‘Use the right amount, not the white amount’: Uncle Roger ‘hates’ chef’s ‘traditional Filipino adobo’
August 30, 2022
Uncle Roger criticized American chef Geoffrey Zakarian’s “traditional Filipino adobo” recipe.
In his latest YouTube video, Malaysian comedian Nigel Ng, better known as Uncle Roger, reacted to how Zakarian cooked adobo in an old clip from Food Network’s “The Kitchen” that was posted to YouTube in April 2019.
Uncle Roger expressed his disappointment in the prominent chef’s take on the Filipino dish. He noted the ingredients, which included habanero, onion, parsley and lemon, did not belong in what Zakarian called “traditional Filipino adobo.”
The comedian was also displeased by the chef because he put too little garlic and bay leaves and too much water.
“Use the right amount, not the white amount,” Uncle Roger says in the video.
Adobo is the national dish of the Philippines and a staple of Filipino cuisine. Chicken adobo is typically made with the right balance of soy sauce, vinegar, black peppercorns, bay leaves, garlic and sugar that mixes into a sticky glaze of salty, sour and often sweet taste.
Zakarian, who is a leading figure in the culinary world, is an American chef, television personality, restaurateur with three nationally acclaimed restaurants and an author with an award-winning cookbook. He has been featured as a judge on many Food Network series, including “Chopped,” “Top Chef,” “Hell’s Kitchen” and “Cutthroat Kitchen.” In 2014, Zakarian also became a co-host on the series “The Kitchen.”
“Spending money on a saucepan, spending money on expensive suit but the ingredients for adobo wrong. Why don’t you spend money on Filipino cookbook instead?” the YouTuber jokingly said.
The video, which currently has over 1,450,000 views, has also garnered similar reactions from Filipino viewers.
“I’m a full-blooded Filipino and I can say that I have NEVER seen anybody cook adobo with parsley and lemon until now,” a viewer commented.
“As someone who is Filipino, this is how American chefs try to ‘Americanize’ Asian dishes and they get the cooking instructions all wrong haiyaa,” another person said.
“As Filipinos, we always say that everyone has the freedom to make their own twist into the humble adobo due to how simple it is. You make the world’s most expensive adobo and we wouldn’t even bat an eye,” one commenter wrote. “But seriously just because you can doesn’t mean you should, if you’re gonna make your own twist into the adobo, don’t call it traditional and at least have the decency to have it resemble the adobo. Don’t call a watery burnt sauce with sauteed meat inside it ‘adobo.’”
Featured Image via mrnigelng
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