Photography by Pete Lee

Angel Dimayuga

CHEF

WHEN YOU WERE LITTLE, WHAT WERE YOU KNOWN FOR?

When I was 10, my brother and his friends would ask me to make my signature dessert, “Crusty Bellybuttons” (thumbprint shortbread cookies filled with jam from my favorite Halloween cookbook, Gross Goodies by Tina Vilicich-Solomon).

WHAT DO YOU THINK IS YOUR BIGGEST CONTRIBUTION TO CULTURE?

My pathway towards cheffing and being an artist who works with food was my own. I continue to take in my surroundings and varying experiences and synthesize them into new shapes, allowing my praxis to continue emerging and changing—whether that’s through making Lola food, concept food, or no food at all.

“"I continue to take in my surroundings and varying experiences and synthesize them into new shapes, allowing my praxis to continue emerging and changing—whether that’s through making Lola food, concept food, or no food at all."”

WHAT’S ONE BOOK, WORK OF ART, ALBUM, OR FILM THAT GOT YOU THROUGH AN IMPORTANT MOMENT IN YOUR LIFE?

I just read Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls, a memoir by T Kira Madden, a mixed Native Hawaiian and Chinese lesbian author. It’s like a queer Asian Kids or Thirteen meets PEN15. I [found it] during a turning point in my own life, when I decided to find my way back to where I’m from: California. I saved the last 40 minutes of the book for a date with myself—I took a long stroll around the Silver Lake Reservoir, to land on a meadow and weep.

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