MANILA, Philippines—For three days last week, the World Trade Center was filled with both professionals and students who competed in cooking, cake decorating, table setting, creative pralines and pastries at The Food Showdown 2008, the only national culinary competition.
It was “national” because of “Chef Wars,” the grand finals of teams who won in the four legs of northern Luzon, southern Luzon and the National Capital Region, the Visayas and Mindanao. The competition involved cooking five dishes in two hours, each one containing the secret ingredient revealed only a day before the contest.
Chef Wars combine the mechanics of two famous competitions. One is Market Basket, an original French contest of chefs where each one was given a basket of ingredients from which they fashioned a dish. The other is the popular Iron Chefs, a TV show that pits two chefs using the secret ingredient revealed at the last moment to create several dishes.
To be a part of Food Showdown was both exhilarating and tiring. You feel the energy swirling through the World Trade Center. People were either participants or observers, the latter forming the cheering squad for their contestants both during the competition and at the awarding ceremonies.
The competition was friendly but those who took part were serious in aspiring for the medals and trophies. While professionals work at cooking and serving daily, there’s nothing like pitting skills with one’s peers in one venue. It’s the same with students. In the end, one’s award is also the pride of the company or the school.
Culinary icons
Pride is what we tried to inject when we honored several of the culinary icons on the last day of the competition. It was our way of remembering those of us who knew them and their work, and introducing them to the younger generation.
We honored Nora Daza and Leonor O’Leary. Daza is a best-selling cookbook author and restaurateur who opened the French restaurant, Au Bon Vivant, in Manila and a Filipino restaurant, Aux Iles Philippines in Paris. O’Leary started as cashier of a Manila Hotel outlet then opened many restaurants such as Capri International and Marco Polo and various canteen concessions.
Food Showdown also paid tribute to three sorely-missed icons. Food writer Doreen Gamboa Fernandez was recalled for her books: “Sarap,” “Tikim,” “Palayok,” and “Kinilaw.” Mila Enriquez was cited for being the indefatigable promoter of Bulacan cuisine. And Larry Cruz was remembered for his restaurants, as well as many other ventures that showed off his ability to create great concepts, from magazines to books and a spa.
While I am not a chef, I was prevailed upon to wear three different chef’s garb for the three days of hosting The Food Showdown. Because of that, I was asked three things as I went around: what restaurant I cooked for, was I competing and what’s my specialty.
I explained, of course, that it was just a costume. But it seemed to make people open up to me and give me something extra. At the hotel where we stayed, the cooks at the buffet kept on pointing me to the specialties, explaining why this and that dish is the best. And, really, those were. The bellboy told me that he and his brothers cooked and that his specialty was Chinese food, smiling all the while, as if he remembered something so good. One of our huge bouncers insisted on carrying my computer bag after the show ended and then proceeded to tell me that his father was a cook who worked abroad, that they had an eatery that was so popular, that he himself cooks because his father taught him and that their eatery is now gone because of some personal problem. I didn’t ask this muscle man what that problem is, but I did tell him that if he really likes to cook, then he should go for it, restore their business and hopefully be happy.
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