The much-loved and esteemed Doreen Gamboa Fernandez would have
been more than pleased at the culinary storm she helped generate: blogs devoted
to restaurant reviews; culinary academies rising in nearly all parts of the
country; regional and national cooking contests; newspaper sections and columns
devoted to food and dining. In a large way, this is her doing. Add to that, the
well-traveled widely exposed Pinoy has developed a discriminating palate that
has learned to savor a multitude of tastes representing cuisines of the world.
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| Fernandez and her typewriter |
The life and works of this modern Renaissance woman is the subject
of an exhibit at the Ateneo Library of Women's Writings (ALIWW) Reading Room on
the Loyola Heights campus, Quezon City, until Nov. 9.
Apart from photographs of Fernandez and copies of her books, the
glass cases display the meticulous syllabus, exams and class records she kept when
she taught generations of Ateneo students English, literature, journalism and
creative writing, her own notebooks and notes from graduate school where she
did ground-breaking research on the history of Philippine theater under
scholars Bienvenido Lumbera and Nicanor Tiongson who later became her
colleagues, thank-you notes from medical residents, students and people who
heard her lecture or to whom she gave her time and attention.
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| An "A" student even in graduate school |
No wonder the Ateneo community insists, with this exhibit, on
remembering what to its members is “a great woman.”
Teacher, scholar, writer, taste-maker, even “pleasant patient,
strong even during the most trying of times,” in the words of the resident
staff of the Makati Medical Center who she taught how to improve their command
of the English language. It was her way of giving back for their helping her
recover from illness. Fernandez wore these inter-related hats with elan,
unselfishness and humility.
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| Doreen the professor |
Unselfish and humble because she did not hog credit to herself. In
her book Tikim: Essays on Philippine Food
and Culture (Anvil Publishing), she acknowledged as her teachers “those who
give me information about food: market vendors, street sellers, cooks, chefs,
waiters, restaurant and carinderia
owners, farmers, tricycle drivers, gardeners, fishermen …” and on and on her
list goes. In short, “everyone who eats and cares.”
Even at her most scholarly, her writing remained vibrant and
readable. At the end of her narratives, she always had a glossary of food and
food-related terms and list of publication sources. In one of her last books Palayok: Philippine Food Through Time, On
Site, In the Pot (The Bookmark Inc.), a table of illustrations is included
where the sources of each image is acknowledged.
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| Some books that Fernandez wrote |
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| With frequent collaborator Edilberto Alegre |
Only she can come up with the just-right definition for that
condition of a fruit, manibalang,
i.e., “almost ripe, fruit soft yet firm and crunchy.” Or that piquant term for
a young coconut’s meat, mala-uhog,
i.e.., “literally, like snot.”
In Tikim, she also lay
down some guidelines for credible food writing that read so elegantly like the
writer’s character: “The writing done about food must be worthy of its subject.
It should be not just utilitarian reportage, but writing that depends heavily
on the unsaid, on the assumed, on the subtext of culture. It should require
full participation from the reader, responses drawn from home and growing, from
memory and pleasure. Because of this, it must be done with words that resound,
and with the silence vibrating between and behind the words. Words that bear
the culture within them need no adornments; they speak from intimacy of the
experience. And yet, one reaches for words oft dedicated only to poetry, for
words beyond the cooking stove, kitchen and plate, for words that convey sense,
sensibility and sensuousness.”
Unknown
to many readers, this “doyenne of food history in the Philippines,” a title
given by renowned folklore scholar and museum professional Barbara-Krishenblatt-Gimblett, was a diabetic during all the time she was trying out
restaurants, writing her food columns, researching Philippine town and sitios
for almost-lost life and food ways. This never hampered her work. Her prose
bristles with joie de vivre that is evident in her personal photos on exhibit.
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| Wedding portrait of Doreen and Wili Fernandez |
Little known, too, is that the homemaker Doreen served her husband Wili,
a top honcho in the interior design profession and himself a gourmet, take-out
food. This wirter once spotted her loading warm, freshly cooked laing in her car for her husband’s
supper but not just from any run-of-the-mill source. She bought it from someone
who cooked it with love.
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| Laughing with sister Della Besa the pianist |
The
young bloggers have plenty to thank Fernandez for. This plenitude she made
possible through her writings–cum-teachings. She foresaw the “new kind of
interaction” where local and foreign chefs use Philippine ingredients in
creative ways (mango-filled crepes, salmon belly sinigang) or how street food would continue to flourish in hard
times and good.--Text and photo reproductions by Elizabeth Lolarga
First published by Vera Files and Yahoo Philippines, Oct. 30, 2012
