Tara na at magsalo-salo: DA, NCCA lead the feast of Filipino Food this April - National Commission for Culture and the Arts

This April, with its goals to appreciate and preserve Philippine culinary traditions and treasures, support industries producing local food resources or ingredients endemic in the country, and ensure the transmission of the tradition to future generation, the Department of Agriculture (DA), led by its secretary Dr. William Dar, and National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), headed by its chairman Arsenio “Nick” Lizaso, executive director Al Ryan Alejandre, deputy executive director Marichu Tellano, and supervising officer for administration Bernan Joseph Corpuz, in partnership with Department of Tourism (DOT) and Philippine Culinary Heritage Movement (PCHM), spearhead the fete of Filipino Food Month 2021.

This year’s celebration takes on the theme “Iba’t Ibang Luto, Pinoy ang Puso” as it reflects how important the culinary arts and tradition in the identity of the Filipinos and how it forms and transforms our consciousness.

The Filipino Food Month 2021 will be celebrated through series of webinars, online exhibition, and filmmaking competition.

Webinar Series

Philippines on a Plate is a series of online talks that brings together Filipino farmers,

culinary historians, chefs, and gastronomic experts from the local food industry to discuss how we can influence local food cultivation and establish preservation initiatives that can transform the eating landscape.

This 60-minute free online webinar scheduled every Tuesdays & Thursdays at 5:00 pm will be

highlighting the vision of the Filipino Food Month which is to educate and preserve Filipino culinary heritage and traditions. It hopes to educate, preserve, and promote Filipino culinary heritage. This will be streamed in the Filipino Food Month social media account and crossposted on NCCA, Sentro Rizals, DA, and DOT social media accounts.

Online Exhibition

A research on the unsung Culinary Heritage of the Philippines conducted by Clang Garcia will be translated in an online exhibition. It will feature 15 traditional cuisine from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. It will highlight the indigenous food of the different cultural communities. The exhibition will run for the whole month of April.

Film Making Competition

Cuisinema/Kusinema is a short film competition in parentship with CineKabalen to encourage Filipino Filmmakers from different regions to showcase and promote their own culinary heritage traditions and practices-from the production of their local ingredients to the preparation of their heirloom dishes-through film. Deadline of submission will be posted on CineKabalen and NCCA social media pages.

The annual celebration started with the signing of Presidential Proclamation no. 469 in 2018, declaring April of every year as the of Filipino Food Month or “Buwan ng Kalutong Filipino” and DA with NCCA as the agencies to lead the celebration.

For more details, please contact Mr. Rene Napeñas, head of the Public Affairs and Information Office, through 0928-5081057, 527-2192 loc 625 or through email address ncca.paio@gmail.com. Log on to www.ncca.gov.ph.