Gastronomy in Books

Claude Tayag (born 1956 in Angeles City, Pampanga) is a polymath who has pursued multiple careers. He is an accomplished painter, wood sculptor, furniture designer and manufacturer, an award-winning kusinero (chef), a best-selling book author, a columnist for the Philippine Star, and a TV host. He also opened two restaurants, Balé Dutung and Downtown 1956 Café, both located in the city of his birth. His food writings have produced two books. Food Tour is a collection of his essays in the Philippine Star, peppered liberally with his drawings and recipes (Anvil Publishing, 2007). With his wife Mary Ann Quioc, he co-authored the best-selling culinary travel guidebook Linamnam – Eating One’s Way Around the Philippines (Anvil Publishing, 2007). And, he was one of six chefs who co-authored Kulinarya – A Guidebook to Philippine Cuisine and was also its food stylist. In 2019, he hosted “Chasing Flavors” in the Metro Channel. The show was given the Gawad TANGLAW (Tagapuring mga Akademisyan ng Aninong Gumagalaw) Jury Award that year for Cultural Development and Sustainability.

Tayag also had the distinction of hosting and introducing sisig to another TV personality, the late Anthony Bourdain. He is also a veteran of the Foreign Service Institute’s gastro-diplomacy mission. In May 2012, he represented the country in the “Memphis in May Festival.” In May 2016, the Philippine Embassy in Wahington, DC fielded Tayag at the Embassy Chefs Challenge besting 25 other chefs from different countries, winning the People’s Choice Award with his entry Bringhe, a fiesta rice dish using heirloom rice from the Cordilleras and other Philippine products. In November 2018, he represented the country in the Korean-ASEAN Rice Festival in Seoul, Korea. He lives in Balé Dutung with his wife Mary Ann and son Nico. Diners at the by-reservation-only private-dining restaurant, will find them serving a sumptuous Filipino spread in a two-hour, six- to eight-course meal. Balé Dutung has been consistently voted by bloggers as one of the Philippines’ top five restaurants since 2007. In 2021, it was included in Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants’s “Essence of Asia” – establishments that represent “the spirit of Asian gastronomy.”
He has been a guest speaker at the Philippine Booth at the Frankfurter Buchmesse twice: October 2019 with a lecture and cooking demo/tasting for his Linamnam book; and in October 2023, with a lecture, book signing and Adobo Event Party for his The Ultimate Filipno Adobo book.