Diversity of Filipino Culinary Talent and Dishes

Filipino food doesn’t always have to mean pork sinigang, chicken adobo, or beef kare kare. With some of the most talented chefs at the forefront of championing modern takes on Filipino dishes, culinary triumphs take the form of bold remakes of our classic favorites. If you haven’t tried octopus sisig, sisig pasta, or grilled sinigang yet, then you have definitely been missing out! These are just three of the nine innovative Filipino food discoveries that made it to the finals of the firstever Funlasang Pinoy held last year.

With the aim of inspiring chefs and cooks nationwide to keep putting an exciting twist on classic Pinoy dishes, Funlasang Pinoy is a culinary competition initiated by Unilever Food Solutions (UFS) Philippines and Knorr to provide an avenue for Filipino chefs and cooks to showcase their talents through whipping up innovative home-grown dish recipes. Now on its second year, Funlasang Pinoy returns grander as the competition goes nationwide.

For 2018, Funlasang Pinoy is not only in search for one, but three of the country’s most talented chefs who will reinvent classic Pinoy favorites crispy pata, adobo, kare-kare, bulalo, and sisig. Instead of a sole winner and one national cook-off, one winner will each be hailed from the competition’s Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao legs set to happen within July to August of this year.

“It’s such an honor to have been the first-ever winner of the competition and I’m just glad that UFS is continuing to provide an avenue for Filipino chefs and cooks to showcase their talents and ideas,” said Chef Dan Puga, the chef of last year’s winning octopus sisig dish. “This year, I am very excited to see how even more chefs and cooks will re-create Filipino classics in distinctive and extraordinary ways.”

Filipino cooks and chefs from across the country may join the competition. The challenge is to create delicious and innovative recipes of the classic crispy pata, adobo, kare-kare, bulalo, and sisig using Knorr® products. Interested participants may submit their entries to the UFS website, www.unileverfoodsolutions.com.ph, until June 30, 2018.

Submitted dishes will be judged according to the following criteria: creativity of the twist, food presentation, and the use of Knorr products in the recipe.

On July 15, the top 10 finalists per region will be announced and the onground cook-offs will happen in July for Luzon and in August for Visayas and Mindanao.

The three winners of the competition will each get to take home Php100,000 cash prize. More than the monetary grant, and true to UFS’ mission of helping chefs and creating a bigger impact in the Philippine culinary scene, all three winning chefs will also be invited to attend the UFS Chefmanship Academy Program where they can further expand their culinary knowledge through mentorships from esteemed chefs in the country.

To know more about the UFS Funlasang Pinoy Year 2, visit www.unileverfoodsolutions.com.ph.