Then there's Kulinarya, the Filipino cooking showdown sponsored by the Philippine Tourism Department, in conjunction with the city's annual Pistahan event. Last Sunday, Bay Area chefs, self-taught home cooks, and Filipino food aficionados battled it out in Kulinarya's semifinal round, presenting their take on classic Filipino dishes to a panel that judged according to creativity, presentation, and taste.
This blogger shared judging duties with Kelly Degala, chef of the Academy Café at the California Academy of Sciences; Thomas Weibull, executive chef of Swell; Cindy Mendoza, of San Francisco's Asian Culinary Forum; Lennie Buenaflor DiCarlo of xroads Philippine Sea Salts; Ging Reyes of ABS-CBN News; and Teresita Paynor, wife of Consul General Marciano Paynor Jr.Three chefs from a field of six in both the Professional and Amateur divisions were chosen to advance to the finals round, for which they will prepare a four-course meal in a live cooking demonstration. The chefs competing in October's finals are Cocoy Ventura, Edgar Grajo, and Kristela Mendoza. Ventura worked at Francis Ford Coppola's Rubicon Estate before becoming the executive chef of Mina in Las Vegas. His lamb shank caldereta ― lamb stewed in tomato sauce strewn with caramelized vegetables ― demonstrated clean and well-balanced flavors.
