From Periphery to Plate: Reconstructing Identity through Food in the Philippines

• In Event: Student Forum Roundtables Session
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Roundtable 13: Food Access and Inequality

Abstract

Colonial hierarchies continue to persist within global gastronomy, influencing identity narratives and economic opportunities, especially in formerly colonized societies. Intersections between food, colonialism, and identity in the Philippines remain undertheorized relative to its deep entanglement with previous empires and racial formation across the diaspora. Existing scholarship on Filipino food has largely focused on historical accounts or immigrant foodways, with limited attention on the role of culinary stakeholders in shaping national identity through contemporary food practices in the Philippines. This discrepancy raises important questions about the perception and presentation of Filipino food, in the Philippines and internationally. How do culinary tastemakers in the Philippines reinterpret and reconstruct national identity through food? This study investigates the ways Filipino culinary tastemakers use food to actively challenge symbolic hierarchies, including objectivist notions of authenticity. Through in-depth interviews, this study captures the diverse experiences and perspectives of culinary actors. Culinary tastemakers in the Philippines engage in decolonial intervention by (1) confronting and reinterpreting colonial history and (2) reframing Filipino food and identity as plural and fluid. The findings of this research contribute to sociological discussions on colonial legacies, racial hierarchies, and transformations within global cultural fields.

Author

• Juliene Porciuncula, North Carolina State University