Filipino chefs’ tocino ube burger is featured on front cover of Food and Wine magazine

Two Filipino chefs and their famous tocino burger with ube buns gets the spotlight in the latest issue of Food and Wine.

Tom Cunanan and Paolo Dungca, owners of PogiBoy in Washington, D.C., are featured in the magazine’s second annual “The Innovators Issue” along with their creation, which graces the magazine’s cover.

Food and Wine devoted their newest issue to highlighting “leaders who are doing the most good to change the way we eat and drink.”

“You’ll find them in our second-annual F&W Game Changers list which features 16 people and companies who are making hospitality and packaged goods smarter, more sustainable, more inclusive, and more delicious for all,” Food and Wine wrote.

Cunanan and Dungca’s creation consists of tocino – a type of sweet-cured meat typically made from pork – and buns made out of ube or Philippine purple yam.

Besides its patty and dazzling bun, the burger also has caramelized pineapple, crisp green papaya achara and a creamy “secret sauce” made from a combination of mayonnaise, cornichons, banana ketchup, vinegar and Korean chili flakes.

The tocino burger was partly inspired by the chori burger, a popular dish in the Philippines. It was also inspired by Dungca’s childhood memories of having sautéed tocino with garlic rice for breakfast.

Dungca told Food and Wine that he and Cunanan wanted to “bring that comfort and nostalgia to the burger” when they incorporated tocino into the dish’s patty.

“Filipino food comes from the heart,” Dungca said. “This recipe is very personal to us because it brings so much comfort and joy for us to be able to share our heritage and cuisine with everyone. This makes us so proud to be Filipino chefs cooking Filipino food.”

“To say that we are overwhelmed with the support and love we have gotten for our [Food and Wine] COVER is an UNDERSTATEMENT,” PogiBoy wrote in an Instagram post on Saturday.

“Thank yous are due to all of our neighbors, friends, and family for being with us every step of this journey. Opening in the middle of the pandemic was no easy feat; we have learned so much along the way and our story is still just beginning!”

Other rising Filipino chefs featured in Food and Wine’s latest issue include Melissa Miranda of Musang in Seattle with her sinigang na hipon, Anna Swann of Ulam in Dallas with her adobo chicken wings and Carlo Lamagna of Magna Kusina in Portland, Oregon, with his pancit miki bihon.

Featured Image via @foodandwine

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