Know more about the guest speakers for this Saturday's talk: AMY A. UY, JENNY B. ORILLOS, and WILSON LEE FLORES. Catch them at the museum on 21 November, 2 - 5PM.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS | The Authors
AMY A. UY began her food writing journey when she first wrote about tibok-tibok for a food writing workshop in 2008. Shortly after, she joined the Doreen G. Fernandez Food Writing Awards, writing a tribute piece on her father-in-law’s batchoy house in Bacolod which earned a third place finish. Since then, the path she took has been paved with all things good about food which she writes about in http://www.gmanews.tv, Metro Society, and Food Magazine.
While she tells her stories in print and online, she traces her roots in another media—television. She graduated cum laude from the University of the Philippines with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Broadcast Communications. She honed her copywriting and production skills at GMA Network, Inc. for over 20 years, becoming a broadcast executive for its creative services and then its post-production division. She has also produced on-air interstitials for History Channel Asia, Biography Channel Asia, and Crime and Investigation Asia for a Singapore-based media company.
She continues to pursue her passion for writing while working for the family’s food business. Her food essay is part of Savor the Word: Ten Years of the Doreen Gamboa Fernandez Food Writing Award (Anvil Publishing, 2012).
JENNY B. ORILLOS learned to bake from her aunt and cook from her Lola who both figure in many of her feature stories for Food Magazine. Her research work began as a college apprentice when she documented the Sama mats collection of the National Museum of the Philippines. She graduated from the University of the Philippines Manila with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philippine Arts. She worked full time as a researcher at the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) under the guidance of anthropologist Dr. Jesus T. Peralta.
After several years, she worked as a lifestyle journalist for the Daily Tribune newspaper. She completed her Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Creative Writing at the De La Salle University. She has brought all of these interests together as she writes about food and travel for various publications. She also co-authored the writing guide, Leaping Off the Page: How to Write Better Descriptions.
Her reviews were part of Spot.ph Top 10 Everything Food Lists (Summit Books, 2012 and 2014). Her food essays were published in Savor the Word (Anvil Publishing, 2012). She is an awardee of the Doreen Fernandez Food Writing Award in 2008 and 2011 (second prize) and 2014 (first prize).
WILSON LEE FLORES is a multi-awarded writer, college teacher, self-made real estate entrepreneur. He has authored 5 books, won three Palanca literary awards and has also won a record 13 Catholic Mass Media Awards (CMMA) for his “Philippine Star” columns. He has won two CMMA Hall of Fame Awards, including for “Best Business Column”. His latest CMMA Award was for the “Best Opinion Column” category, which he won on November 4, 2015.
A notable venture was buying and reviving the 76-year-old artisinal shop fondly called Kamuning Bakery in Quezon City. Central to its operations, quality and charm is a pugon or a wood-fired brick oven, bringing together his loves: history, economics, literature, art and food.
Wilson Lee Flores first read about the Kamuning Bakery from the columns of the late top food critic Dr. Doreen Fernandez, and since then became a customer. He acquired Kamuning Bakery in December 2013, then took over management and started reviving it in January 2014. He spent the succeeding months convincing the lease tenants to vacate spaces owned by the old bakery so he could fully revive it. He restored and re-opened the bakery’s old cafe on March 20, 2015 to serve old-fashioned breakfast meals all day, among other treasured favorites.
Two individuals are instrumental behind Kamuning Bakery Cafe: the late pre-war newspaper tycoon Don Alejandro Roces who invited the first bakery to open in the newly-established Quezon City in 1939, and who also arranged for the sale of government land at 15 centavos per square meters; and the late founder Atty. Leticia “Letty” Bonifacio Javier who started this business with her husband, World War II martyr Lieutenant Marcelo Javier, and ran it all their life.
