Fides Santos-Arguelles and Grace Guinto
Melbourne, Australia
The Entree.Pinays; Cocktails/ Coffee & Chikahan; In My Kusina
Instagram: @fidesmaesantos @sweet.cora.cakes @entree.pinays
*Changemakers is a Cross Cultures series spotlighting inspiring women who are creating and doing in the F&B ecosystem; eading the way and helping better the world.
Fides Santos-Arguelles and Grace Guinto are co-founders of The Entree.Pinays, a group of six Filipinas who are spotlighting Philippine food and community in Melbourne, Australia. They are responsible for lining up the exciting Filipino events at the annual Melbourne Food and Wine Festival (MFWF).
Fides, whose family hails from Pampanga and Bataan in the Philippines, and migrated to Australia in 1982, is an independent business-to-business consultant, establishing her own niche consultancy, Fides & Associates, and sits on the Victorian Government Small Business Ministerial Council.
Grace, born in Bataan and who migrated to Australia with her parents when she was 1 year old, is the owner of Sweet Cora, a small business inspired by the food of her beloved late mother, specializing in Aussie and American bakes with a Filipino twist. She is also focused on privacy compliance and data governance efforts for the Coles Group.
Tell us about you. Where were you born, raised, and what you are making or doing at present?
FIDES: I was born in Manila, Philippines. I grew up in Olongapo, my parents (from Pampanga and Bataan in Luzon) worked in the US Navy base there at the time. My family migrated to Melbourne, Australia back in the early 1980s without any knowledge of English. I’m grateful and I’m proud to be a Filipina-Australian.
By profession, my background is in government, business-to-business marketing and economic development. I run my own niche consulting practice and take lead in the creative thinking, business development and strategic partnerships for The Entree.Pinays, a female-led Filipino cuisine and cultural advocacy group I co-founded with Grace in August 2018.
In the time of COVID-19 with my projects and The Entree.Pinays’ events postponed, we have shifted gears and created new ways to uplift, educate and connect with our community virtually.
Coffee & Chikahan is real talk with real people with local and international food, business, creative and community leaders. In My Kusina is a weekly dose of #ISOcooking at home live on Instagram sharing stories and favorite Filipino and inspired dishes.
GRACE: I was born in Balanga, Bataan, the home province of both my parents. My dad is from Wawa Orion, while my mum grew up in Balanga, the capital city. While my Mama’s youthful stint at the butcher shop meant that she enjoyed cooking all things pork, Papa’s youthful fishing endeavours explains his love for all things seafood. Their relationship was the classic pairing of surf and turf. It was a marriage between the “boy from Wawa” and the “girl from Balanga”, where family feasts celebrated produce from both land and sea.
We migrated to Australia when I was a 1 year old in 1979, as part of Australia’s skilled migrant visa program. My mother was the Ate of her family, and the first to make it over to Australia. It was because of my Mama and Papa that her younger siblings were able to make their way to Australia under the Family Reunion Program. It was through their selfless efforts that showed me the importance of the Filipino cultural trait of “utang na loob”. A trait that continues to guide me in my journey through life.
I am a co-founder of The Entree.Pinays, but also the chief baking officer and owner of Sweet Cora, a small business inspired by the food of her beloved late mother, specializing in Aussie and American bakes with a Filipino twist. I also work for the Coles Group, which aims at becoming the most trusted retailer in Australia to ‘sustainably feed all Australians to help them lead healthier, happier lives’.
How did you end up working at your present career? How long have you been doing this/ When did you start?
FIDES: I believe our paths crossed for a reason, and in somewhat similar career and life crossroads.
In late 2017, after 15+ amazing years in government, I took the leap to start my own small business, a niche consulting practice Fides & Associates. I’ve always been interested in entrepreneurship and creativity, and how I can connect these two things to create my own opportunities.
Around about the same time, Grace and I met through our shared love of food, culture and community. Grace’s tribute to her late mother’s recipes was the very reason I reached out to her. As mothers and daughters of Filipino immigrants, how can we use our privilege and professional experience to contribute and bring about change?
