The East Meets West culinary competition run by the Irish Government Food Board (Bord Bia) has selected its 10 finalists out of over 100 participants—from chefs, culinary students, food influencers, and home cooks—who submitted innovative Filipino recipes.
“We were thrilled with the level of entries and the quality of the recipes submitted to the competition as this is our first culinary competition in the Philippines. Our aim is to raise awareness of the high quality and unique taste of Irish beef and pork from Europe," said Marion Rogan, EU Pork & Beef Program Manager.
The panel of judges was comprised of Chef Billy King of Le Chef Restaurant at The Manor Hotel Baguio, Chef Mark Hagan of Grand Hyatt Manila – Bonifacio Global City, Chef Philip John Golding of Disciples de Escoffier International Asia – Philippines, as well as Bord Bia representatives.
The top ten finalists are as follows:
• Filipino chefs
o Jeffrey Ayento, a recipe consultant from Cagayan de Oro;
o Nathaniel Deocaris, a chef from Cainta, Rizal; and
o Francis Dave Lacson Selorio, Executive Chef at Crypto Café & Restaurant from Iloilo City.
• Food influencers
o Nathaniel Uy @thehungrychef, a cook by profession;
o Alexis Manuel Deocaris @ForkSpoonManila, an established food blogger; and
o Karla Ramos @karlaroundtheworld, a cooking aficionado.
• Filipino culinary students
o Marichu Jung from Apicius Culinary Arts – Parañaque;
o Kenneth Villanueva from University of Batangas;
o Donie Bigcas from Center for Culinary Arts – Manila.
• Home cook
o Karl Kenneth Watson, a financial advisor from Caloocan City.
The panel selected recipes that showed innovative culinary techniques and twists such as charcoaled coconut sauce, pureed quenelle pumpkin, fondant potato and pineapple foam, and sweet potato puree and pineapple atchara.
The judges were delighted by the creative recipes that featured common, regional, and indigenous Filipino ingredients like Francis Selorio's Pork in Country: baked laing-stuffed pork belly, served with rambutan sauce and adlai and garnished with pansit-pansitan.
Another interesting recipe was an Ilocano dish called Bagnet Pipian with fermented shrimp sauce proposed by Nathaniel Uy. His intention was to represent the cuisine of the Philippines as ever-changing, but deeply-rooted in history and tradition.
The top ten finalists received a cooking kit, including Irish pork & beef cuts, and the campaign’s official apron. They will present both their pork and beef recipes using Irish meat cuts in their own creative way in a short video for the final round.
Submission will be reviewed according to the following criteria to select the top five winners: creativity (40%), presentation (30%) and video introduction (30%).
The final selection of the five winners and their winning recipes will be announced this month.
The winners will win an exciting culinary tour to Ireland, planned for 2021. This trip will give the winners a once-in-a-lifetime chance to visit Irish food producers and top restaurants to get a first-hand feel of the excellent quality of the Irish produce. They will also get the opportunity to attend a cooking class with the legendary Irish Chef Billy King.
For more details and updates on the European Pork and Beef Campaign in the Philippines, a campaign financed with aid from the European Union, visit https://europeanporkbeef.com/ph