This is a big deal for the Philippines -- the fact that we are hosts to the Slow Food Terra Madre Asia Pacific event this 19 to 23 November, to be held in Bacolod City, Negros Occidental.

A global gastronomical gathering, this year’s theme is “From Soil to Sea: A Slow Food Journey Through Tastes & Traditions.”

It will be much broader than the earlier 2019 Indigenous Terra Madre Asia and the Pan Pacific, which was held in the ancestral land of the Ainu people of Hokkaido, Japan.

I was in Turin in 2024 to attend my second bi-annual Terra Madre gathering of close to 10,000 international members of this movement that went up against fast food in 1980 under the leadership of Carlo Perini.

Part of this gathering is what they call Salone del Gusto where Italian and international farmers, producer, retailers and chefs show off and share their slow food products; while advocates, writers and policy makers talk of initiatives to further the movement.

As a member of the Slow Food (SF) Manila chapter, I had dragged three other friends whose first time it was to experience SF. Our Manila Chapter (starting off in 2018 with the ECHOstore’s strong advocacy of sustainable products), was focused on information dissemination.

But Chit Juan, who later moved to be part of the SF international board, and Chef Gaita Fores were instrumental in pushing the Philippines into active global involvement. SF Manila has been influencing other communities to have their own SF such as: Cavite (2022), led by Chef Rhea Sycip; Laguna (2025), led by Chef Gel Salonga-Datu and working with a Batanes community, plus Mt. Banahaw (yours truly still trying to get this started, too).

In that last Turin event, we had a strong Philippine delegation from SF Negros, under the leadership of Reena Gamboa (niece of Doreen Gamboa, the food writer who, since decades back, was writing about Slow Food); and Chin-Chin Uy slam dunked our country bid to host the next one.

We were all so happy to hear this! After all our dribbling for years, SF Negros, armed with a complete delegation of farmers, producers and their LGU representatives, went for gold.

What makes this more remarkable is that suddenly, Philippines, specifically Bacolod City, Negros Occidental, is now the regional Slow Food secretariat for Asia Pacific. Chin-Chin Uy also now sits in the international board as Counselor for South East Asia and chairs the executive committee.

As part-Negrense, too, I am not surprised. Negros Occidental has a robust and thriving eco-system for food. When she was alive, Chef Gaita Fores nurtured SF Negros because of family roots, but also because the province has been focused on positioning itself as the organic food capital.