Tourism Promotions Board of the Department of Tourism is currently promoting ‘‘Buhay Carinderia…Redefined,’’ a culinary spectacle that trains the spotlight on Filipino culture and custom.
Initiated by Marylinbert International, Inc., the project will run for nine months and will culminate in a culinary exposition in November.
Now, who among the popular personalities should best represent this project and advocacy?
At the grand launch of ‘‘Buhay Carinderia’’ held at the Rizal Park Hotel and attended by Tourism Secretary Wanda Teo, and Tourism and Promotions Board head Cesar Montano, we were introduced to content creator Erwan Heussaff who would most likely be the poster boy of the project.
“He clearly represents the ‘Buhay Carinderia…Redefined’ advocacy, which is to focus and understand the history of local dishes, to popularize the use of natural and native ingredients, and to accentuate Filipino home cooked flavors,” explained Linda Legaspi of Marylindbert International that organizes the annually held event.
In a statement sent to the members of the press, it said that when Erwan opened a pop-up carinderia, for one day last year, to promote his newest online game, the organizers of this year’s “Buhay Carinderia…Redefined” immediately knew who to tap as their content creator.
“I was surprised that they contacted me, but I was super happy as well,” Erwan told the press during the launch. “We’ll be doing a series of videos featuring the best, and maybe some of the least known carinderias in the country… and we can give them the attention they truly deserve.”
Being a restaurant and bar investor, an online personality, the husband of actress and TV host Anne Curtis as well as the brother of actress and TV host Solenn Heussaff, Erwan has managed to create his food and beverage niche. After all, his blog The Fat Kid Inside has been viewed by millions since 2011, his Facebook page has about 1 million likes, 1.4 million followers on Twitter, half a million subscribers on YouTube and1.9 million more on Instagram.
“I may not be a Filipino food expert yet, there are so many dishes that I still need to discover, but I am curious to keep learning and I am a staunch advocate of our culinary culture,” the French-Filipino content creator said.
But there’s more to Erwan than his Internet popularity. He has long been an advocate of healthy and affordable eating, his recent crusade where he came up with Php 150 per day meal plan, to prove that if you eat local, you don’t need to break the bank, only endeared him to more Filipinos.
A quick look at his YouTube channel will also will also prove that he is making lots of shows in the Philippines, from travel to food farming and sustainability, a true love for country resonates in his content. He also recently produced a show called Origins, which is all about 8 different provincial areas in the Philippines where Erwin showcases everything from fishing octopus with the Dumagats in Isabela to spending hours on a boat with fishermen trying to catch Dorado in Batanes, to documenting the rice harvest festival in the Mountain Province. This show was shot for the American market and will soon be distributed by an international network.
This year’s event is scheduled to scour the whole country in search for the best of the best on culinary scene. There will be exchanges of knowledge throughout the project duration where linkages between food and tourism to provide a platform for national and regional economic development will be highlighted.
