Wangfu scores an international victory

Wangfu Chinese Café brings honor to the country as one of its resident chefs, Elmar Ruelo, bagged the coveted Bronze Medal Award in the prestigious Lee Kum Kee International Young Chef Chinese Culinary Challenge (LKKIYCCC), which was recently held in Hongkong.

Now on its third year and with a theme “Excel On Traditions, Converging Global Culinary Talents,” LKKIYCCC was a two-day event that assembled 42 aspiring young chefs from 17 countries and regions including Australia, Canada, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, France, Hongkong, Japan, Korea, Macau, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, the Philippines, the Netherlands and the United States.

All of these competitors are lauded as among the elite of the Chinese cuisine industry in their home countries.

A star-studded judging panel which was comprised of Chef Chen Hui Rong, Chef Kondo Shinji, Chef Leung Fai Hung, Chef Li Yao Yun, Chef Lu Ching Lai, Chef Pung Lu Tin, and Chef Jacky Yang were responsible for selecting the winners among the contestants.

Celebrity chefs such as Iron Chef Chen Kenichi, Chef Choi Hyun-seok, Chef Mihal Ashminov, and Chef Tony Yoo were among the worldrenowned chefs who attended the event.

Chef Elmar was tasked to create a Chinese dish using a secret ingredient that was revealed to him on the day of the competition. Chef Elmar bested his cocompetitors with his original creation—Stir Fried Chicken with Plum and Oyster sauce, which he cooked within the prescribed time of 90 minutes using Lee Kum Kee sauces and condiments. This is quite an achievement that a Filipino chef received top honors in an international competition on Chinese cuisine where mostly chefs of Chinese descent excel.

“It is a great honor for me to bring home the Bronze Medal as the competition was very fierce,” says Chef Elmar, who rose from the ranks as a dishwasher after being mentored by several Hong Kong and Singaporean master chefs for 15 straight years. “This is not just a victory for myself and for Wangfu, but for the Philippines as well. This inspires me to do better in my craft as we at Wangfu continue to serve high quality and authentic Singaporean-Chinese cuisine to every Filipino food lovers.”

Wangfu has seven branches in Metro Manila and with the success of the brand, Wangfu aims to open one to two new branches every year.