MEXICO CITY, Pampanga—She does not wear a chef’s hat. You’ll see her wearing casual housedresses and polo blouses paired with her capri pants, very unlike other chefs in their white gowns, overlaid with apron and a nameplate. You’ll see them situated in a fully air-conditioned kitchen with steel cooking utensils, huge cooking wares, built-in stoves, multilayered ovens with timers and lights.
In a nipa hut—where air freely fills its corners—decorated with 12 circular baskets, wood utensils, a small wooden cabinet, a wood table called dulang, clay cooking pots, cooking fest awards and small statues of saints—is where Atching Lilian Borromeo, at 74, a respected Kapampangan food historian, can be seen.
Atching, a Kapampangan term for elder sister, is a simple cook with no title or degree to boast of. But she proved herself above her competition. She was featured in the cooking segments of several popular TV shows in the country. But you will never see her wearing her toque. Despite her humility, everyone, even the renowned chefs of the industry, sees her as one of the best.
Atching Lilian who graduated from the Philippine Women’s University with a degree BS Economics, has been the mastermind behind the popular San Nicolas Cookies.
But along with her culinary renown in Pampanga, she had her struggles as a celebrity. One time, her famous recipe of cookies was claimed by a family who said they were the origin of the recipe. Borromeo couldn’t stand such criticism, for the recipe she loved had been with her family for generations. It was a cause she felt was worth fighting for.
“I came out defending the recipe and told the public that San Nicolas was brought here in the 1600s, not in 1978 as this family claimed,” she said, very confident of her stand.
Atching Lilian admitted that at first, she was not interested with the San Nicolas Cookies, named after Saint Nicholas de Tolentino, because it was an old recipe she learned from her grandmother, Doña Maura Hizon.
She claimed she had to fight for her grandmother’s cookie recipe because she had to, in deference to the old lady.
With her dedication to cooking and her unyielding faith, she won the battle. She said it was not just proving whose family owned the recipe, but a matter of pride and dignity.
Way before defending her grandmother’s San Nicolas Cookies, Atching Lilian became known after winning second place in the Maya Cook Fest in 1977. However, her love and loyalty for her grandmother’s cookie recipe made her culinary star grow brighter. That to her was a miracle.
“The miracle was that San Nicolas, through God’s Mercy, gave me abundant blessings. Many Kapampangan are superb cooks, but why was I given these many blessings?” she said.
After defending the recipe, Atching polished the recipe and started to commercialize the cookies—not for personal profits but to create jobs for her provincemates.
Atching Lilian believes that these cookies have survived their fiercest competition because they are protected by prayers.
“During Saint Nicholas’s feast day, which is September 10, these cookies are blessed then distributed among devotees. Each devotee then makes a wish, after which I believe many miracles take place,” she said with a smile brightening her face.
Coming from the wealthy Borromeo family, it was surprising that Atching chose to live simply. In the past years, Atching freely shared her Kapampangan recipes with other chefs: Dulce Prenda, Bobotong Asan, Paksing Demonyo, Brazo de Mais and Ebung Barag. To her, it was to keep the rich Kapampangan cuisine alive and thriving, although some recipients even claimed the recipes to be their own.
“It was sad that some recipes were lost because they were undocumented. But now that they are already in print and catalogued, they have been preserved. I want to preserve our culture, I want to share what I know so that today’s young generation will learn these recipes. If I just kept them, they would be lost forever, buried with me when I pass on, she said.
As the simple elder sister of the Kapampangan kitchen, Atching Lilian, a mother of three, continues her craft through different engagements. She continues to conduct cooking demonstrations, to both foreigners and local cooks, who are interested with the Kapampangan cuisine.
She said she wants to be remembered for her love of God and her love for others, and in a way, as an advocate for Kapampangan cuisine.