What is your nationality?

I am Filipina, Dutch American and Native American.  I was born and raised in the Philippines and as an Air Force brat, grew up with great appreciation for variation, and adaptability became one of my biggest strengths.  I graduated from Wagner High School in Clark Air Force Base, the same year my step-father retired. We moved that same year to his hometown, North Franklin, CT.  Interestingly enough, not only did I grow up knowing Filipino cuisine, but my step-father, is second generation Ukrainian decent.  So, I am also very familiar with Ukrainian cuisine from his cooking and gatherings at the Ukrainian club in Willimantic, CT.

Where did you get your love of cooking?

My love for cooking (though I didn't know it then) was rooted deep in Filipino soil.  Every summer when I was young, I watched my grandfather and uncles come back from a long day of fishing and observed my women folk make some delicious meals from what little they had.  Also, from growing up on an Air Force base, it was also multi-cultural.  At an early
age, I was not pigeon-holed to one particular flavor.  But Filipino cuisine will always bring me back to my childhood and to the shore of Legaspi Sea.

Was your mother a good cook and what did she teach you?

I remember my mother insisting I stay in the kitchen with her to chop up vegetables for meals as I begrudgingly obliged as a youngster and most especially as a teenager.  But as a grown woman with children of my own, I try to regain that memory in the kitchen with her.  I still call her up from time to time for family recipes that I never write down,
because it is the connection my mother and I have with our culture and that we still share.

What's your favorite meal?

All the comfort meals that are so familiar to me are my favorite, of course.  But my palate has broadened with age and I don't limit myself.  I enjoy Italian to Thai, from gourmet to home cooking.  Different flavors and aromas to me are like the many spectrums of color and texture.

You also paint, what inspires you when your brush hits the canvas?

I rarely have anything in mind to paint or draw when I am in the process of painting.  I let the process take me to where it wants me to go.  That's why I am more bent towards abstract expressionism; it breaks the mold of form and structure, though it may look chaotic for most, ironically there is balance in midst of it all.  As an artist that is the challenge to find that harmony, unity and balance.  Just like in life itself.

Do you think there is a connection between cooking and art?

There is a connection to all art forms. To me, cooking is also a major form of expression.  It is universal.  To create is innate.  Although, some are better in different art forms than others, and some choose one genre.  As for me, if there is an opportunity to express myself
creatively, I will do it, and learn from the experience, as I share it with others. 

You also make music, what's your goal with that?

I am a singer and song writer; though I just stumbled on the opportunity to create music, singing, out of all my passions was my first love, believe it or not, and one the last to explore.  My goal is just to create and wherever it leads me, I will be satisfied to have done it. 

What other passions do you have?

My passion is unearthed when I write, sing, paint, cook, and whatever I can get into, and manage to dance in between it all.  It's where I find my authentic self. Without these passions, I will not be me.  It is my wish that everyone can find this kind of joy, the joy of self-expression.

Are you going to teach your children how to be a good cook?

I have my children experience at an early age to be in the kitchen, have them use their hands, making messes, and in the end, partake in the richness of life: good food, good laughs with friends and family!  I also try to teach them that food connects us to this earth.  Though my mother and my grandmother didn't tell me in words, it was through their action of having me be a part of cooking, that I understood the importance of nature's cycle.  Food is our sustenance, our energy source. It is something to be very grateful for. I think we in our society forget that sometimes in our hectic lifestyles where everything becomes a chore and a nuisance. 

Can you cook a healthy meal for $7 dollars?

As a single mother, I have to budget myself, and what gives me great satisfaction is making something out of nothing, as the saying goes. Gourmet foods are nice, with the fresh and expensive ingredients, but home cooking is where it's at.  It is my childhood and yours!

 

 

Cristina Querrer moved to the Tampa Bay area from Norwich, CT, to earn her Creative Writing degree at Eckered College in St. Petersburg, FL, with a minor in Visual Arts.  As a graduate of Wagner High at former Clark Air Force Base, Philippines, Querrer has also served in the Army. She has published, performed and exhibited as a multidisciplinary artist. Her poems and personal essays have appeared in The Mom Egg, Field of Mirrors: A New Anthology of Philippine American Writers, Babaylan, Pinoy Poetics, Literary Well and Bombshells: War Stories and Poems by Women on the  Homefront, to name a few. She is also the singer/songwriter of Symptoms of Life:  http://reverbnation.com/symptomsoflife . She can be reached at  cristinaquerrer@yahoo.com and her art and writing can be viewed at http://cristinaquerrer.blogspot.com.