Josie's Kitchen

Archive for the ‘Event’ Category

Yesterday was my son’s birthday, it was a simple lunch celebration, I cooked spaghetti and hubby made pork ribs barbecue which was a special request. Then we ordered pizza at Shakeys, he used the  pizzacard I had and we were able to avail the ‘buy one take one’ promo. He ordered 3 boxes and they  doubled them, thus we received six boxes of different flavor.

A big savings on our part as we can use the pizzacard for one whole year and avail the promo every time we order or eat at their store. Good marketing strategy for Shakeys and beneficial for their customers.  Our phone number is already on their database, so whenever we call they already knew the address for delivery. I’m sure they also use POS systems on their database.

Nope we didn’t eat them all because his guests arrived for dinner and we prepared another set of food, except for the spaghetti and barbecue, there were also cake, ice cream and fruit salad.

Ajinomoto has been part of our kitchen as cooking condiment as far as I can remember. My lola used it, so as my mom, my aunts, and so do I. Because we had proven that it can enhanced the flavor of any food we cook when sprinkled even a little bit of Ajinomoto. Now I know the secret why, it’s the Umami all along that gave the food a more distinct taste. From mere ‘masarap’ (delicious) it became more ‘malasa‘ (flavorful).

To showcase the Filipino culinary talents, AJINOMOTO PHILIPPINES CORP. has started culinary competition on 2009 and had invited aspiring chefs all over the country to join and challenge their creativeness in this field.  And because of the success of the previous challenges, they are here again to present the more grandeur 3rd Umami Culinary Challenge.

Now on its 3rd season:

AJINOMOTO PHILIPPINES CORPORATION is set to welcome 2012 with a culinary competition to showcase the creativeness, innovativeness, culinary skill and mastery of over 300 aspiring Filipino chefs. The event is dubbed as the Ajinomoto 3^rd Umami Culinary Challenge (3^rd UCC): The Battle for the Umami Bowl and will be held on January 20, 2012 at the SMX Convention Center. “Ajinomoto is very excited because on its 3^rd year, UCC has more schools competing from Metro Manila and nearby provinces.” says Chef Russell Bautista, Project Head of the 3^rd UCC.

The much-awaited culinary competition is the first of its kind, interschool, multi-category that focuses on umami, the 5^th Basic Taste. The 3^rd UCC will feature participants from 29 Universities and colleges that offered HRM and Nutrition courses and from five (5) prestigious culinary schools.

To allow participants to show off more of their repertoire of skills, this year’s challenge is even bigger and features new and exciting culinary and non-culinary categories. For the benefit of those who are eager to expand their horizons, seminars will be held on new trends and techniques that can complement one’s cooking abilities.

An impressive line up of judges from various fields related to food will pick out the best of the best. These renowned culinary luminaries include: Sandy Daza (Inquirer columnist and TV show host), Chef Babes Austria  (Executive Chef of Taal Vista Hotel  and former Executive Chef of Malacañang Palace),Chef James Antolin (Vice President of Pastry Alliance of the Philippines), Chef Day Salonga and Chef Mon Acosta (Chef Consultants for opening new restaurants), Nina Daza-Puyat (Editor in Chief, Appetite Magazine), Chef Seiji Kamura (Executive Chef and owner of Mogu Japanese Restaurant), Vicky Alejandrino, (Head of Quality Assurance and Commissary for the Pancake House Group), Chef Colin McKay (Executive Chef and owner of Sala Restaurant Group) and Tetta Arroyo (Travel and Food Writer) among others.

The Ajinomoto 3^rd Umami Culinary Challenge is a collaboration of organizations which strongly support the development of the Philippine culinary scene, among them are Glutamate Association of the Philippines (GAP), Elba, Whirlpool/Fujidenzo, Masflex, PR Gaz, Meat and Livestock Australia, and Anvil Publishing and media partners GMA 7, Appetite Magazine, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Inquirer Libre and PR Moms Network.

Here are some of the highlights of the 2nd Culinary Challenge:

And as a member of the PR Moms Network, we are very proud to be a partner on the AJINOMOTO’s 3rd Umami Culinary Challenge.