As a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network and aligning with its objective of fortifying its City of Gastronomy status, Iloilo City can thank Mayor Jerry Treñas and editor Michaela Fenix for gifting the city with its gastronomy “bible.” The 244 pages of "Gastronomic Expressions of Our City Iloilo: Nature, Culture, and Geography" is more than a mouthful of a title; it’s a comprehensive compendium and guide as to why and how this accreditation of City of Gastronomy is so well-deserved.

As can be expected, it is a recipe book, but it’s also an Iloilo history book, an ethnographic research study, a catalog of beautiful watercolor illustrations, an engaging photo essay, a narrative that soaks in the iconic Iloilo dishes and delicacies, and a roadmap for how this gastronomic identity can enhance the city’s future.

There’s a foreword that talks about food tourism and what it can mean for community-building, contributed by Department of Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco. It highlights the pillars of history, culture, and innovation, and how the three can converge to create a distinct gastronomic identity. She cites the visionary leadership of Mayor Jerry Treñas and the galvanizing actions of the Iloilo Festivals Foundation Inc. in helping make this vision a reality.

There’s one chapter devoted to a bowl of batchoy and how that simple physical object takes on a meaning beyond the material world, signifying cultural influences and defining a people, a place, and the experience of spooning that batchoy into one’s mouth. The succeeding chapter on recipes, as compiled by restaurateur Rosalie S. Treñas, Ige Ramos, and Hazel Palmeras Villa, is a wonderful collection of comfort food, with special sections for green gastronomy and kakanin. This “Chapter 6: Recipes” is, by itself, worth the price of admission. It’s like a “best of the best” of Iloilo cuisine, with so many culinary figures of the city contributing their versions of these classic Iloilo dishes.

Understanding Iloilo’s gastronomic identity, the interplay of geography and terroir in the ingredients available and used to create these dishes, how it all relates to place and people, and why heritage, technology, and innovation also play roles in this identity—all these are chapters in this expansive and detailed book. Plus, there’s a chapter penned by the mayor himself, recalling his childhood, his coming of age, and the city of today through the scents, sounds, and flavors of Iloilo cuisine.

From a style perspective, I especially loved Chapter 4: Ingredients and how the watercolor illustrations of Victorico Nabor and Kevin Fernandez imbued the chapter with an artistic slant that must be seen to be appreciated. It brought the inspired work on the book to a new level, distinguishing it from other culinary books we’ve seen here.

I’m well aware that there will always be a raging debate about where the culinary or gastronomic capital of the Philippines lies. Some will insist it’s a Central Luzon province, while this book humbly takes the position that it’s much farther south. I’m not even going to venture an opinion on that issue; but if any fair city needed a book or “bible” to stake its claim of preeminence, Iloilo now has it. It’s a great accomplishment, and the book is a real winner.