UT student centers cooking accounts around friendship, relays cultural identity
August 8, 2022
As Lance Bolastig brought a pot of pork ribs to a boil, he slowly added in a tangy tamarind mix before generously seasoning with black pepper, garlic and onions. Despite being thousands of miles away from his family, he said the signature sour flavors of his homemade pork sinigang immediately transported him back to the Philippines.
Topping the thick soup off with an array of vegetables, Bolastig proudly presented the meal to his friends, eager to share one of his favorite childhood dishes.
Bolastig said he has cooked and shared dishes with his friends and family for as long as he can remember. While attending online school during the height of COVID-19, he led virtual cooking sessions with his friends and documented their experiences on social media, eventually creating an account called “Lance’s Cookbook” on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube to share his knowledge and relay his diverse cultural background. After living in the Philippines, Trinidad and Tobago, Canada and Belize, Bolastig said his exposure to a vibrant variety of cultures heavily influences his cooking style and abilities.
“With every dish I cook there’s always influence from other places I’ve lived,” Bolastig said. “You’ll always see me adding extra pepper or extra specific seasonings to dishes. It portrays who I am inside.”
Additionally, Bolastig started a series on his cooking accounts titled “Around the World in 80 Plates” in order to experiment with a range of cooking methods and flavor profiles. Through making this series, Bolastig said he especially appreciated discovering the similarities and differences in dishes from various cultures and emphasized the importance of cooking as a continuous learning process.
Design junior Anna Yu said she relies on Bolastig’s extensive understanding of food when trying new recipes. She often asks questions about Bolastig’s cooking process and said his eagerness to share reflects how cooking serves as a medium for connection and friendship.
“Whenever (Bolastig) is cooking, he’s never one to explicitly … tell people about what he’s doing,” Yu said. “But, if you ask him, he’ll go on forever about all the techniques and his relationship with the dish — it just feels very comfortable when talking to him about food.”
Lily Nguyen, a physics sophomore and close friend of Bolastig, said that prior to attending UT, she wasn’t extensively exposed to a variety of cultural dishes and said Bolastig inspired her to begin her own cooking journey.
“Seeing how much (Bolastig) enjoys (cooking) and how he brings so much joy to other people … I’ve learned to enjoy cooking more myself,” Nguyen said. “Cooking is an opportunity to try new things, to try foods from other cultures that you may not have known before.”
Bolastig often prompts get-togethers at his apartment to cook dishes for his friends, who will bring the ingredients for any new recipes they want to try. Nguyen said they like to use these cooking sessions as a relaxing way to update each other on life and socialize.
“Being with (Bolastig) while he’s cooking has been really enjoyable,” Nguyen said. “It just makes me feel very welcomed. I’m always happy to hang out with him.”
Bolastig said he also shares his love for cooking and for his friends by learning the recipes to their favorite dishes, and he puts his own twist by adding familiar ingredients from his background.
“Sharing my love for food is really important to me,” Bolastig said. “Whenever I get the chance, I cook for my friends. That’s really how I show my love for people.”
