Art from old Filipino cookbooks
Earlier today John Sherwin Felix of Lokalpedia shared a link to a collection of Filipino cookbooks dating back as early as the 1900s. Many of them written during the American occupation, with a few others still in the language of an earlier colonizer – Spanish.
I browsed and downloaded just a few of them, but I hope to read through more and see what else is in store for us in such an archive of Filipino cookbook history. Some of them written by Americans, but there are also quite a few written by Filipinos including Maria Orosa, the inventor of banana ketchup in the Philippines.
There are books dedicated to just plant-based recipes, or recipes from Pampanga. What I couldn’t help appreciating was the artwork on some of the books. Here are screenshots of some of them that I saw, but you can checkout the archive put together by Reddit user Chill_Boi_0769 here.
This artwork, artist either unnamed or I have yet to find it in the text, features a woman in a baro or camisa made with translucent fabric. She fuels a stove with air through a bamboo branch, unbothered by the fire and its cinders. The fire bursts from the inside of a pugon, kalan or kalan de uling – a traditional earthenware stove heating a palayok or ceramic pot for cooking.
The black-and-white cover to “What’s Cooking in Subic” is reminiscent of very detailed work one can typically find created by AI (artificial intelligence) nowadays. The difference is that not only was this hand-drawn by real people, but the details are made with intention and purpose. Each stroke and line was made by human hands. Even better, the artists are cited: Felix Tanglao and Salvador Perea.
Another beautiful cover with detailed line work is the one for “The Coconut Cookbook” by Pura Villanueva-Kalaw (1886-1954). She was a prominent writer and a pioneering suffragette from Iloilo. So prominent I’ve seen two other books by her so far in this collection.
Last but not least, I loved the color in this illustration in “Mga Lutong Pilipino” by Iluminada Luna published in 1949. A woman in Filipiniana once again, this time with butterfly sleeves, an apron and a plate of steaming-hot lumpia.
All but one book so far has cited its illustrators, but I hope to take a closer look over time to get to know the art and artists concealed inside. And just importantly, the Filipino recipes enshrined within books dating back more than a century ago.
See them all here: https://www.reddit.com/r/FilipinoHistory/comments/1h9ghrr/collection_of_pre1976_filipino_cookbooks/?rdt=49405