Taste by design: Why Pinoy food is spe-SIAL

PARIS — Filipino restaurants are not yet as ubiquitous as other Asian restaurants in Europe, but Filipino products — from dried mangoes to oyster sauce — are fast becoming staples in supermarket shelves and cupboards around the world.

Credit this to the “texture and the flavor” of Philippine-grown ingredients and food products, says Rosvi Gaetos, executive director of the Philippine Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM). CITEM spearheaded the Philippine participation at the recently concluded Salon International de l’Alimentation or SIAL Paris, the biggest food fair in the world.

“Philippine food takes you on an entire journey of sour, sweet, salty and bitter,” enthuses Rhea Matute, CITEM deputy executive director.

Rosvi adds that though other countries offer similar products like dried fruits and chips, buyers return to the Philippine Pavilion again and again because its products’ taste and texture are like no other. Hence, the Philippine food battle cry of, “Taste by design” or “terroir.”

Rosvi credits the uniqueness of Pinoy raw materials to the country’s soil — a feature no other place on earth can duplicate.

“Taste by place is taste by terroir — it is taste by design,” explains Rosvi.

According to the French, terroir is a mix between a geographical definition and a cultural one. “It is a geographical area with specific geological, hydrological, soil and climate characteristics.”

“For many discriminating buyers, the quality of raw materials is enough. Price is not the determining factor,” she points out.

Our lupang hinirang is indeed our goldmine.

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We were in Paris for the biennial food fair, dubbed the “biggest show on earth” by Nicolas Trentesaux, SIAL Group director, because it involved more than 5,000 companies and over 130,000 trade buyers from 200 countries. Each buyer had to pay around 70 euros to enter the SIAL expo at the Paris Nord Villepinte, so you could say all buyers were “serious” buyers.

An impressive $24.4 million in sales was harvested by 12 of the 15 participating Philippine exhibitors in the five-day SIAL food expo at the Paris Nord Villepinte, with tuna as the best-seller, according to Rosvi. Sales were up by $2.2 million from SIAL 2012. Incidentally, this year’s fair marks SIAL’s 50th anniversary.

With a 300-square-meter country pavilion that was light and pleasing to the eye with its clean lines and rainbow colors, the Philippines attracted a number of firm orders and inquiries.

Rhea points out that the dried mango product with no added sugar was a sure hit because, “there is no added layer to enhance its flavor.”

According to Tom Medina, one of the exhibitors, Mama Sita’s oyster sauce has already outsold the leading Asian brand that Pinoys also use.

When asked to comment on this, Mama Sita’s Clara Lapus says, “We have a very long coastline, we are an archipelago. We have a great source for oysters.”

Franklin Baker, for its part, exports 60 million liters of coconut water annually.

Another reason Pinoy food is popular abroad is that our 12 million OFWs, especially the seafarers, are “very loyal” to Filipino food. They are definitely a captive market to be tapped, because if there’s no place like home, there’s also no food like food from home.

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Rosvi says the packaging of Pinoy products and the presentation of Filipino food is slowly becoming as much a feast to the eyes as they are to the taste buds. That is one reason the Department of Trade and Industry is supporting the participation of private sector food companies in food expos, to expose them to what is marketable. She adds that food companies have to join at least three food fairs to establish themselves, as there are “series” buyers who make firm orders after seeing a product consistently in world-class fairs.

In partnership with CITEM, the Philippine International Trading Corp. or PITC helps in the development and expansion of Philippine products abroad.

For SIAL, PITC carried Malagos chocolates, calamansi liqueur, Century Tuna products, among others.

The unfortunate rise of Ebola cases in West Africa, which exports raw materials for chocolate products, is making buyers turn to the Philippines’ Malagos chocolates, a new variety.

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Proof of the strides Philippine cuisine has taken abroad is the Le Servan restaurant, managed by sisters Tatiana and Katia Fernandez Levha, who are half-Filipino.

According to food critic Wendy Lyn, “Tatiana’s Philippine roots are infused into her lunch and dinner menus...”

Another food critic raved about chef Tatiana’s quail adobo.

“The roasted quail in an adobo marinade, adobo being the Philippine sauce made with soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, black peppercorn, and bay leaves, was tender and richly flavored,” wrote Alexander Lobrano.

With food exports a driver of the Philippine economy, and with the Philippines an agricultural country, we must continue serving Pinoy food on the world’s dining tables.

The sources of our ingredients alone — our fertile soil and deep seas — are indeed spe-SIAL! (You may e-mail me at [email protected].)