Saturday, September 27, 2008 29 schools join culinary festival By Joy Romares-Sevilla
TWENTY-nine schools all over Mindanao have participated the 8th edition of the Mindanao Culinary Festival (MCF) 2008 Summit, which formally opened Thursday at the Venue in Davao City.
In an interview, Mary Ann Montemayor, managing director of the MFC 2008 and past president of the Davao Tourism Association (Data), said this year's MCF which carried the theme: "Indigenous Flavors, Global Tastes, was focused on some learning tracks for students all over the island."
"Last year, we had around 60 exhibitors, now we had 12. We have to turn down the other exhibitors who are also willing to join because we give focus on the learning tracks this time. Our venue for this year's event was occupied by several lecture rooms for more learning sessions," Montemayor said, adding that the interested exhibitors are even based in Manila.
She also revealed that Data had to downsize the number of exhibitors considering the limited area. For the past three years, MCF was held at the 4th level of the NCCC Mall of Davao, which is now occupied by the Western Wats.
Montemayor added that through the holding of the MCF, which is a special project of the Data, students enrolled in culinary schools in Mindanao feel more confident to apply high positions in restaurants and hospitality firms and even made them confident to put up their own food stalls.
"We draw good experiences from this event which can make the students confident enough. In fact, a school in Davao City, the St. Joseph Academy, was established because of the MCF," Montemayor said, adding that the school is only two years old.
She said Data has also decided to focus more on learning tracks this year in order to inject more knowledge to the participating schools.
"We have participants from as far as Zamboanga, Agusan, Iligan, Cotabato City, and Cagayan de Oro," Montemayor said.
The MCF will run from Thursday until Saturday. Aside from learning sessions, the festival also conducted competitions for both student and professional culinary enthusiasts.
