Street food goes upscale

Will celebrity chefs’ recipes become popular street food?

Celebrity chefs Rosebud Benitez, Jonvic Mangibin, JP Anglo and Martin Jickain led teams of Center for Culinary Arts (CCA) students and instructors in a battle to create the “hottest street food in 2016” as part of the school’s 19th anniversary celebration.

Four to six students from each of four houses, Gastronomic Gurus, Kitchen Kings, Meal Masters and Culinary Champions—and their respective house chancellors Annali Mariano, Martin del Prado, Tristan Encarnacion and Jonathan Em worked with Benitez, Mangibin, Anglo and Jickain, respectively, for two weeks to come up with their competition recipes, CCA program director Melissa Sison-Oreta said.

The teams’ versions of the next big thing in street food included sisig roll dynamite, inasal, cua pao and “JaPinoy” rice toppings, which were sold on the CCA grounds for P190.

The price was rather steep for street food—the actual cost of each was only P20-P30. But the price was symbolic.

Oreta said “we had to sell it at P190 because it’s our (CCA’s) 19th anniversary. The selling price had nothing to do with the cost.”

Proceeds from the Celebrity Chef Cook-off will go to the school’s Culinary Education Foundation (CEF) Cook for Life scholars.

Benitez and Mariano led Gastronomic Gurus to victory with sisig roll dynamite, a fiery version of lumpia, which was paired with binagoongang fried rice. Side dish was ensaladang mangga and dessert was ice cream.

“I know all Filipinos love sisig so that’s what we decided to sell,” said Benitez, host of GMA News TV’s “Quickfire.” The CCA alumna said the experience brought back memories of when she was a student.

Gastronomic Gurus’ president Marica Juatco, 24, said they were able to show their creativity when they were brainstorming. They learned new cooking techniques and customer service and discipline from Benitez.

“Service time is critical,” Juatco, a graduating student, said. Customers should not be made to wait for their orders.

But the aspiring charcuterie chef said “undercooked food is a no-no. People could get sick.”

The students had to present their dishes in the best way possible, as quickly as possible.

Kitchen Kings representative Shawn Fabre, 17, said he learned about food presentation for restaurants.

Fabre said their celebrity chef mentor Mangibin, who owns several restaurants including Lola Café and Olive Tree Kitchen & Bar, taught them that it was not necessary to “manipulate” ingredients, like shaping vegetables for aesthetic purposes.

Plating a dish was meant to bring out the beauty of ingredients in their natural form, he said.

The Kitchen Kings’ cua pao was visually enticing as black and white steamed buns gave it a classy look. The kamote fries on the side added color.

Mangibin said it was the “perfect modern street food” and was “very Filipino” because fillings included lechon, paella, cauliflower and alugbati. Dessert was minatamis na saging paired with tsokolate.

Of the four recipes, the cua pao was the most labor intensive, Mangibin said. “Students were put in a hard situation. But it was rewarding. I learned from them and they learned from me,” he added.

Meal Masters, led by top chefs Encarnacion and Anglo, went for inasal of chicken isol (butt), liver and thigh.

“Among the popular street food these days are inasal and isaw,” Encarnacion said. “We upgraded the inasal, adding atsara vinaigrette. The meal is also served with buko, sago’t gulaman,” he added.

Encarnacion said it was not glamorous because “Filipinos are afraid of glamorous food … it’s street food that’s ‘in,’ grilled and delicious.”

MARICA Juatco and Rosebud Benitez (left photo) led Gastronomic Gurus to victory with a “sisig” variation (above).

Darelle Mangon, 18, said he was “honored” to work with Anglo, one of the judges of the defunct ABS-CBN show “Pinoy Master Chef,” and Encarnacion, who got his own cookware line from the international Sunnex brand for his exemplary
cooking.

The chefs were generous with their time, guiding the students throughout the cook-off, Mangon said.

Riding on the popularity of Japanese cuisine, Culinary Champions headed by Em, famous for his nostalgic candy cakes, and Jickain,
model-turned-chef, served “JaPinoy” rice meals.

The rice toppings included chicken balls, longganisa gyoza and pork balls served with
either aligue or sisig rice.

“New Filipino cuisine is up-and-coming right now and traditional Japanese cuisine is coming to the Philippines. There are new Japanese restaurants. We foresee a fusion of both in the coming year,” Em explained the concept behind their dish.

‘Carinderia’ style

The dishes were made with easy-to-find ingredients using utensils in a typical carinderia (eatery), like a rice cooker, grill and deep-fry pot, Oreta said.

“Hopefully, [the scholars] can start their own carinderia using these inspiring recipes of celebrity chefs,” she said.

Oreta said the previous celebrity cook-offs were “capital intensive” and “market driven” but this year the main thrust was “making a way out of poverty” for the scholars.

“They might think that being a chef is just for the privileged. We don’t want that to happen [because] we wouldn’t be true to our cause,” she said.

The cook-off gave students a taste of what it is like to run a carinderia, Oreta said.

Apart from receiving funds, Oreta said CEF scholars would also be taught all the recipes in this year’s competition.

Extracurricular activities like the cook-off, she said, did not only teach skills but also built character and promoted professionalism.

“[I]t’s really about developing the proper work attitude,” she said.

Apart from innovation, taste and presentation and packaging, the winner was chosen based on the most number of hashtags on social media and having been first to sell everything from 6 to 9 p.m.

Every year, CEF chooses 200 to 300 scholars nominated by church organizations, celebrity chef endorsers, or relatives of CCA employees. The CCA culinary program had a National Certificate II rating from the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, Oreta said.

Cook for Life scholars have also been the beneficiaries of the Manila Food and Wine Festival food truck celebrity cook-off since 2012.

This year, Oreta said, they decided to “scale down” the competition to bring it closer to the heart of the foundation, the students, and link it to the CCA anniversary.