Chef Tatung’s ‘Pinas Simpol’ elevates Filipino food scholarship

A milestone-filled 2025 marks his boldest cookbook yet 

For Chef Tatung Sarthou, the inclusion of his restaurant, Lore, in the Michelin Guide Selection is the cherry on top of a milestone-filled 2025: the launch of his new menu, his 10th anniversary as an author, and the publication of his eighth book, Pinas Simpol: The Love and Lore of Filipino Cooking.

“It just like fell into place,” Chef Tatung told radar during his recent book launch in Lore. “We’re ready to promote (our new menu), and do marketing and all that. It’s like a fortunate accident, a serendipity of sorts… Three things happening at the same time.”

Pinas Simpol is Chef Tatung’s most ambitious work yet. Unlike his past cookbooks, he combines recipes of Filipino dishes from across the country with lyrical, scholarly essays.

Spanning over 200 full-color pages, the book has eight main sections: “Breakfast & Everyday Starts,” “Soups & Healing Bowls,” “From the Vegetable Basket,” “Noodles & Rice,” “Everyday Meals,” “Street Food & Merienda Moments,” “Fiesta & Celebration Feasts,” and “Desserts & Sweet Memories.” Each section presents recipes with one or two essays, offering both practical guidance and thoughtful reflection.

The recipes follow an “ABC” framework: Assemble, Build, Complete. It’s designed not as rigid instructions but as flexible guides that allow anyone to cook with whatever they have, wherever they are. It reflects Filipino cuisine’s long tradition of adaptation.

Notable essays include “The Mother Tongue of Our Cuisine,” where Chef Tatung argues that taste is everyone’s first language, and “The Dirty Kitchen and the Clean,” where he fondly recalls his grandmother’s cooking while reflecting on the titular kitchen coined by American colonizers. “The Alchemist’s Table,” meanwhile, contemplates whether a dish’s true origin can ever be discovered, even as he admires the waters of Baler from a cliff and remembers its native son, President Manuel L. Quezon.

Simpol, not simple

Chef Tatung also deliberately uses “simpol” instead of “simple.” As he writes in the preface, “It’s not a typo. It’s a declaration. Pinas Simpol may sound like a playful nod to the Filipino accent, but its true power lies in its reclamation. By reshaping a borrowed word, this book claims our ownership—turning what was once a caricature into a badge of pride.”

“Simpol is redefined: not a lack of sophistication, but a simplicity born of confidence, ingenuity, and soul,” he adds. “To embrace Simpol is to embrace a Filipino way of cooking and living—proud, honest, and distinctly our own.”

And as they say, all good things come in threes. Pinas Simpol is the first entry in a planned trilogy on Filipino food writing, following the tradition of scholars like Doreen Fernandez, Gilda Cordero Fernando, Edilberto Alegre, Felice Sta. Maria, and Ige Ramos.

“It’s a continuation of the efforts of our earlier scholars,” he said. “Malalim siya na usapan… we attempt to qualify Filipino food, to be able to make it a teachable cuisine on a global setting.”