BAGUIO CITY – Native cuisines will take center stage in the competitions of the Hotel and Restaurant Tourism (HRT) weekend on Oct. 24 to 26, to be participated in by around 400 students and professional cooks and chefs.

Among the food to be presented and judged will be the “pinikpikan” of the Cordillera, “pinakbet”, “adobo”, food using "bagoong" (shrimp paste) and those using vinegar, cacao concoction for drinks, and the “kakanin” and “tupig” for dessert. 

Participants are students and professionals from schools and tourism-related institutions in Vigan City and the provinces of Quirino, Ifugao, Leyte, Mindoro, Palawan, Tarlac, Pangasinan, Catanduanes, Benguet and this city.

Mary Lou Galiste, Hotel and Restaurant Association of Baguio (HRAB) Executive Director, in a press conference on Thursday, said winners of the HRT weekend competition will be fielded in national food showdowns. 

“That is the reason we have added in the competition areas for traditional and modern cooking and food preparation, traditional cuisines, desserts, and drinks,” she said. 

Galiste said food establishments are even offering buffet snacks that include native food like “puto” (steamed rice bun), “puto bumbong” (glutinous rice cooked in bamboo), “biko” (glutinous rice cake), and “sapin-sapin” (glutinous rice in different flavors and colors)”.

Anthony De Leon, HRAB president and the general manager of the Baguio Country Club, the lone five-star membership resort here, said more people now opt for comfort food over fine dining.

“We are in an era where people are more into comfort food and casual dining. Nobody does fine dining anymore, even the newly opened restaurant of (international Chef Gordon) Ramsay is not even on fine dining. That is casual. He just specializes in beef wellington but that is not French cuisine, that is not fine dining. It is all about casual dining and casual food. And in our case as Filipinos, our comfort food is our local cuisine,” he said. 

De Leon said the hotel and restaurant industry want to focus and emphasize that Filipino comfort food can be in the international cuisine setting and can be competitive, and is slowly being recognized by the community.

He said even the foreigners now prefer to have more native food options. (PNA)