Can’t find a perfect holiday gift for your foodie family and friends? Why not grab these delightful food books that not only teach readers how to prepare healthy, yummy meals, but also provide tips on how to become environmentally responsible individuals?
“An A-Z Guide for a Green Chef” by Annie Pascual-Guerrero
Susana “Annie” Pascual-Guerrero is a devoted environmentalist. Her mentor, the late Odette Alcantara, helped her become a committed environmental crusader.
Guerrero’s “A-Z Guide for the Green Chef” is a handy kitchen guide that combines her advocacy of saving the environment with her passion for cooking. The book explains how contributing to a green world need not be inconvenient, difficult or expensive, even for those who are mostly at home, such as homemakers and children, and can even be done every day.
“My advocacy to protect the environment is public knowledge, but less known is my passion for cooking,” wrote Guerrero in the book. “These two, I have found, are not irreconcilable, and squaring one with the other need not be a chore.”
Guerrero shares the most important lessons she learned at home while growing up, and the most helpful tips she has gathered from her many years as a chef, restaurateur, homemaker, environment advocate and culinary guru, in the book’s four sections: The 3Rs Mantra, The Green A-Z Guide, The Sustainable Kitchen, and Champions of the Environment.
Chapter 1 introduces the fundamental principles of conservation—the mantra of “reduce, reuse and recycle.” Chapter 2 runs through a list of healthy tips for the most common, useful and important kitchen staples, preparations and items. Chapter 3 presents an inventory of the ideal Green kitchen, to turn even the most unwieldy homemakers into the best all-around kitchen managers. Chapter 4 concludes the book by introducing chefs and individuals who have made their own home and kitchens green, such as Cyma owner chef Robbie Goco, raw food vegan chef and expert Asha Peri, environmental columnist and homemaker Vicky Martires, chef and organic farmer Audie Guerrero and CCA’s academic and continuing education programs head, chef Melissa Sison.
Guerrero is also the founder of Center for Culinary Arts (CCA, Manila), the country’s first and foremost school for the culinary profession.
Published and exclusively distributed by Culinary Education Foundation Inc. with Moist Communicates and Moist Publishing.
“The Malunggay Book: Healthy and Easy-to-do Recipes” by Day Salonga and Mon Urbano; edited by Nancy Reyes-Lumen
Chef-consultants Day Salonga and Mon Urbano present “The Malunggay Book: Healthy and Easy-to-do Recipes,” and its companion guide, “Make Good Money with Malunggay.”
These two books were co-produced by World Outreach Foundation Kansas City, which has piloted programs that provide seedlings, as well as fresh and powdered malunggay (Moringa oleifera plant) leaves, to malnourished schoolchildren in small communities in Pangasinan and Laguna.
“The Malunggay Book” offers 60-plus simple recipes highlighting the nutritional value of malunggay.
“Make Good Money with Malunggay,” meanwhile, presents novel ways by which people can earn from malunggay, given that it can be cultivated in one’s backyard and processed at minimal expense.
Malunggay is valued for its health benefits as a food or food supplement, it being rich in calcium, copper, iron, potassium, protein, vitamins E and C, niacin, biotin, magnesium, manganese and zinc, among others.
“The Malunggay Book” took a year to complete, with Salonga and Urbano working on the recipes in their test kitchen and at home.
Available at National Book Store and PowerBooks at P130 each.
“The Alba Cookbook of Señor Anastacio de Alba and Miguel de Alba,” edited by Nancy Reyes-Lumen
The book is a compilation of best-loved Spanish recipes and practical cooking tips from Spanish culinary legend Señor Anastacio de Alba.
De Alba, 86, is well-loved by culinary professionals and food lovers alike for having reacquainted the modern Filipino palate with authentic Spanish cuisine through his popular Alba Restaurant.
“When he first landed in our country in 1952, he sowed the Filipino’s liking for Spanish cuisine’s palatability. He is the real chef,” wrote Marilou Garcia-Morera in her introduction. Food writer and good friend Chona Trinidad, meanwhile, wrote Señor Alba’s biography and translated his Spanish poems and anecdotes into English.
Nancy Reyes-Lumen edited the book. The rest of the editorial team included Señor Alba’s son Miguel, daughter-in-law Cachelle, and designers Ige Ramos and Mike Gomez.
Released by Anvil Publishing, the cookbook also offers tips for cooking traditional Castilian dishes, such as Fabada Asturiana, Callos a la Madrileña and some Alba originals including Solomillo a la pobre, Tuhod y Batoc and Canonigo. Also included are step-by-step instructions in making the perfect Paella Valenciana, which is ideal for holidays and family gatherings.
“The Alba Cookbook” is available in National Book Store, Bestsellers and PowerBooks.
“Eat Out Now: 115 Manila Restaurants We Love” by Alicia Colby Sy
It’s a restaurant review-guide of where and what to eat in the metro, from where to get the best lechon kawali to discovering new concoctions like callos taco.
“I’ve been receiving daily messages from those who share my passion for finding the very best of what’s out there,” wrote author Alicia Colby Sy, Town and Country Philippines Lifestyle Editor and Spot.Ph food columnist.
Featured restaurants include Apartment 1B, Azuthai, Stella, Kao-Chi, Poco Deli, Ye Dang, Chef Tatung Garden Café, Benjarong.
The guide includes ballpark figures—how much one will spend for a meal, plus recommended dishes, suggested pairings and food to order ahead.
The guidebook is published by Summit Media.