Where to Start with Angela Dimayuga
Angela Dimayuga is a Filipino-American chef, creative director, and cookbook author. She grew up in a Filipino immigrant family in San Jose, California, and trained in professional kitchens in New York City, most notably as the executive chef at Mission Chinese Food. Her work blends the flavors of her heritage with the techniques she learned in some of the city’s most innovative restaurants. In 2021, she published “Filipinx: Heritage Recipes from the Diaspora” with food writer Ligaya Mishan, a deeply personal cookbook exploring how Filipino food evolves in the hands of immigrant families. Beyond cooking, Dimayuga has worked as Creative Director of Food and Culture at The Standard Hotels International and as a culinary curator at the Lower East Side Girls Club, always using food as a lens for culture, identity, and community.
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Filipinx: Heritage Recipes from the Diaspora
Angela Dimayuga and Ligaya Mishan · 288 pages · 2021 · Moderate
Themes: filipino cuisine, diaspora cooking, heritage recipes, immigrant food, modern filipino
Dimayuga’s debut cookbook, co-written with New York Times food writer Ligaya Mishan, offers 100 deeply personal recipes that trace Filipino food through the experience of immigration and diaspora. The book covers traditional dishes like adobo, sinigang, pancit, and lumpia alongside recipes that reflect how Filipino cooking naturally adapts when it travels to new kitchens and new countries.
Why Start Here
This is Dimayuga’s only cookbook to date and represents the full arc of her culinary identity. The recipes carry the precision of a professional chef who trained at Mission Chinese Food, but they are written for home cooks. Mishan’s writing adds cultural depth, connecting each dish to broader stories about identity, belonging, and the way food carries memory across generations. The photography by Alex Lau is striking and makes the book a pleasure to cook from and read.
What to Expect
A beautifully produced hardcover at 288 pages with full-color photography throughout. The recipes are organized around the rhythms of daily life rather than strict course categories. Some dishes are quick enough for a weeknight, while others require more planning. The book assumes a willingness to seek out Filipino ingredients like calamansi, patis (fish sauce), and ube, but provides guidance on where to find them.