THE Hotel and Restaurant Association of Negros Occidental (Hrano) said the hosting of the national finals of the Chef War 2017 is a historic achievement for the province’s culinary industry.
Six groups of the best culinary student and professional chefs in the country battled in this year’s competition held at SMX Convention Center in Bacolod City during yesterday’s culmination of the three-day 5th Sabor Bisaya.
Nestor “Aboy” Evaristo, vice president of Hrano, said this is the first time the competition was brought outside Metro Manila, and Negros Occidental is much honored to host the highly-anticipated culinary event.
“It is a big boost for the province to be the venue of ‘the best and only surviving culinary competition in the country,’” he said.
The Chef War 2017 national finals was co-sponsored by the National Food Showdown and Hrano.
In the professional division, the Baguio Country Club and Limketkai Luxe Hotel in Cagayan de Oro representing Luzon and Mindanao, respectively, won silver awards. La Consolacion College-Bacolod received the bronze award.
The gold award went for the student division went to Enderun Colleges in Taguig City and St. Therese College in Iloilo City. They represented Luzon and Visayas, respectively. Lourdes College in Cagayan de Oro City, representing Mindanao, got bronze.
Finalists were also given the opportunity to be mentored by some of the best chefs and industry experts in the country.
The chef-judges included Myrna Segismundo, Jill Sandique, Manny Torrejon, Sandy Daza, Penk Ching, Cheong Yan See, Raul Ramos, Ruth Padilla, Gina Navarro, and foreign chefs JP Migne and Martin Kaspar.
Evaristo said the participants were very lucky to have been mentored by these famous chefs, who volunteered for the competition.
“The event has brought together the pillars of the industry to share their talents and experience for free,” Evaristo said, adding that participating students and professional chefs were taught on how to level up.
The participants’ experience in the competition is more than any material award, he said.
Meanwhile, this year’s Sabor Bisaya themed “Getting the Perfect Combination” is part of Hrano’s measure to address pressing challenges of the culinary industry.
It is mainly aimed at scaling up the local talents, especially the future industry workforce, and level up the standard of excellence, the organization said.