Australia joins Fil. Food Month with Fil-aussie content creator
THE Australian Embassy and the Australia Global Alumni in the Philippines celebrate Filipino Food Month with a series of events that highlight Filipino cuisine—with a taste of the “Land Down Under.”
To headline the celebration, the embassy flew to Manila Filipino-australian food and travel content creator, cookbook author and businesswoman Yasmin Newman, to share well-loved Filipino dishes using Australian ingredients from her cookbook Under the Coconut Skies: Feasts and Stories from the Philippines.
Ambassador HK Yu PSM acknowledged that “Filipinos and Australians share…a love for food…we love bringing people together to enjoy great food and have great conversations. We are delighted to have…yasmin Newman here in the Philippines to celebrate [local] culinary heritage with the best of Australian products: a culinary fusion of the best [offering of] our two countries...”
While in Manila, Newman met with different communities of Australia-educated Filipinos for the Philippine launch of her cookbook, which included book signings and cooking demonstrations of Filipino dishes with Australian ingredients.
She also held a masterclass for the culinary students of the Joji Ilagan International School in Davao City. The school, which provides Australian-certified education—was established by Australia-educated alumna Joji Ilagan Bian, who received the 2019 Outstanding Alumnus Award for bringing the Australian kind of technical and vocational education and training, or TVET, to Mindanao.
As a proud ambassador of Filipino cuisine and Australian food products, the content creator shares her love for food and her Australian and Filipino influences in a cooking video series: “A Taste of the Philippines” produced by the Australia Philippines Business Council, in partnership with the Australian government (https://www.youtube.com/@australiaphilippinesbc/featured).
Under the Coconut Skies is Yasmin’s second Filipino cookbook. It is a celebration of the Philippines and its food, which takes her readers on a journey to discovering classic Filipino dishes through beautiful photos and unique culinary traditions, folklore, and personal stories. In 2013 she also wrote and published her debut cookbook: 7,000 Islands: A Food Portrait of the Philippines.