From ‘lumpia’ to limelight
When Abigail “Abi” Marquez started creating recipe videos as a creative outlet during the tail-end of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022, she never imagined it would lead her to the Webby Awards stage, where she proudly donned a Filipinana gown to receive an award in New York City.
The 24-year-old content creator from Laguna is the first Filipina to be named People’s Voice Winner in the General Social: Food and Drink Category at the 28th annual Webby Awards, besting creators globally.
“While receiving that award and coming up on stage, talagang hindi ko mababa yung ngiti ko (I can’t hide my smile) … In a room where you are a minority—being Asian, a young person and a woman—it’s just very nakaka-proud to be on the stage,” Marquez said to Lifestyle.
Her knack for cooking and production also led her to bag Tiktok’s Foodie Creator of 2023 award, become a part of Forbes’ 30 under 30 list, and earned her a nomination for the prestigious James Beard 2024 Media Awards under the social media account category.
She is widely known as the “Lumpia Queen” for her popular social media series, where she transforms various foods into lumpia-wrapped versions, such as peach mango pie, monggo, sisig and even sinigang, among others. She experiments with well-loved recipes, adding her unique twist to each one.
Growing up, she always had a strong relationship with food. She had many questions and strong opinions on food, which sometimes irked her loving mother, who cooked for their family. She showed the early manifestations of her being a “foodie.”
From the kitchen, where she watched her mom cook and ate with her family, to the living room, where she watched her version of “cartoons” on the Food Network, to high school, where she shared street food with her friends after classes, most of Marquez’s special moments in life revolve around food.
‘Clash’ of interests and hobbies
She attributes her cooking skills, which she showcases in her videos, to a combination of her mother’s culinary standards and the educational food content she consumed on television and YouTube.
Marquez graduated magna cum laude with a degree in Hotel, Restaurant and Institution Management from the University of the Philippines in 2022, the same year she started creating her recipe videos. But doing content creation full time was an “easy decision” for Marquez.
The opportunity to monetize her videos came quickly. A month after she started content creation, she was able to generate income from YouTube AdSense and brand partnerships. Soon enough, her earnings became equal to a decent salary if she worked in a corporate setting using her degree, she said.
On a deeper level, her videos were an “inevitable clashing” of her interests and hobbies.
Through content creation, she can pursue her passion for cooking, and use her knowledge of business management, her love of filmmaking, her attention to detail in production, and even her talent for singing and performing, all at once, without having to choose among them.
“It gave me a chance to make a career out of my passion or my hobby,” Marquez said. “Content creation was the answer and it really used 100 percent of me, so, ‘yung level of fulfillment ko with content is amazing.”
A good example of this is one of her favorite videos, the bibingka recipe, where she showed how to cook a bibingka while she sang “Bibingka” by Ben&Ben in the background.
Marquez has a following of over seven million on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.
The short videos she makes often start with an idea. “The idea could be something as simple as, parang magandang gawan ng (it seems like a good idea to make a) recipe video itong song na ito, or parang maganda ma-feature itong nostalgic dish na ‘to, or it could be parang maganda gumawa ng video with this editing style,” she said.
It’s similar to when Taylor Swift said she “loves songwriting because it’s always different.”
One-woman team
After idea generation, she writes her scripts, prepares the lights and camera, shoots the video, edits the video, uploads and captions the content on social media, and seeks feedback from other creator friends, among other pre- and postproduction steps.
She was a one-woman team for the first two years of her content creation journey, and she struggled giving up control over her process, especially her video-editing, because an Abi Marquez video has this “rhythm” that she carefully crafts in her content.
“I can’t explain it to other people but I have a rhythm. It’s something I have in common with my sisters, who are also editors, and other filmmakers I know, but it’s something I find difficult to teach other people,” she said.
Production technicality aside, Marquez said she is focused on creating “easy, simple and accessible” recipes that viewers can recreate.
“When I make recipes, I always try to think if kaya ba siyang gawin ng ibang tao (another person will be able to do it), and if it’s too complicated, I don’t do it,” she said.
Moreover, her guiding principles as a creator is “providing value to her viewers, whether it be an educational or entertaining video. She aims to make cooking “relatable” and less intimidating to the viewers.
Staying true to her core has opened so many doors for Marquez. Aside from her awards, her content allowed her to collaborate with local and international creators in food and other niches such as chef Boy Lee, chef JP Anglo, Kuya Lord, Jessica Sulhee, Andy Cooks, Uncle Roger and Filipino American rapper Saweetie, among others.
“Other creators specifically are into Filipino food, because in all the collaborations I did in the US, siguro 15 creators ‘yun … All of them really wanted to make Filipino food,” she said.
These collaborations allowed her to share Filipino food with other audiences, and showed her that there is a lot of interest in Filipino cuisine.
“Everyone wanted to learn how to do it. It’s just that there’s not a lot of it (content) yet. So I would really encourage Filipino creators also to produce more content on Filipino food.”
Advocacy
Her achievements made her realize one of her advocacies: “to use the platform to introduce Filipino food on a global scale because I know that I have the eyes on the platform.
“The opportunity is here … Possible na ma-feature tayo on that level of recognition.”
Marquez will be one of the speakers of Digital Marketing Asia conference on Sept. 5. This is another platform for her to encourage other creators and aspiring creators.
“I want to show them that they can also do it. I want to share with them some good practices, what to do and what are good strategies when you make a video.”
Marquez said that she wants to do this because content creation is “unconventional” in a way, and when she was starting her journey, she also needed all the tips and help she could get. Last year, she hosted a creator gathering with her fellow creators to exchange good practices and create a sense of camaraderie in their field.
Asked about her future plans, Marquez said that she strives to continuously learn more about her craft and explore shorter and longer video outputs.
Together with her team, she is also “brainstorming” for a cookbook.
“Right now, everything is digital. But in the future, we also want something tangible for my viewers, for my community to be able to hold on to. What better way than a printed recipe of the recipes you love?”
