Connoisseur Duels - The Grand Food Battle

An exciting invitation comes with an exciting event and a one great ending!

That’s what happened last day at the 5th Floor of Walter Mart, Makati for the Magsaysay Institute of Culinary Arts and Hospitality, Anchor Philippines and Yehey.com’s Connoisseur Duels - The Grand Food Battle.



Geared with nothing but our “nervous” selves, food bloggers took a deep breath as Sir Laszlo took the first name from the fish bowl and announced Carl’s name as the leader of the first group, and, luckily-unluckily, Alex (moi!) as the leader of the second group. Carl’s team was the Red Team and Alex’s team, my team, was the Yellow Team a.k.a. Team Walang Iwanan.

Each team consisted of 6 bloggers, and I’m lucky enough that I have teammates who knew a lot about cooking.

We were given an hour to prepared three dishes – appetizer, main course and a dessert – then a bunch of ingredients to make this happen.

Part of any game is a surprise, and the surprise in this competition was our secret ingredient which was also our top ingredient for the day – TADAH! – Anchor products.

We had Anchor butter, Anchor cr̬me, Anchor cream cheese and many more РAS IN MANY MORE!

Our team had a few minutes to discuss what were going to prepare, so while the time was ticking and the tension was rising up, our minds kept reminding us the criteria that we had to achieve and the taste of the food that we were about to prepare.

The criteria for judging were (1) Use of Anchor Products – 35%, (2) Taste – 25%, (3) Creativity – 25%, (4) Ease of Cooking – 15%.

Since we had 6 members in each team, and as the Yellow team’s team leader, I divided our group into three – the Team Appetizer who were Me and Tita Anna, the Team Main Course who were Earth and Jonel and the Team Dessert who were Marissa and Joan.

After an hour of cooking and running and cooking and talking and tasting, the time has come…. JUDGING TIME!

Round 1: The Appetizer.



Our group prepared a soup, the Filipinos famous soup Sopas. We used Anchor butter as an alternative to the cooking oil and the Anchor crème as an alternative to the evaporated milk.



The other group prepared a pasta dish with red sauce.

Round 2: The Main Course.




Our team prepared Butter-Fried Dory with Anchor butter and Anchor crème garnish. Earth added some garlic and spice to make the garnish saltier and to have stronger flavor. Then Jonel added some of his artistic prowess for the plating to make this dish looked so nice!



The other team, to our surprise, also had Dory. As you may notice the only difference was the plating. And with regards to the taste, it’s up to the judges.

Round 3: The Dessert.



Our team had fruit salad. I took the courage to prepare this one on the plates, and I’m happy with its outcome. Actually, this was our first dish. It was so easy to do. We used Anchor crème to make it creamy, and then we added some brown sugar to add some sweetness. I always believe that a perfect dessert is always be sweet.

But!

To our competitors’ surprise, we prepared two desserts!



This dessert was made from broas and fruits. Marissa added some crème to it and vanilla to make it more delicious.



The Red Team had fruit salad too, but the one they had had an apple in it.

The judges were chef from MICAH, a guest chef and one from Anchor Philippines. (I’m sorry I forgot their names!)



After a few minutes of deliberation, Sir Laszlo told us that the competition was very tight, having a 3-point difference.

And the winner is…


*drum rolling*



THE YELLOW TEAM!



Our team!

Woohoo!

We were so happy, but we also congratulated the Red Team, for I, loved their dishes too.
Their pasta was really good!



The winning team got a certificate of winning, gift certificates from Italiannis and Anchor goodies.





It was really unbelievable, and we couldn’t thank you enough Anchor Philippines, Magsaysay Institute of Culinary Arts and Hospitality and Yehey.com for this one great experience that we had.

We had so much fun, really! And the best thing about winning the competition, our dishes will be featured in Anchor Recipe’s website which is http://www.anchorrecipes.com.



Again, thank you to the organizers and sponsors and to our fellow bloggers for this fun and friendly competition.

I do hope that there’ll be more events like this one, and I do hope that I’ll get a chance to join again!

Thanks, thanks, thanks!


Happy eating!


P.S.

They also gave us the apron and toque that we used that day, and there’s this one person who was so happy to have it…



My niece, Nickaella!

Now, she’s playing in the house like Janice de Belen and sometimes the girl in Diner Dash! Hahahahaha!



More pictures here!

5 comments

Admin said...

Congrats!

Nice naman... Nakakatakam!

Unknown said...

Yummy dory :) I want another round :) Congratulations to Yellow Team!

God bless and more power to you Alex :)

Unknown said...

I saw you're post featured at www.anchorrecipes.com galing naman :)

Alex De Vera Dizon said...

Oh, wow! I didn't know that!

Thanks for informing me, Sai!

Unknown said...

Sure sure no problem :) galing galing naman :) more power Alex!