Why Foreign Celebrity Chefs Often Get the Adobo Very Wrong

Coming on the heels of Rachel Ray’s disastrous spectacle of cooking adobo, we reflect on why foreign celebrity chefs often get the Filipino adobo very wrong. It’s not the first time a famous chef screwed up on adobo: In August 2022, American chef, restaurateur, and television personality Geoffrey Zakarian fucked up the recipe to the distaste of Uncle Roger and Filipinos around the world. 

A conversation between Yummy’s chief food editor Roselle Miranda and Esquire’s features editor-at-large Mario Alvaro Limos dissects why foreign celebrity chefs often fail to master Filipino adobo.  

LIMOS: Roselle, I think their choice of cooking adobo is Filipino baiting. It doesn’t matter if they get it right.  Our data has shown for years that content hinged on Filipino pride sells.

MIRANDA: I agree. That’s also why we’ve stopped covering Taste Atlas. 

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L: I think one of the reasons why they get the ingredients wrong is for production reasons. Since this is a TV show, the presentation has to be colorful, hence, the unconventional use of a lot of greens in adobo—e.g., Rachel Ray's use of ungodly amounts of green onion, cilantro, and parsley.

M: But also because adobo has become more popular. Since it's an easy recipe, chefs sometimes do feel the need to tweak recipes. Going authentic is not always the goal—making it your version is. I also feel that they do not know Filipino cuisine enough to tackle it the way Filipino homecooks have done successfully. Adobo sa gata is a great example of an adobo without massacring the adobo dish.  

L: But is it right to assume they’re not cooking for Filipino audiences? Their main viewers are Americans, and they use ingredients that are readily available in American kitchens.  

M: Yes! But that is no excuse because Filipino and Asian groceries are more easily available now more than ever. Even simple ingredient substitutes, such as using white vinegar and Japanese soy sauce, are easily accessible. So the addition of all those ingredients for the mere reason that it makes it, the dish, more visually appealing to the eye, is no excuse for these wild flavor tweaks. A little parsley to garnish is forgivable but too much of those herbs inherently changes the dish making it wrong to our taste.  

L: I've noticed that Meghan Markle's adobo recipe is more "authentic" than Rachel Ray's or Zakarian's. 

M: Yay, Meghan! Please note she's not a chef trying to “sell” us her version of the dish. She's just cooking it as she knows it. What makes me appalled is that they're calling their dishes “Filipino Adobo” without giving their tweaks recognition in the title of the recipe. It should be a Filipino Adobo with cilantro and onions or Filipino Adobo with onions and lemon or, better yet, Filipino-Style Chicken Adobo with whatever because let's face it: our classic version of adobo is made with either or both pork and chicken. That's why we say adobong baboy or adobong manok. Adobo is still a cooking method, not the dish itself.

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