many ways, reflect conversations between the past and the present.
Early on in his career, he realized that for him, to cook meant cooking Filipino. He also learned that cooking could be a powerful platform for advocacy.
Melchor often questioned why our food was often overlooked, misunderstood, or misrepresented even in our own country.
His heart knew that we deserved more. Melchor strove for more visibility, more respect, more pride; the Philippine Culinary Heritage Movement was the answer to his longing.
Cookbook
When Melchor cooks, expect it to be traditional. Everything he whips up is rooted in authenticity.
“I’m not a fan of over-stylizing our dishes to the point that they lose meaning. My cooking style leans toward cultural storytelling—I cook heirloom dishes, but I also reinterpret them in ways that make people think and feel.”
His ingredient choices gravitate toward vinegars, fermented flavors, rice traditions, and dishes with deep cultural resonance.
Asadong matua, galantina, morcon, pindang, burong isda, sinigang sa bayabas, kilayin, and adobong puti are among the dishes he documented in a cookbook called “Kayumanggi.” How meaningful it is to name a book after the color of our skin!
Kayumanggi, the brown skin we wear with pride, becomes a metaphor for heritage and resilience, claims Melchor.
The book is more than a mere collection of recipes—it is, as he aptly describes, a cultural manifesto, and a celebration of the depth and diversity of Filipino foodways.
The culinary heirlooms featured in “Kayumanggi” are a blend of what Melchor grew up with, those passed down by elders, and what he discovered through years of dedicated research.
Every dish is accompanied by a reflection, an essay, or a narrative that offers a deeper understanding of what it means to be Filipino through what we eat.
The chef believes that the next chapter of Philippine cuisine will be one of reclaiming and reimagining. “But we have to ground ourselves. Let’s celebrate the new, but not at the expense of the old,” quips Melchor.
