CMU-CHE students bag bronze in the Philippine Culinary Cup

Allien Kurt Martinez and Zoe Morales from the Hospitality Management Department- College of Human Ecology bagged Bronze Award in the Young Chefs Competition of the Philippine Culinary Cup 2022 held at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City on August 5.

The competition highlighted Canadian cuisines and ingredients in the dinner dubbed “Flavors of Canada” to celebrate more than 50 years of Philippines-Canada diplomatic relations.

“No words can describe my gratitude [for] this wonderful experience. This was the greatest push so far in all aspects of my life. It’s my first ever culinary competition and the beginning of my culinary inspiration,” Zoe Christy S. Morales said in an online interview.

The two young chefs must prepare an appetizer, main entrée, and dessert all in two servings within 90 minutes.

“We were unexpectedly told that we were the ones who would fillet the salmon, which made me tense because it was my first time slicing a salmon. But I didn’t want to fail this competition, so I voluntarily decided to slice the salmon in my own way— and I got through it,” Allien Kurt Martinez shared in an online interview.

Despite what happened, the two were able to amaze the judges and bring home the bacon.

“As a student who dreams of becoming a chef someday, this platform introduced me to a wider frame of mind, to excel more, produce lots of output, and become more innovative,” Martinez added.

Zoe and Allein are grateful that they were able to represent CMU as pioneer students of the CHED-IKSCM Program competing under the Philippine-Canada Young Chefs Team Challenge at the Philippine Culinary Cup. 

“…training has paved the way for our students [to] dream bigger and thus became our ticket to qualify for a competition, aside from limited budget we also have limited time to practice but still we’re glad that our students are competent enough to compete for the said event,” said the culinary coaches Dr. Rubie Arroyo and Ms. Gista Fel Barong.

The coaches are grateful that Central Mindanao University was selected to compete among the greatest and top universities in the Philippines. They hope the university will continue to assist their department in this endeavor and the next competition.

Meanwhile, Sheila Mae Naluan and Dino Dengayan joined the Executive Chef Networking at the Conrad Hotel last August 3-4, 2022— as part of the PhilCan EDUCON Magic7+ Philippine Culinary Cup activities under the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Indigenous Knowledge System and Cultural Management (IKSCM) Program.

The culinary competition is co-organized by the Embassy of Canada and Les Toques Blanches (LTB) Chefs Philippines at the annual Philippine Culinary Cup wherein young chefs representing their respective universities compete to create dishes inspired by Philippine indigenous cuisines from their respective provinces using Canadian ingredients. The competition was part of this year’s World Food Expo held in the same venue. _{[Iyren Dalipe Neri]}

_{Photo Credits to Embassy of Canada in the Philippines}