James Beard award given to Filipino American 'hole in the wall' in Seattle

JAMES BEARD FOUNDATION

Oriental Mart offers honest to goodness Filipino comfort food. 'Masarap' is Tagalog for 'delicioius.'

If you're at Pike Place Market in Seattle and pass by a grocery store called Oriental Mart and don't go to the back of the store, you'd be passing up one of the America's classic meals as announced by the James Beard Foundation Tuesday (Feb. 18) morning.

The Filipino American lunch counter (we know this because a snarky sign in the front proclaims "We only serve lunch 11:00.-4:00") won a prestigious James Beard Foundation "America's Classics Award."

The chef, Leila Rosas, learned how to cook from watching her mother Mila Apostol at the restaurant's tiny kitchen. She told the Seattle Times that her family never imagined the James Beard Foundation would bestow such an honor to “a restaurant that is just a hole in the wall.

The award is usually given to local businesses that the Foundation judges determine “have timeless appeal and are beloved regionally for quality food that reflects the character of its community.”

Locals know that the lunchonette serves up the best bargain in town with its hot, tasty and plentiful honest-to-goodness Filipino comfort food.

Oriental Mart has been a mainstay at Pike Place Market for decades and is in the third generation of the family that runs the operation. It is unapologetic Filipino home-cooking at its best and doesn't try to Americanize its food by catering to American tastebuds.  

Another sign reads: "If you don't know how to eat our salmon sinigang, don't order it." Salmon sinigang, a tamarind sour soup, is its most famous dish.

The menu changes daily at the whim of the chef. “I cook what I want so that I don’t get tired of cooking the same thing every day,” Rosas told the Times.

Apostol opened Oriental Mart in 1971 as a grocery store. Ten years later she expanded with a counter-seating restaurant in the back that focused on the family’s favorites such as adobo, dinaguan, pancit and, of course, sinagang. During the tourist season, she still helps her daughters: Rosas who cooks, and Joy Mori who works the retail part of the store.

INSTAGRAM

Three generations of the Apostol family operate the award-winning Orient Mart.

It has been a busy few months the family. Last December, Oriental Mart's home cooking was featured in PBS's No Passport Required hosted by famed New York chef Marcus Samuelsson when his show focused on Filipino American cuisine in Seattle.

The business is closed during Seattle's winter when fewer tourists wander Pike Place and the Alaska-bound cruise ships with their large Filipino crews are plying warmer waters. As she does every year, Apostol uses the break to visit family in the Philippines. With only 18 seats, there will likely be lines out the door when Oriental Mart reopens April 1. 

"I would not exchange my working life with anything else," the 89-year old Apostol says. "I love the people, my customers, the ethnic diversity. It's been an interesting place to work and raise kids. And they're all good kids. I'm proud of them."


Oriental Mart will be one of six 2020 “America’s Classics” recipients to be honored at the James Beard Awards Gala on May 4 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

TGIF Friday: Three FilAm chefs are semifinalists for James Beard awards

YOUTUBE

Tom Cunanan. chef of Bad Saint restaurant in Washington D.C.

ASAM NEWS

Three Filipino American chefs have made the list of semifinalists for The James Beard Foundation’s 2019 Restaurant and Chef Awards, sometimes called the “Oscars” of the food world, reports Inquirer.
For the third year in a row, Tom Cunanan of Bad Saint is once again nominated for Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic. Cunanan co-owns the restaurant with Genevieve Villamora and Nick Pimentel and collectively, they came up with the menu that captivated both diners and food critics alike. Bad Saint is named after St. Malo, Louisiana, where the first Filipinos settled in the United States.

Sheldon Simeon’s new restaurant in Hawai’i called Lineage, is up for Best New Restaurant. Lineage’s menu is a nod to Simeon’s Filipino heritage as well as his growing up years in Hawai’i, according to Asian Journal.

Margarita Lorenzana Manzke and her husband, Walter, run Republique, a French restaurant in the Hancock Park neighborhood of Los Angeles that the couple opened in December 2013. Manzke earned a place in the Outstanding Pastry Chef category.

The winners will be announced on March 27 and the James Beard Awards Gala will happen on May 6 in Chicago, according to the foundation’s website.

Corey Lee wins James Beard honor as Best Chef in the West; In Situ restaurant offers a journey around the world

Chef Corey Lee

COREY LEE just won an award from the James Beard Foundation as one of the best chef's in the country.

Monday night (May 2), the San Francisco-based chef and owner of Benu and In Situ took home the coveted title of "Best Chef in the West."

The James Beard Foundation’s mission is to celebrate, nurture, and honor chefs and other leaders making America's food culture more delicious, diverse, and sustainable for everyone. For a complete list of winners, click here.

Lee's career has spanned over 20 years of working at some of the most acclaimed restaurants in the world, including a tenure as head chef at The French Laundry where his work was recognized with a James Beard Award. 

He then opened Benu in August 2010. The restaurant has gone on to receive three Michelin stars, four stars from the San Francisco Chronicle, and the AAA Five Diamond Award. In 2015, he authored the Phaidon-published cookbook Benu, an archive documenting the restaurant’s food, inspirations, and people who make it possible. In recognition of his work and influence, he also became a goodwill ambassador for his hometown of Seoul, Korea, an honor given to leaders in various fields.

Lee's year-old In Situ was also a finalist for "Best New Restaurant." I recently had a meal unlike anything I've ever had before at In Situ - located just down the street from Benu, 

The idea of food as art fits perfectly with In Situ's location in a museum - The Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco. Think of walking into a gallery to see the works of artists then you get the idea of the restaurant, exhibiting the works of famous chefs from around the world, except in In Situ's case, part of the sensory experience is eating and savoring each particular work of art.

RELATED: Corey Lee earns 3 Michelin stars

There's a whole lot of great food prepared by master chefs but instead of traveling around the world to taste the dishes, In Situ brings the plates to you in one locale. The chefs give their special recipes to the kitchen staff and spend some time at the restaurant as to make sure that the staff has mastered the techniques in preparing their dish.

Think of Corey Lee as the "curator" of this gallery of worldwide cuisine. 

Some diners might chafe at the lack of sensible progression one would expect in a traditional meal. Upstairs, in the different galleries, you might find groupings of photographs separated from the next gallery that might have an exhibit of pop art.  For me, I didn't mind being bounced around. It was like having a Frieda Kahlo next to an Andy Warhol. Each can be appreciated in its own context. I was here for the journey and the surprises I might encounter along the way.

For my complete Yelp review, click here.

Anis Marinated Salmon

Wasabi Lobster 

Liberty Duck Breast  

The Forest

The Voyage from the Indies

###