Filipinos make up the fifth largest migrant community in Australia, and despite Melbourne being the country’s premier gastronomic destination, Filipino cuisine continues to be underrepresented in the mainstream.
Driven with purpose and passion, in August 2018 Grace and I co-founded The Entree.Pinays, joined by Felis Sarcepuedes, Kristina Naráy, Sandra Tan and Maysie Lecciones.
We contribute our diverse skills in business, design, marketing and communications and hospitality to collectively promote our cuisine and culture in mainstream Australia through creative collaborations, events, stories, community engagement and enterprise opportunities.
BARRIO, our debut event series for Melbourne Food and Wine 2019 was a sold-out success, a Filipino food celebration on a scale unseen in the festival’s 26-year history.
GRACE: As a mother of 3 young children, my return to work from maternity leave in 2018 was the catalyst for change in my career. Having spent 15+ years in professional services, I came to a crossroads. I was seeking ways to connect my interests in food and community service to work, and knew that opportunities to bring those interests together would be limited with my current employer. So I decided to take the leap, quit my career with PwC, and use the time to reflect on what I wanted and needed to do next. It was during this downtime that Fides and I connected.
Upon our first meeting, over cocktails and chikahan (of course), we instantly hit it off. Fides’ energy, optimism, and vision is so infectious. Our shared love for our Filipino cuisine, culture, and communities was the common thread. And it continues to propel us forward, even during the time that our lives have been interrupted by Corona.
What was the biggest challenge you have faced?
FIDES: As mothers, wives, daughters, sisters, and co-founders, Grace and I like most, are challenged with time. Time for work, for family, for our businesses and careers, for self care and of course our advocacy work with The Entree.Pinays. We are on this constant timeline, time doesn’t stop not does it wait. There is so much going on in the world, unprecedented, how do we want to respond and take action to what matters to us, to our culture, to our community?
Following the success of our BARRIO x MFWF 2019 events, The Entree.Pinays invested almost 8 months planning three events as part of the MFWF 2020 program – a dinner series, a cake and chikahan evening event and a sold out Filipino street food fiesta in one of the city’s most iconic laneways. We secured partners, local and international culinary talent including Chef JP Anglo and Lechon Diva, Dedet de la Fuente, and went to market. Ticket sales and media coverage generating momentum. Then the devastating bushfires hit at the start of 2020, followed by COVID-19 in March.
A little over one week before MFWF 2020, we made a team decision, supported by our collaborators, to pull our events from the program. Later that same day, MFWF 2020 announced postponement of its whole program.
The government’s effective early response to curve the spread of COVID-19 meant gatherings of more than 500 people posed a significant health risk and needed to be cancelled. March in Melbourne is all about major international events – sport, fashion, arts, culture and food. But with a global pandemic unfolding, it’s impact was only just beginning.
GRACE: Losing my mother in 2013 has been my greatest challenge. Her name was Corazon, which is Spanish for heart – and losing her broke my heart into a million pieces. I still feel lost at times navigating this world as a motherless daughter. But I know that somehow, somewhere, my mother had a part in bringing the ladies that make up The Entree.Pinays into my life. Their sisterhood gives me strength in ways that I didn’t think I would get from our collective. We started off as strangers, but we are soul sisters. Brought together to fill our hearts and bellies with the possibilities for our Filipino cuisine, culture, and communities.
Where my Mama was my greatest cheerleader, The Entree.Pinays and the barrio that we have brought together have also become my cheerleaders, too.
How/ what did you do to get over it?
FIDES: The Entree.Pinays came together because of food, but with the current and ongoing state of the world, we are being called to pay more attention, to be active in our individual and collective learning, to listen, to participate. Community and food is at the heart of what we do.
Although physical distancing was enforced, we can still connect and build our barrio through conversation. Inspired by a virtual conversation with Anne Marie Cruz, founder of Entrepinayship in the US, Grace and I faced our tech fears, learned Zoom 101 and The Entree.Pinays’ launched Coffee & Chikahan in late March, followed by In My Kusina the following month. Ever since, so many fantastic opportunities have come our way. Quite a contrast to our planning efforts for MFWF 2020 where we encountered one challenge after another. I believe the universe is definitely leading us on a path where we need to be.
