#FridayNightWritersSeries: Felice Prudente Sta. Maria, Author, Food historian, Cultural Advocate

Felice Prudente Sta. Maria

Felice Prudente Sta. Maria is an award-winning writer who takes a multidisciplinary approach in promoting Philippine food history and culture. Since the 1970s, her essays, feature articles, and columns about Philippine culinary arts have appeared in books and periodicals that include, among others, the first coffee table book about Philippine cuisine, The Culinary History of the Philippines (1976, edited by Gild Cordero Fernando). 

Among her most critically-acclaimed work include In Excelsis: The Mission of Jose P. Rizal, Humanist and Philippine National Hero, which won Best Biography and Best Designed Book at the National Book Awards by the Manila Critics Circle. In 2002, she authored the pioneering book A Cultural Worker’s First Manual: Essays in Appreciating the Everyday, which was awarded the Best Reference Book Award from the same organization and remains a go-to resource for cultural workers.

In 2006, Sta. Maria published her most-lauded work, The Governor-General’s Kitchen: Culinary Vignettes and Period Recipes, 1521-1935,  the huge book, which “gathers interesting and little-known stories from historical sources about the Philippines’ culinary culture” that spanned four centuries. It placed second in the prestigious Gourmand World Cookbook Awards, the first time a Filipino book won an award in the food history category. 

In 2013, she released another interesting tome, The Foods of Jose Rizal, which emerged as the Country Winner and Finalist in the Food History Category of the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards presented in Paris.

Her ceaseless efforts in advancing her cultural advocacies  have showered her with awards and adulation from generations of readers who find her work evocative and enriching.  For her insightful cultural action, she was awarded the rank chevalier (Knight) in the Grand Ordre de Artes et Lettres by the Republic of France. In 2001, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts honoured her with the Dangal ng Haraya for her committed and significant contributions to the field of cultural management. In the same year, she was inducted in the prestigious SEA Write Award for Southeast Asian writers. In 2020, Manila Bulletin named her a Living Legend for paving “the way for future generations to get to know how our gastronomy has influenced our identity and shared values.”

Sta. Maria is the founding chairman and president of the International Wine & Food Society Manila Ladies Branch, and has served on the board of judges of the annual Doreen Gamboa Fernandez Food Writing Award since its inception in 2002.  Sta. Maria also served as president (1986-1993) and vice chair for Cultural Development (1993-2000) of Metropolitan Museum of Manila, founding Commissioner for Cultural Heritage at the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (19920-1995) and a Commissioner to retool historical site museums for the National Centennial Commission (1993-1999). She has also served on UNESCO National Commission of the Philippines as a commissioner (1992-2011), and has chaired its National Committee for Social and Human Sciences since (1999-2011).

Presently, she is a trustee at the National Museum of the Philippines and a member of the Ayala Museum Board of Advisers. In 2019, she co-authored Kain Na! An Illustrated Guide to Philippine Food, together  with Bryan Koh and illustrated by Mariel Ylagan Garcia. She is also experimenting with the use of social media in promoting Filipino food history and culture.

Books written by Felice Sta. Maria in my home library.

It’s indeed a privilege that the “muse of public history” has spared us some time for this Q&A. 

1.      How did you discover that you have the passion and the talent for writing?

My university years at UP Diliman began in 1965 before mass communications became a course offering.  Journalism did not appeal to me as a career. English literature was enjoyment but I did not want to teach the subject professionally.  Speech and Drama had a major in broadcasting that was appealing.  The other majors were theater arts (that I adored but did not have the courage to commit to) and speech therapy (clearly not my interest).  The kind of writing we were trained in was for radio and television shows although one of my favorite subjects was play writing.   Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero taught the subject and opened our teenage eyes to social realism. Behn Cervantes had just returned from completing his masters in the USA so his acting classes were riveting.  They helped us understand how to improve the writing of dialogue and turn theater into both a serious realm and one that could likewise sparkle with fun, laughter and song.

The meager training aided me when suddenly writing for women’s magazines seemed to offer the flexible hours and home-based work I thought appropriate for a new bride during the early 1970s.  Serendipity gifted me with an introduction to the likeable Gilda Cordero Fernando, one of the most popular newspaper columnists of The Manila Chronicle.  Over lunch around 1974 we decided I should write a test article for Eggie Apostol, editor of Woman’s Home Companion.

My byline began to appear almost every week in articles that were well-researched.  Gilda was associated editor of Filipino Heritage, a series about Philippine history and culture being assembled for Paul Hamlyn, Ltd. of Australia. She invited me to write on topics such as how the Phil-American War began in 1899 and pangguingue (an old card game) of which I knew absolutely nothing.  Carlos Quirino, the esteemed historian, was also an associate editor.  He approved the war story, for which I discovered what no one knew: the soldier who fired the first shot was a British citizen not an American.

 Gilda enjoyed the lifestyle approach I used for the card game that my mother-in-law’s mother just happened to have played in her Binondo home.  At Lopez Library (what I now consider my second home), the first book I picked from a shelf just happened to have a footnote about panguingueon the first random page I looked at! Talk about good luck.

