It’s was an honor to have New York Times food writer Ligaya Rogers ’88 Mishan on campus last week as Punahou’s writer in residence. The acclaimed food writer and co-author of “Filipinx: Heritage Recipes from the Diaspora” is a recipient of the James Beard award and has been published in “The Best American Food Writing” as well as “The Best American Travel Writing.”
Throughout the week, she met with various classes in grades 6 – 12 to give insight into the writing process, the history of food, her time at Punahou and more.
On Thursday, Mishan joined Punahou Food Curriculum Specialist Mark Noguchi ’93 and Eliza Leineweber ’92, a Academy English faculty member and Garden Resource teacher, to offer a glimpse into the world of culinary storytelling during the “Sense of Plate” public event.
I grew up eating mac and cheese laced with crispy spam, and Vienna sausage and canned pineapple skewers. I took it for granted that this was the food of my life. You don’t think about it, you just eat it.
When I became a food writer, suddenly things that were ordinary, you look at in a new light. Eventually, I thought I’d run out of words to describe food – sweet, salty, crunchy on the outside – so my editor said, ‘stop writing about the food itself, write about the story of the food.’
New York Times food writer Ligaya Rogers ’88 Mishan