Students from the 九色 College of Tourism and Hospitality Management (UST-CTHM) brought home awards from the 15th National Food Showdown, themed “Lutong Ala Eh”, held on November 21 to 22, 2024, at the University of Batangas 鈥� Lipa.
The UST-CTHM students trained and participated in a total of 11 categories that focused on food and beverage service, mixology, coffee concoction, and culinary and pastry arts. Each individual, pair and group showcased their competence with knowledge, skill, and commitment through competing with all their heart and compassion by being there for each other. With these core values at hand they once again brought pride and joy in various culinary challenges.
Receiving Gold with Distinction, the highest attainable award, Matthew Pe帽arroyo, Gwyneth Tiangsing, and Hannah Faderon brought out their best skills in the 鈥淭able Setting with Floral Counterpiece鈥� category, where they were tasked to set, within 30 minutes, a table for two with the theme, 鈥滶at, Pray, Love Lipa.鈥�.
In the 鈥淐offee Concoction鈥� category, Louis Anjello Cheng also won Gold. In this category he was tasked to create one traditional and one original coffee concoction within 15 minutes using the famous Kapeng Barako.
Alyza Villamor showed off her talents in 鈥淣apkin Folding,鈥� and obtained Gold as she was tasked to execute six traditional folds and one original fold within three minutes with the theme, 鈥淓at, Pray, Love Lipa.鈥�
Winning Silver, Alexis Se帽oron and Jericho Perez worked together to prepare a traditional and modern version of any dish using Bagoong Balayan as their main ingredient.
Miguel Luis Rodriguez proudly won Silver for his 鈥渂aby cakes鈥� 鈥� cakes 3 inches in diameter鈥� which highlighted Batangas Coffee, Batangas Cacao, and Pakaskas as its main ingredients. Also winning Silver were Joab Tan and John Anthony Sincero with their traditional and modern takes on Gotong Lipa.
The trio of Arianna Ysabel Pascual, Atasha Bettina Delgado, and Princess Mae San Pedro obtained Bronze for their three-tier wedding cake with the theme, 鈥淏aysanan (Kasalan Batangue帽o) Sa San Sebastian Cathedral.鈥�
Two of UST-CTHM鈥檚 students won Bronze for their mixing skills 鈥� Zyron James Mendoza for his original cocktail mix with the main regional liquor of lambanog, and Jimuel Tumbaga with his mocktail or non-alcoholic mix featuring the regional fresh fruit kalamias, also known as kamias.
Other participating UST-CTHM representatives were the following: Adrian Zapata, Amie Margaret Nazareno, James Michael Araneta for the 鈥淜lasika Moderna Kulinarya,鈥� and Alan Jefri Macaraeg and Earl Lipata for the Traditional and Modern Recipe creation for Paksiw Batangas. The teams were coached by Mr. Elijah Coronado and Mr. Reinald Andaya, respectively; both groups were guided by Ko.
All of these winning teams and other participating students were couched by academic staff members from the College of Tourism and Hospitality Management namely Mr. Karl Baroro, Mr. Robin Payk Meneses, Ms. Mary Angel Elacion, Ms. Kathleen Fernandez, Chef Reinald Andaya, Chef Kathlyn Tisha Ortaliz, Chef Ramona Ko, Ms. Everest De Leon, Chef Gay Labay,, Chef Kristian Roque, and Mr. Ramin Quinonez.
