Q&A: Angelo Comsti

"I always had an interest in food but I never got into it when I was in college. I worked at Summit Publishing in Manila and Yummy, the leading food magazine in the Philippines, called and asked if I could do something for them. I did one story and they liked it a lot and asked me to be part of their team. For two years I worked for this magazine and got immersed in the local food industry, met a lot of chefs and learned a lot about cooking. I then went to Le Cordon Bleu in Australia, then worked for a couple of restaurants for six months. Then I returned to Manila and that's when I was asked to do my first cookbook."

"A year and a half ago, I was frantically looking for my grandmother's sponge loaf cake recipe. Nobody has a copy of it. I remembered my grandmother cooking over her white stovetop, the smell of the cake as I entered the room, and that's how the concept of the cookbook came about. I thought, 'Why not ask my parents and relatives for our family's recipes and preserve them in a book?' I then asked friends to share their recipes as well and they were glad to offer because, like me, they also had no way to preserve their family recipes. The first book, From Our Table To Yours [2013], did very well and after five months the publisher had to reprint it. A year after its release, I came up with The Filipino Family Cookbook. I asked a different set of friends, this time 40, to share with me their family recipes."

"I tested each and every recipe, then styled them for the photographer. If I feel like there's something wrong, like it's too salty, I give the recipe [back] and ask how it could be improved. Then I try it again. If I just changed the recipe myself, it [wouldn't be the friend's] anymore. So I have to make sure they approve it first."

"One thing that's distinct is our love of sour flavours. We have a lot of ingredients that make our dishes sour, like calamansi, guava and vinegar. Back in the day, people used these to preserve food. We grew up with that flavour."

"Most probably roast pig. In the Philippines, we have roast pig called lechon and it's prepared in different ways. We stuff the pig with a lot of aromatic spices, like lemon grass, garlic, tamarind leaves. It's very robust in flavour. That's something I don't mind eating every day."