By Mandy Day
AsAmNews Staff Writer
For decades, the Asian food renaissance has influenced the American food landscape. While Chinese, Japanese, and Thai food have established themselves in every corner of the United States, many cultures with growing representation in the States have largely been absent in the restaurant industry outside of major U.S. cities.
Among those underrepresented groups are Filipinos. With at least three million Filipinos living in the United States, their representation in the world of food culture is pronounced. Alexandra Cuerdo’s ULAM: Main Dish seeks to bring awareness to the burgeoning Filipino food scene and it screened to sold out crowds over two nights at the San Diego Asian Film Festival Spring Showcase.
Only its third film festival since it premiered earlier this month at the San Francisco International Film Festival, ULAM: Main Dish accomplishes its mission to represent an array of foods from the more than 7,000 islands that comprise the Philippines and honor the enormous impact Filipino immigration has had in the restaurant industry. From Michelin starred restaurants to cafes in Las Vegas hotels, Filipinos have long been huge contributors to American restaurants, yet, there has seldom been a place for Filipino chefs to cook their food and little space for success of a Filipino restaurant in an industry so competitive, the first year survival rate of a new restaurant is ten percent.
Cuerdo’s film documents the lives of a number of chefs trying to establish themselves, and their food, in mainstream American culture. Restauranteur Nicole Ponseca is one of the subjects of ULAM: Main Dish and has made a name for herself in the New York food scene. Her two Manhattan restaurants, Maharlika and Jeepney reflect her vision of serving authentic food with pride, but also food that is capable of crossing over into the mainstream, she told a sold out crowd at the festival’s first ever Film and Feast Event.
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Sold out in four hours, Pacific Arts Movement teamed up with more than a dozen of San Diego’s top Filipino American chefs to
develop a menu to accompany the film. The kamayan-style feast was a smashing success for the crowd of 300 at San Diego’s Natural History Museum, so much so that guests were taking home desserts in napkins. The one regret of the evening I have, I didn’t follow suit. The following night, a second showing took place and hopeful viewers lined up an hour in a half early hoping to get a last minute rush ticket for the sold out screening. It was on this night that I sat down with the Alexandra Cuerdo, producer, his proud dad, Rey Cuerdo, and Producer/Director of Cinematography John Floresca.
Alexandra Cuerdo had an idea to do a Filipino food documentary but was hesitant to act due to her work schedule. Coincidentally, the senior Cuerdo had the same idea decades before but it never materialized. Alexandra figured if anyone was going to make a film about Filipino food, it might as well be her. It was obvious how special it was for the father-daughter team to share this experience and live its success together.
She discussed chefs she’d like to interview based on a conversation she had with Floresca about where to find Filipino food while they ate pizza in New York. Three years in the making, Cuerdo managed to interview everyone on her list and make a groundbreaking film. As we delved into the emergence of Filipino food in American restaurants, our interview went a bit off the rails by discussing some of the food from the previous night’s dinner. Floresca shared some photos from their meal at Bivouac Ciderworks, helmed by DJ Tangalin, that were so enticing, it was almost enough to cut the interview short and go get dinner.
“The idea of the film is to get everybody to come out of the woodwork and say, ‘hey I’m Filipino, I’m making this great food’. Let’s be proud of our food and proud of our culture. The only way we get more great restaurants to go to is to shine the light on the people already doing great work,” Cuerdo stated.
San Diego has the second largest population of Filipinos in the United States and they have left an indelible mark on the county’s food industry. When the filmmakers were discussing how local communities came out to support ULAM: Main Dish at their first screening, talk began about making a second film covering the Filipino food movement outside of New York City and Los Angeles. “We would love to come to San Diego and San Francisco,” Cuerdo told AsAmNews. Floresca divulged that the first question they always get asked is why they didn’t go to this place or that. Based on how popular the film was in San Diego, it doesn’t seem far-fetched that ULAM 2 will be a reality in the not so distant future.
“Filipino grandmothers were flying to that island from other islands to see the film and that blows my mind,” Cuerdo said about their screenings at the Hawaii International Film Festival Spring Showcase. “To me that’s incredible. The audience response is more than I could ever ask for,” she continued. Floresca added that the response has been overwhelming and humbling.
“We’re in the infancy of this, we’re in the beginning of the journey,” Rey Cuerdo said when we talked about the film’s success. ULAM: Main Dish screens at the Newport Beach Film Festival on April 30th, followed by the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival and CAAMFEST in San Francisco in May. More information about the film and future screenings can be found here.
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