Team Mindanao wins Nat’l Chef Wars

A TEAM of culinary professionals and students from Mindanao competed and won the national Chef Wars during the National Food Showdown held at the World Trade Center in Manila last September 21 to 22.

DMC College Foundation Inc. of Dipolog City is the national champion in the student division with Philippine School of Culinary Arts (Visayas-Cebu) as second runner-up and Asian College (NCR) and University of Baguio (Luzon) as third runner-up.

In the professional division, Monster Kitchen from Cagayan de Oro won as first runner-up.

Resorts World (NCR) was the champion while Radisson Blue Hotel (Visayas-Cebu) was second runner-up and Le Monet Hotel (Luzon) as third runner up.
The Mindanao teams emerged as winners in the last Kumbira, a culinary show and competition staged annually by the Cagayan de Oro Hotel and Restaurant Association (Cohara), which was held last August 15 to 17 at the Atrium of Limketkai Center in Cagayan de Oro City.

For six years now, Kumbira is the host of the Mindanao Chef Wars, a regional competition that brings the winners to compete in the national finals in Manila during the Food Showdown.

“Cohara has always supported these competing teams in their preparation to the national finals. Our Mindanao teams have shown a track record of winnings in the six years of Chef Wars” says Cohara President Joanna L. Yu.

The Chef Wars competition is a real challenge for both students and professionals as a team of three prepares three dishes in one hour using the specified main ingredient following a theme for each category.
At the finals this year, the professional division competed using eggplant as the main ingredient on classical Mediterranean cuisine while students were given wood ear mushroom as main ingredient highlighting modern provincial Filipino cuisine.

It took a while for the students from Dipolog to realize that they were the champion.

Judges savored DMC College Foundation Inc.‘s entries of Beef Kimus with Sambal Sauce, Chicken Randa and Sinucmane, which earned them a Gold and Champion of Chef Wars 2012 Student Division.

“With the successful results, it is expected that there will be more culinary enthusiasts joining in next year’s Kumbira, which is already scheduled on August 14 to 16, 2013,” said Eileen E. San Juan, Vice-Chair for Mindanao of the National Food Showdown and past president of Cohara. (PR)