Engracia Cruz-Reyes

She was born to a poor family in Navotas in April 16, 1892. Her mother was a street peddler who sold food sauces and fruits, and who later managed a small neighborhood eatery popularly known in the Philippines as carinderias. She developed her cooking skills at a young age, having to prepare the meals for her five younger siblings while her parents were out working for a living. She was able to complete only four years of primary education. In 1912, she married a young lawyer from her hometown, Alexander Reyes, who in 1948 would be appointed as an Associate Justice of the Philippine Supreme Court. ==The Aristocrat Restaurant==

To augment her family's income as her husband struggled to establish his legal practice, Cruz-Reyes set up in 1928 a small carinderia at Calle de Marques de Comillas in Ermita, Manila. She named her eatery "Lapu-Lapu" (after the Mactan chieftain who defeated Ferdinand Magellan in battle), adopted a native motif as interior decor, and served primarily Filipino fare. Her reputation as a cook had also grown due to the home dinners she cooked for many of the leading political figures of the day, friends of her now-prominent husband. By 1936, Cruz-Reyes operated a rolling store — a mobile restaurant featuring a menu stacked with traditional Filipino dishes — which she named "The Aristocrat". The first Aristocrat operated out of a Studebaker van. By the 1950s, the menu had expanded to feature such present-day specialties such as chicken and pork barbecue skewers, kare-kare, chicken honey, crispy pata and even a variation on the adobo sandwiches Cruz-Reyes used to sell at the Luneta. The popularity of Aristocrat also helped usher a renewed popularity of Filipino cuisine as worthy "first-class" fare, a reputation Cruz-Reyes enhanced by her insistence of serving such dishes in the dinners she was often called to cater at Malacañan Palace. ==Honors and legacy==

Cruz-Reyes is acknowledged as a pioneer in the Philippine food and restaurant industry. Cruz-Reyes was active in the cause of women's suffrage until Filipino women were granted the right to vote in 1937. ==Notes==