Jenn de la Vega Has 4 Separate Pantries (at Least)

Welcome to Jenn de la Vega’s pantry! In each installment of this series, a recipe developer will share with us the pantry items essential to their cooking. This month, we’re exploring seven staples stocking Jenn’s kitchen, which includes Japanese, We…


Welcome to Jenn de la Vega’s pantry! In each installment of this series, a recipe developer will share with us the pantry items essential to their cooking. This month, we're exploring seven staples stocking Jenn’s kitchen, which includes Japanese, West Indian, American Southern, and Filipinx ingredients.


I struggle defining the cuisine that I cook. When confronted, I’ll stammer about being a Filipina from California, and living now in Brooklyn, New York. If you ask what I do, the answer depends on the time of year. From January to June, I’m a recipe developer and cookbook recipe tester. Between August and December, I’m mostly a wedding caterer. I say “mostly” because there might be craft services for an indie flick, food styling for a magazine, or a nonprofit fundraiser dinner. On Tuesdays, I curate the hot dogs at a local bar called Wonderville. We look to video games to inspire the names. My current favorite is called “Pancit! At the Disco Elysium,” an all-beef hot dog with vegan stir-fried noodles and crunchy lumpia chips on top. As a result of all these different jobs, I don’t have just one pantry; I have four.

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