Madrid Fusion Manila 2018

Traditional cooking techniques and native ingredients will be showcased in the Madrid Fusion Manila (MFM) 2018.

Tourism Secretary Wanda Corazon Teo disclosed that next year's culinary festival will embrace the theme ‘Innovating Tradition’.

“The chefs of today's world are now going back to their roots looking into their pantries and discovering what is available in their own locales – produce ingredients, forgotten or age-old techniques, making them new and responsive to our time,” Teo said.

Teo, Tourism Undersecretary Benito Bengzon Jr., Lourdes Plana of Foro de Debate, and Iñigo Iribarnegaray of Vocento inked the partnership for the MFM 2018, which be held from April 19 to April 21, 2018 at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City.

“For our first two years, we were establishing the Philippines as a center of gastronomy but now that the awareness is building, we need to come up with the tour packages already to further promote the country as a culinary destination,” shared Tourism Director and MFM project Director Verna Buensuceso.

Foreign travel and tour operators met with Filipino counterparts during the Culinary Tourism Travel Exchange, an added feature of MFM 2017, to discuss collaborations and partnerships on culinary tour programs.

“We want to have more buyers and tour operators abroad coming for the promotion of Philippine culinary and farm tourism next year,” Buensuceso noted.

The MFM is the only Asian edition of the Madrid Fusion, which is regarded as the “single most important international gastronomy congress in the 21st century.”