Who gets to decide whether food is “authentic”?

Recorded live at the 2026 Kalamazoo Foodways Symposium, Chef Dr. Abang Brian is joined by Peecoonn Allen, Thai-born founder of Umami Ramen, and Shane Bernardo, a Filipino food justice organizer and co-founder of Food as Healing.

Through stories of carrot som tum, a grandmother’s lugaw, adobo, rendang and nasi lemak, they explore how migration, colonization, displacement and adaptation shape the food we inherit. Is a dish less authentic when it changes—or is adaptation how its meaning survives?

It is a conversation about food as love, healing, memory and belonging—with a fiery Sambal Survey along the way.