When Postcolonial Historiography Speaks: Immersive Culinary Storytelling in Jovanni Sy’s A Taste of Empire.
Elshazly, D. (2025). When Postcolonial Historiography Speaks: Immersive Culinary Storytelling in Jovanni Sy’s A Taste of Empire.. EKB Journal Management System, 91(1), 29-45. doi: 10.21608/opde.2025.450656
Deena Shazly Elshazly. "When Postcolonial Historiography Speaks: Immersive Culinary Storytelling in Jovanni Sy’s A Taste of Empire.". EKB Journal Management System, 91, 1, 2025, 29-45. doi: 10.21608/opde.2025.450656
Elshazly, D. (2025). 'When Postcolonial Historiography Speaks: Immersive Culinary Storytelling in Jovanni Sy’s A Taste of Empire.', EKB Journal Management System, 91(1), pp. 29-45. doi: 10.21608/opde.2025.450656
Elshazly, D. When Postcolonial Historiography Speaks: Immersive Culinary Storytelling in Jovanni Sy’s A Taste of Empire.. EKB Journal Management System, 2025; 91(1): 29-45. doi: 10.21608/opde.2025.450656

When Postcolonial Historiography Speaks: Immersive Culinary Storytelling in Jovanni Sy’s A Taste of Empire.

CDELT Occasional Papers in the Development of English Education
Volume 91, Issue 1, July 2025, Page 29-45  XML PDF (552.75 K)
Document Type: Original Article
DOI: 10.21608/opde.2025.450656
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Author
Deena Shazly Elshazlyorcid
Assistant Professor of English Literature & Performance Studies Department of Humanities, College of Language & Communication, Arab Academy for Science, Technology & Maritime Transport
Abstract
This paper argues that Jovanni Sy's A Taste of Empire (2017) functions as a potent work of culinary theatre that advances a robust political critique through the framework of postcolonial historiography. The play, which takes the form of a live cooking demonstration, enables the seemingly benign format of a celebrity chef show to deconstruct the complex histories of colonialism, corporate greed, and cultural erasure embedded in a single Filipino dish: rellenong bangus (stuffed milkfish). By mapping the journey of the ingredients onto the historical trajectory of the Philippines, from Spanish and American colonization to the contemporary injustices of globalized food systems, Sy transforms the culinary act into a powerful narrative performance, embodying the principles of ethical gastronomy. Through a unique synthesis of immersive storytelling and sensory engagement, the play engages its audience in a confrontation with the ethical implications of the food on their plates. The intersectionality of (post)colonial race, class and gender, as domains of privilege/oppression in A Taste of Empire, re-introduces the play as a model for a socio-politically conscious theatre, using the shared experience of food to explore implications of food sovereignty, ethical sourcing, and cultural identity.
Keywords
Postcolonial Historiography; Culinary Storytelling; Ethical Gastronomy; Planetarity; Resistance; Sensorial Engagement
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