To Chef Myke \u201cTatung\u201d Sarthou, food has always been more than sustenance. It is language, leadership, and legacy. With Pinas Simpol: The Love and Lore of Filipino Cooking, he elevates that belief into a powerful cultural statement: one that explores how the Filipino kitchen shapes not only taste but also thought.<\/p>\n
Launched at Lore by Chef Tatung in Bonifacio Global City, the Michelin-selected 2026 restaurant he leads, the book is part memoir and part philosophy, redefining cooking as both art and a civic act.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo cook is to care,\u201d Chef Tatung said. \u201cIt is a form of leadership: one that listens, nurtures, and remembers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Throughout the book, food becomes a metaphor for character and community. The ability to stretch ingredients without stretching love, to feed many from little, and to welcome strangers with warmth: these, he argues, are lessons in resilience and compassion that mirror the Filipino spirit.<\/p>\n
The book also marks his tenth year as an author and storyteller. From his debut Philippine Cookery: From Heart to Platter in 2017 to Simpol Dishkarte in 2023, Chef Tatung has earned four Gourmand World Cookbook Awards and inspired a movement that dignifies everyday Filipino cooking.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis trilogy gives language to our pride,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s time our cuisine is seen as intelligent, coherent, and emotionally powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Pinas Simpol, the kitchen becomes the first classroom of culture, where leadership is learned through care and collaboration. \u201cTechnique alone cannot sustain identity,\u201d he reminds readers. \u201cCulture must stay in the kitchen.\u201d<\/p>\n
The book\u2019s essays explore themes such as the \u201cdirty kitchen\u201d as a symbol of authenticity, the diaspora as the new global kitchen, and sawsawan as a form of culinary democracy: an act of personal agency expressed through taste.<\/p>\n
Through these stories, Chef Tatung redefines food writing itself, blending anthropology, philosophy, and memoir into what he calls a \u201cmanifesto for coherence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Published by Vertikal Kreatives Inc., Pinas Simpol retails for \u20b1790 and is available online and soon in major bookstores nationwide.<\/p>\n
\u201cFilipino food is not chaos,\u201d Chef Tatung concludes. \u201cIt is coherence. It is how we remember who we are.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The book reveals how Filipino cooking mirrors the nation\u2019s resilience, warmth, and collective memory. #PinasSimpol<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":257861,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19291],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-257860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spotlight"],"zyndk8_nxtgen_metadata":{"nxtgen_comments":[{"1318":"sawsawan democracy astig \ud83d\ude04\ud83d\udd25\r","1319":"super emotional yung message niya \ud83d\ude2d\ud83d\udc9b\r","1320":"love how the book honors culture proudly \ud83c\uddf5\ud83c\udded\ud83d\udc9b\r","1321":"na touch ako sobra promise \ud83d\ude2d\ud83d\udc9b\r","1322":"pinas simpol ang ganda ng concept sobraa \ud83d\ude2d\u2728\r","1323":"dirty kitchen authenticity ang saya hehe \ud83d\ude05\ud83c\udf7d\ufe0f\r","1324":"Filipino identity through food ang sarap basahin \ud83e\udd29\ud83d\udcd8\r","1325":"ganda ng trilogy niya promise \ud83e\udd7a\ud83d\udc9b\r"}]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diplomatic-fuchsia-armadillo.46-250-226-234.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/diplomatic-fuchsia-armadillo.46-250-226-234.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/diplomatic-fuchsia-armadillo.46-250-226-234.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomatic-fuchsia-armadillo.46-250-226-234.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomatic-fuchsia-armadillo.46-250-226-234.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=257860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/diplomatic-fuchsia-armadillo.46-250-226-234.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomatic-fuchsia-armadillo.46-250-226-234.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/257861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diplomatic-fuchsia-armadillo.46-250-226-234.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=257860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomatic-fuchsia-armadillo.46-250-226-234.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=257860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomatic-fuchsia-armadillo.46-250-226-234.cpanel.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=257860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}