Dominique Villanueva - Home Recipe Developer & Food Blogger

Dominique Villanueva is a home recipe developer and food blogger based in Los Angeles. After college and a quick career in the music industry, Dominique followed her passion toward baking and began her career in the food and hospitality industry. Over the last few years Dominique has worked in French influenced bakeries, and worked with HiFi Kitchen and Justin Foronda and Irenia with Chef Ryan Garlitos developing recipes and desserts. Her website offers traditional recipes with Filipino and Asian flavors and ingredients. Dominique explains, “Often I like taking well-known Western dishes and switching out Filipino ingredients for conventional Western ones. Or I may take a Filipino dish and add an ingredient more commonly found in Western food or food from another Asian country.” She’s built recipes around flavors like the prolific Filipino ingredient ube, and pandan, pilinuts, tablea chocolate, and even bagoong! “It’s challenging because I along with many other Filipinos already have such an established idea of Filipino cuisine, but when you dig deeper into the culture you realize the food is a reflection of our fluidity, resilience, and ingenuity due to our constantly shifting cultural influences. My goal is to honor that convention of transformation through my food.” Dominique is currently working on developing recipes for the new year.

www.nique-eats.com
@nique.eats

When did you start baking? And were you always interested in cooking and baking?
I started baking about 6 and a half years ago, after college at CSULB. I actually majored in sociology, but had been interning in the music industry for two of my last years in undergrad. I realized the music industry wasn’t a good fit for me, which is when I started getting into baking at home. Even though I am pretty much completely self-taught, I very quickly made the decision to focus on it professionally, and have been working in food and hospitality since.


What are some of your favorite recipes/dishes you've created?
One "turning point” recipe I can think of is my bay leaf-infused chocolate cake with ube buttercream. It was the first time I had really tried my hand at using Filipino flavors in a way that I could connect with as a Filipino American - it felt like something only someone with my perspective could have come up with. After that cake, I really starting thinking about what kind of food and flavors I want to make, and who I wanted to work with.


What are some of your favorite ingredients to work with?
I love working with Asian ingredients (tea flavors of any kind especially), though I feel most proud when I use specifically Filipino flavors in interesting ways. Ube is of course our most iconic dessert ingredient because of its striking color, but so are pandan, coconut, brown or palm sugar, tablea chocolate, pili nuts, sticky rice, it goes on! I also have found huge satisfaction in using savory ingredients in my desserts (I once made a very polarizing bagoong caramel that I thought was amazing but others thought was too strong haha). It’s challenging because I along with many other Filipinos already have such an established idea of Filipino cuisine, but when you dig deeper into the culture you realize the food is a reflection of our fluidity, resilience, and ingenuity due to our constantly shifting cultural influences. My goal is to honor that convention of transformation through my food.


What is your favorite part of the creative process of creating a dessert?
Brainstorming flavor pairings is usually where I feel most creative and where I think I shine. I like building a recipe around the flavors I want to highlight, and then deciding the best vehicle for those flavors, and then what methodology would bring that idea to life.

Do you have a support system of Filipino food entrepreneurs?
Yes! Over the past two years I’ve worked in two Fil-Am owned kitchens: HiFi Kitchen with Justin Foronda and Irenia with Chef Ryan Garlitos.

I met Justin at a Ruby Ibarra show at the Bootleg Theater in LA’s Filipinotown, where he was handing out flyers for his soon-to-open restaurant. On a complete whim, I asked if he needed someone to develop dessert recipes for him, and my first night working there was his actual opening night! Even though I’m no longer a HiFi Kitchen employee, I still very much feel like a part of his team and we still collaborate whenever they need a little sugar on their menu.

My time at Irenia was brief (they decided to close doors after my first 3 months) but it was my first “real” kitchen job - prior to that I had worked in almost every restaurant position that didn’t involve line cooking, including bakery management haha. I couldn’t imagine a better place for me to learn the line - the ethos Chef Ryan had toward his food were so in step with how I see my own.

I’m beyond grateful to both kitchens for inspiring me, taking a chance on me, and surrounding me with like minded visionary cooking.

How do you incorporate Filipino flavors in your desserts?

It honestly depends on the ingredient I’m trying to highlight. Often I like taking well-known Western dishes and switching out Filipino ingredients for conventional Western ones. Or I may take a Filipino dish and add an ingredient more commonly found in Western food or food from another Asian country. I’ve worked in French influenced bakeries, so some methods and conventions naturally bleed into my baking, but I think keeping an open mind about flavor possibilities is what allows me to stay true to my heritage while using what culinary knowledge I’ve accumulated.


Who/what is your biggest motivation?
My goal is just to share knowledge in a way that allows me to fully express my point of view as a baker. I’ve found cooking to be such a helpful way to navigate identity politics, both in understanding my own and other people’s. It’s motivating to think I could help someone else do the same.


Do you have any upcoming pop ups and holiday desserts?
Unfortunately my books are closed until 2021! I’m actually in the middle of relocating from Long Beach to Los Angeles proper, but I’ll hopefully be back with treats to offer once I’m done moving. In the meantime, I still plan on developing and posting recipes for anyone who needs a quarantine project.

Photos courtesy of Dominique Villanueva