It was others who discovered I could research and create a story with depth for their popular readership.  Not until 2001 when I was added to the SEA Write Award roster was I convinced I could write. The award is considered the most prestigious for ASEAN authors. By then, I had written three newspaper columns, an uncounted number of magazine articles, and several books most of which had garnered national and international awards.  When I saw the list of my esteemed and iconic predecessors during the ASEAN ceremonies at Bangkok, however, I felt I had to live up to having been given the award.

2.      What you do usually do when you write? Could you share us your routine when you’re writing your books and articles?

I write almost every day. Writing is my work, work I happen to enjoy very much. Because I have the reputation of meeting my deadlines, if not being ahead of them, I need to stay focused. Built into the daily routine are regular breaks to clear my mind, rest my fingers, stretch and walk around for circulation, and give my eyes a break. Being that  I am a non-fictionist, there is so much research, synthesizing of facts, analysis, and broadening of the imagination required.  I research several works simultaneously, generally with a research plan and timetable.  A work can also be the result of having so much material about it already, information accumulated over years.

I commence writing by creating a progression of ideas with keywords and often guiding sentences. Then I fit in the research data.  Only then do I allow myself the freedom to decide how to treat or style the written piece.  Will it be written from the first person singular or plural?  Will it be written in the past or present tense?  Is rhythm important to the work.  For instance if the article were about chopping ingredients, its rhythm would be different from one about creating mayonnaise and other emulsions. Are taste words vital to the article?  Aroma words?  Textural feel words?  Academic jargon? Terms from the street and the new youth?

Since published works have word counts, I determine how many parts and how many paragraphs per part are needed.  Word counts demand respect.  For my newspaper columns I was always conscious that every square inch was a privilege and a responsibility.  The length of a manuscript affects the selling price of a book.  No author wants to price a work out of its market. Word counts discipline selection of priority ideas and literary techniques.

3.      What do you think are the parallels between food [writing] and cooking that make each a satisfying endeavour?

Cooking is multi-sensorial.  Sometimes I dance as I cook.  Being passionate about preparing food and styling a meal are very rewarding for me because they are creative outlets for me. I might make place cards and menu cards from scratch, drawing out patterns and coloring them in. Whatever strikes the fancy.

Food writing can be used to awaken multiple senses like in cooking.  Those are fun works to write.  For whatever reason I am asked to write works that are less sensual and more thinking pieces, though.  In our advocacy for writers to broaden their culinary works beyond relating first-person experiences I probably have had to show examples.  Whether the food or the article aim to be sensorial or not, cooking up a pleasant meal and writing up a respectable work worthy of sharing both feed me well. I always hope hey satisfy their readers.

4.      Why do you think it is important for every generation to take a keen interest in documenting and writing about the food and the culture associated with it?

 It is a known fact in cultural development that every generation must learn its culture. Learning occurs through exposure to formal, non-formal and informal experiences.  On a home and family level, elders transfer cultural knowledge ranging from heroism and valor exhibited by ancestors during wartime to favorite music pieces and how to prepare favorite foods.  On a societal level a national narrative should provide a cultural baseline that everyone feels they share.  It  unifies as it reassures a continuation of attitudes, behavior,  and values.  Do we continue to enjoy culinary diversity and international food without feeling our inherited culinary culture is threatened?  Do we continue to select which foods from the past we will continue to cook and which we will simply forget?  Perhaps, because the ingredients are not around or the techniques to make, the dish are too difficult to make? Or will we innovate to keep the dishes alive but altered? Will slow-cooked sauces become available in pouches to heat in a microwave oven or simply steep in hot water?  Will traditional foods come canned or bottled or boxed and ready to eat?

Culture is a combination of choices made by a generation. Every generation decides what it will become, how it will be defined, how it will express itself.  Writers are important in helping a generation make choices.  Writers express opinions and help readers and listeners find their own voice, even the courage to voice out their feelings and aspirations.

5.      What tips could you give to aspiring writers?

Writing requires skills in thinking and expressing.  Thinking is the product of learning throughout a lifetime about a multitude of subjects.  Today the sciences are important.  So are their applications.  Scientific findings affect everything from what to eat and how to produce it.  They warn about pollution that can poison food while innovating means to make post-modern nutritional discoveries palatable. Science also strengthens earlier findings about the chemical effects of food on one’s mood and emotional responses, on anger and on rage, on alertness for exams as well as calming for a good sleep.  Food writers need the continuing curiosity to delve into scientific domains urging changes that range from the ethical treatment of animals to fair trade.  Are their botanicals and strategies for food security and food safety from the past that might help in restoring a sustainable food chain?

Food writing is not only about what grandmother or grandfather cooked.  It is not only about personal preferences in food choices and the excitement of tasting the world.  Food writing can become social and humanitarian advocacy just as it can feed imaginations hungry for an elegance on the tongue from finest coconut sugar blended seductively with delicate coconut cream or the beckoning sweetishness of a just caught maiden shrimp for kinilaw.

How to express is the writer’s signature voice.  If one writes for the reader and not for the writer there is a better chance at achieving that amazing bond possible only from words of wisdom and wonder, words that satisfy cravings for delight and even delusions of gluttony.