As our barrio grows, and life happens, our platform is evolving to become more about food and a voice for good.
We don’t have all the answers, but with a growth mindset, curiosity and empathy, surrounded by a special sisterhood and community, a challenge is simply an opportunity to become better. We all play a part. And when we do, we want to make it count.
GRACE: Turning to the kitchen and recreating my Mama’s dishes was part of healing. Being the Ate, the older sister in the family, a lot was on me to try to navigate through the uncertainty of my mother having cancer and life without her.
With Instagram as an avenue, I created my first account entitled ‘Corazon’s Kitchen Chronicles’, which became a visual representation of all the dishes my mum used to cook that she missed, a homage to Corazon who instilled in me the pride for our Filipino heritage.
“The first imagery [is] an image of my mother laughing outside in her dirty kitchen which many Filipino households in Australia may have. It’s a kitchen where we cook our tuyo [dried fish] and all other items that kind of smell when we cook it. I think [it was] when I came to visit her from my time in the States and I asked Ma, I’m really craving your ukoy [vegetable and prawn fritters]. When I captured that moment with her, I never thought that would end up being such an inspiring moment of my life.”
More about our special bond, and the inspiration that my Mama served in the life we shared together, and in her after life, can be found here.
What is the best advice you can give to anyone wanting to get into or excel in your field?
FIDES: Understand and be clear about your ‘why’. It drives purpose. Add value first. Be curious, knowledge means choices. Embrace challenges as an opportunity to reimagine, to unlearn and relearn, to get out of your comfort zone, think differently and discover new heights. Be kind. How else do we get better and become?
GRACE: Align your passions with your efforts. And recognize that success takes many forms. When you are able to bring your authentic self, your whole self, you know that you have created a space where you can excel, and people will appreciate your efforts so much more.
What is your favorite thing about your culture or living in your city?
FIDES AND GRACE: The one thing that we love and hope never changes in Melbourne is the support of our multicultural communities, and the curiosity and willingness of Melburnians to welcome, learn and experience new cuisines and cultures. Not only is food necessary for survival, it also has the ability to serve as a peace offering or a moment to be thankful, or to strike up conversation between strangers, conjure nostalgic experiences and create new ones. Through food The Entree.Pinays are building a community; we are building a barrio.
How are/ have you been spending your days during this COVID-19 quarantine period? (*If your city has recently opened up, please feel free to share a little bit about how things are now.)
Fides: On the homefront, we’ve been cooking more, working from home and home learning out respective children over the last 6-8 weeks; Grace has three, I have two. There’s been time to pause, breathe, reimagine, reconnect and create.
Restrictions are slowly easing, the kids are back in school and Melbourne is reopening with law enforced operational and social distancing measure to keep everyone safe and minimise a second wave. We are still in a state of emergency and on a long road of economic downturn. It’s not over yet, but with the required, sustained community response to health and safety measures, it’s enabled Melbourne, the city we love to wake up slowly from hibernation to a new world.
Grace: During quarantine, I turned cooking with my kids as a home-schooling lesson. A great mix of science, maths, and home economics. But the greatest and hardest lesson for me is that I will never hold the undying patience that makes a great teacher. I salute the men and women who make up the teaching professions. They are truly amazing human beings.
Please tell us about In My Kusina, and how readers can take part of it.
FIDES AND GRACE: With #ISOcooking trending during the time of Corona, IN MY KUSINA was our way of bringing the barrio together for a virtual mid-week meal. A great way to feature a ‘kusinera’ and ‘chef’ showcasing Filipino cuisine, ingredients and commercially available products, combined with storytelling of the dish, the cook and the chef.
To date, In My Kusina has featured The Entree.Pinays cooking up some special family recipes, promoting Filipino products and ingredients where possible:
Lumpia Shanghai by Kristina Naray
Longganisa Hubad by Grace Guinto
Vegetarian Kare Kare by Sandra Tan
Bistek Kapampangan by Fides Santos-Arguelles
The series has also extended out to include our barrio of chefs, food and travel writers.
