(intense music plays) - [Channing] Food has always been the part of my Filipino culture that I've held on to the most and kind of understand the most.

And it's the part that's the easiest to share.

Having food to gravitate around and having a cause like Black Lives Matter to gravitate around really made you feel a sense of community that we lost during the pandemic.

(upbeat jazz music) - My name is Channing Centeno, born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio.

I've been working in restaurants since I was 12, 13 years old.

I was raised by a single mother, but the first 10 years of my life we lived with my Lola and Pa. My Lola would watch me often and I would be in the kitchen doing homework.

Just always being around her cooking, just always smelling garlic and watching her cook.

And as soon as dinner was ready she's like, "Channing, kain na (let's eat)."

I've always cooked my whole life.

Like growing up, watching my Lola cook.

So I started working as a dishwasher.

I eventually moved up to busser.

I just remember one day being in the restaurant and being like, "Wow, I'm going to be this the rest of my life."

One of the reasons why I wanted to move to New York city is because you can experience all sorts of cuisines here.

One of my favorite questions to ask someone when I first meet them, I was like, "What kind of food did you grow up eating?"

Cause it kind of says a lot about somebody.

- [Geena] I actually didn't learn how to cook until like I moved to New York city.

It was the height of winter, when I started missing Sinigang and chicken adobo.

I called my mom over the phone.

- [Both] She walked you through how to make it.

- And then once I'm done making it, I was like, that's how easy it is?

- And my Lola has never taught me how to make this but one day I was making a steak marinade, and it turned out to start to taste like her Bistek.

Here I'm gonna put this in the oven here, these onions for the Bistek, we're going to dry them out.

- Yes, I mean their color is right.

- Got the adobo in there too.

And here we have the adobo.

We have the marinated onions for the Bistek.

They're drying out in here.

And then after they dry out, I'm going to rehydrate them in some fat.

- Well, in our family, we actually use pork and beef meat together and oyster sauce.

My favorite thing is my classic, like Filipino, like soy sauce with just like soy, vinegar, and sesame and lots of red onion and garlic and lots of chilies.

- Raw garlic?

- Raw garlic, yeah.

- Okay, maybe we'll make some of that for today.

- ♪The grass is greener on the other side, the other side.♪ ♪Forget your dreams it's your time to ride, time to ride.♪ ♪The grass is greener on the other side.♪ - My mother's Filipino, my dad is Black.

And so my mom had to raise a Black man.

And the way that she raised me is she always made me understand that like, listen, this country is the way it is as a Black man, you're going to suffer these injustices.

You can either cry about it, or you can push through.

(upbeat music plays) - One of the main reasons why I started to cook for the protest is because I went to a vigil for the first time.

My friends said they'd come with me 'cause they knew I didn't want to go because I was scared to.

But when I was there, so there was a, another Filipino lady who was passing out the Banana Lumpia.

And so I connected with her and I was like, "Listen, I want to cook something."

For the next protest I cook food.

And everyone loved when I cooked.

That was the only peaceful way I could figure out how to, where to put my energy.

So the food I cooked for people had a lot of energy and love and maybe some anger and sadness behind it, but it was food that could help sustain.

Food is something for the soul that, that fuels just more than just your body.

It gives you something to connect over and create senses of community.

And when people don't have that, it hurts them.

(upbeat flute music) - [Channing] It's a feast, it's a family style feast.

So it's just large pieces of meat, large pieces of fish, familiar pieces of sausage.

It's just, it's great.

Cooking combined with friends is amazing.

Being able to cook with someone that you haven't, maybe that you've never had too much of a conversation with, it creates more conversation.

Cooking a giant meal, like that is such a fun thing.

It's like, it's a dance.

(upbeat flute music) - [CJ] People would always ask, how do you eat a Kamayan?

I mean the best thing about a Kamayan is there's no wrong way to just get in there.

- [Geena] What does it mean to be grounded and actually using our culture, right?

And sharing our culture?

- [Samantha] We grew up in just very predominantly white neighborhoods.

And I don't think I ever really fully embraced or really thought much about being Filipino.

I feel like I'm my most authentic self when I embrace it more.

- [Francis] I just wanted to just feed my community.

And whether it's through Filipino barbecue, or like coming together for like some sort of like pop up or some charitable event, It's just recognizing like your self worth and your value as a Filipino, as an American.

- [Geena] In our community, right?

We have family members that are frontline.

There's nurses who here has.

- [CJ] My brother in the service was a frontline worker.

Hospitals weren't prepared for it.

They didn't know how to handle it.

Like they were running out of masks.

What I did for my brother for seven days, literally I cooked for him every day.

And that's how I got in touch with my cooking.

- [Nathalie] I feel like being in the restaurant industry, it's basically a form of taking care of people.

Cooking for someone, whether it's at home or for somebody else, it's a form that you care about that someone.

You know, even if it's like a soup for someone who's a little bit sick, like bringing it to someone's house.

- [Samantha] Yeah, I consider it a frontline job.

You know, people who are nurses and take care of you medically.

Or you have like us, people who literally feed you and provide food for you.

- [Francis] None of all the important things that happen, would be possible without the essential workers like us.

You know, providing the food, providing healthcare like nurses.

But we were part of the community that just like help build a community that was broken.

- [Channing] I have a friend who she's kind of, can see someone's ancestors.

And I remember, she's talked about my ancestors and what they've been saying while I've been cooking before.

I always think about how deep, you know, back the food that I'm cooking goes, and how not everyone has tried chicken adobo, which is crazy to me.

I think chicken adobo should just be as popular as spaghetti and meatballs in the United States.

That's my dream.

(upbeat music plays) - ♪I said, Mama, we gonna make it there someday.♪ ♪I said Mama, we gonna make it there someday.♪ ♪I said, mama, we gonna make it there someday.♪ ♪ I said mama, we gonna make it there someday.♪ ♪ I said mama, we gonna make it here, someday.♪ ♪I said, mama, we gonna make it here.♪ ♪I said mama, we gonna make it here.♪ ♪ I said mama, we gonna make it here someday♪ (upbeat music) ♪ The grass is greener on the other side, the other side♪ ♪Forget your dreams it's your time to ride,♪ ♪ it's your time to ride.♪ ♪ The grass is greener on the other side, the other side.♪