Popular guest chef in global culinary festivals, Mexican Chef Jose Carlos Redon recently flew to Manila for the first time to showcase how Filipino ingredients may be used to create Mexican staples.
In a workshop before culinary aspirants of De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde’s School of Hotel, Restaurant, and Institution Management, Redon, who has worked with hotels in Australia, France, Greece, Italy, and Mexico, conducted a cooking demo wherein he shared the process of preparing aguachile de camaron (shrimp aguachile), guacamole, pico de gallo (a salsa-like dip), and capirotada (Mexican bread pudding) in an exclusive session entitled Flavors of Mexico.
The said session was a component of the week-long celebration of Cinco de Mayo, spearheaded by the Embassy of Mexico in the Philippines, held at the college’s La Cuisine Theater in Angelo King International Center.
Admired for applying ancient techniques with global ingredients, Redon, who owns the Teotlacualli Organic Farm located in the Valley of the Mezquital, highlighted their country’s rich indigenous heritage cuisine. He is also a known advocate of using edible vegetables and insects in creating dishes.
“Filipino and Mexican cuisines share a lot of similarities such as the choices of ingredients, but what is most important is that they both have the essence of family values and traditions and it reflects well in their food,” he noted.