152: Documenting the Undocumented through Food with Jill Damatac
AnthroDish6 Touko 2025

152: Documenting the Undocumented through Food with Jill Damatac

The idea of a pristine kitchen with clean countertops feels distinctively American, or an all-American idealist. However, the concept of the American ideal, or the American dream, desperately needs to be challenged. How better to do that than through food? My guest this week, author and filmmaker Jill Damatac, does just that in her new memoir, Dirty Kitchen: A Memoir of Food and Family.

Jill was born in the Philippines, raised in the US, and is now a UK citizen living in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her film and photography work has been featured on the BBC and in Time, and at film festivals worldwide; her short documentary film Blood and Ink (Dugo at Tinta), about the Indigenous Filipino tattooist Apo Whang Od, was an official selection at the Academy Award–qualifying DOC NYC and won Best Documentary at Ireland's Kerry Film Festival. Jill holds an MSt in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge and an MA in Documentary Film from the University of the Arts London. Her new book, Dirty Kitchen, is a food memoir of 22 years undocumented in the United States.

In today's episode, we explore her memoir as a unique narrative that combines recipes, Filipino histories and mythologies, American immigration experiences, food writing, and personal narratives. Jill describes how she structured the book, how Filipino diasporic recipes relate to diasporic and migrant experiences, and the relationship between American foods and rebuilding a sense of self through Filipino foods after living undocumented for many years.

Resources:

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