MOVENPICK CHEFS HEAD TO NATIONAL SHOWDOWN
Mövenpick Hotel Mactan Island Cebu showcased its prowess and passion in culinary arts with its recent win at the 2018 Cebu Goes Culinary, the biggest, long-standing culinary event in the region organized by the Hotel, Resort & Restaurant Association of Cebu (HRRAC). With a total of four gold, one silver, four bronze and one diploma awards, the hotel team led by executive chef Jean Louis Leon was also declared champion of the “Chef Wars.” This earned them the esteemed honor of representing the Visayas region in the same category at the National Food Showdown on Oct. 27, where they will compete against teams from Luzon and Mindanao.
Out of all the categories, the “Chef Wars” is the main competition in both Cebu Goes Culinary and the National Food Showdown. Comparable to some culinary competitions on TV, the “Chef Wars” is a live cooking event wherein chefs create unique dishes out of the ingredients disclosed to them as part of the competition guidelines.
Mövenpick Hotel Mactan Island Cebu’s team for the “Chef Wars” is composed of junior chefs Marvin Ampoloquio, Jason Nellas and Reymuel Albacite. At the Cebu event, the discerning judges, a group of multi-awarded chefs and food-and-beverage connoisseurs, raved and gave top scores to the hotel team’s presentation, which displayed the team’s ingenuity in crafting creative and unique dishes out of the main ingredient: shrimps. The set menu featured seared shrimp sausage with ginger, malunggay leaves in coconut milk sauce, sautéed shrimps in turmeric crustacean sauce and pasayan (shrimp) squid ink escabeche.
The Movenpick team is now preparing to compete in the grand finals of the “Chef Wars” at the National Food Showdown happening in Manila.
“It was our first time to join the culinary competition in Cebu, which was why this win really caught us by surprise. To be able to represent the Visayas in the National Food Showdown is actually a great honor and privilege. We’re excited to meet other players and personalities in the culinary scene,” said Leon.