Kapampangan Cooking Class — Traditional Recipes from the Food Capital

Cooking classes in the Philippines often teach generic "Filipino" food assembled from dishes borrowed from different regions. This class is different: it is rooted specifically in Kapampangan cuisine, one of the oldest and most technically demanding regional cooking traditions in the country, taught by a chef whose family has been cooking this food in Angeles City for three generations.

The class begins with a market visit to the San Fernando public market or local palengke, where the chef introduces you to the specific ingredients that make Kapampangan cooking distinct: the local varieties of bagoong (shrimp paste), the annatto seeds used for colouring and flavour, the specific cut of pork face used for authentic sisig, and the best rice varieties for the region's signature dishes. Understanding the ingredients is half the cooking lesson.

Back in the kitchen, the hands-on session typically covers three dishes. Sisig teaches the technique of multiple-step cooking — boiling, grilling, and then chopping — that creates the textural complexity the dish is famous for. Kare-kare introduces the art of building a rich peanut-based sauce around oxtail and vegetables, with the critical skill of knowing exactly when to add the bagoong to balance. The third dish — often morcon (rolled beef) or a Kapampangan rice dish — covers the braising and wrapping techniques that characterise the region's Sunday cooking. The class ends with eating everything around a shared table — the natural culmination of any Pampangan cooking session.