Global Taste of Korea is a cooking competition in the Philippines. It happens every year and it has become a venue where participants can boast about their talents and love for Korean cuisine. A team of Korea.net Honorary Reporters in the Philippines shares with us this yearly celebration of Korean food.

By Korea.net Honorary Reporters Diana Kassandra Almarez, Mari Mikhaela Javier, Neema Estores, Riana Tayawa and John Paul Vergonia from the Philippines
Photos = John Paul Vergonia and Riana Tayawa



As the cooking competition was held in two parts, the Freestyle Korean Cooking part was held next, in the afternoon right after the Bulgogi Marinated Beef Battle. All of the participant chefs in this category also showed remarkable effort to prepare and make their entry dishes as presentable as possible. Like the previous competition, participants presented their dishes as beautiful and enticingly good as the first batch.

One prepared the famous sundubu jjigae soft tofu soup in a traditional clay pot that wasn’t just inviting into the eyes, but also looks deliciously good. The modern quinoa with spicy stir-fried octopus was delicately plated with colors and petal garnishes. The simple yet rich japchae glass noodles with fried vegetables were the chef’s own version of the famed noodle dish. The stir-fried dakgalbi chicken bits in a red sauce with cabbage and other vegetables had a perfect blend of spices. These were just a few of the creatively made dishes in this category that made remarkable impressions not only on the judges but also on the selected audience members who personally tried them and shared their thoughts right there before the live crowd.

Apart from the competitions and workshops, the Korean Cultural Center in the Philippines also set up an activity booth that let guests and event attendees learn more about Korean heritage, traditions and traditional cuisine. Korea.net Honorary Reporter Diana Kassandra Almarez, together with KCC intern Yoon Jueun, staffed the booth.

“The booth of the Korean Cultural Center in the Philippines was a great opportunity to promote Korean heritage and traditions, as the attendees were eagerly interested in all of the Joseon stuff. We hosted an exciting set of activities for everyone, such as a series of surveys, promotions of programs and class offerings scheduled this year, and more, all in exchange for travel kits and food freebies. Receiving their perks brought smiles to the attendees' faces, and some were interested enough and asked questions about Korea and its Joseon heritage. They also inquired about the language and history classes that the KCC in the Philippines has this year, where a lot of students and young professionals were engrossed with signing up.”

Moreover, food samples were also all over and attracted long lines where everyone enjoyed delicious servings of the popular baechu cabbage kimchi, kkakdugi radish kimchi, gimbap rice rolls and the specially served bulgogi marinated beef sandwich and modern samgyetang ginseng chicken soup prepared by chef Lily Min herself with the volunteers.





Korea.net Honorary Reporter Neema Estores was sent to the Experience Zone where attendees had a chance to get familiar with more Korean food and had the opportunity to experience first-hand what it's like to eat in a traditional royal banquet.

“As exciting as the delicious feast exhibited in this event area is, all the attendees were treated to a royal experience, too, as they took sets of photos while wearing traditional and elegant Hanbok attire. It was just a great experience for everyone seeing them with huge smiles on their faces as they donned the Hanbok together with their friends and family.”

All of the aspiring chefs gave their best and showed the judges their creativity in cooking Korean food. Korea.net Honorary Reporter Riana Tayawa was sent to the program area as one of the judges’ assistants. Having attended the annual event for the first time, she was impressively amazed at the creativeness of the participants during the food presentation and judges’ critics.

"Although I was assigned one of the most difficult tasks at the event, like changing the judges’ plates every so often, arranging servings of food for tasters, as well as washing the dishes, seeing those beautifully presented foods by all of the aspirants made the work less challenging and I didn’t mind how tiring it really was. During the presentation, some people from the audience were lucky to be selected as tasters. Program emcee Paola Ebora asked each of them their opinions about the food they tried, where it added delight and challenge to the competition as a whole, and so on. Though some people didn’t get to try the food as presented in the program area, we also prepared free samples of the bulgogi marinated beef sandwich and the samgyetang ginseng chicken soup for everyone. It was a busy day for all of us, but nevertheless, the event was such a great experience and worth the time.”


With the delicately prepared set of dishes that weren’t just delicious but also healthy, visually enticing, and a fusion of taste, everything impressed the meticulous palates of the very particular judges. Only two of the country's best Korean food chefs, one in each of the categories, with their winning entry dishes, captivated the competition table.

Maria Dolores Narciso who made the beautifully arranged bulgogi marinated beef bibimbap fried rice won in the Bulgogi Marinated Beef Battle where she gave a bit of a modern twist, yet stuck to the traditional way of cooking one of Korea’s most popular representative foods. On the other hand, in the Freestyle Korean Cooking category, Maria Angelina Latuno's impressive kimchi fireball was hailed as the winner. She especially captivated the judges with the taste and food presentation, and also the globalization of the dish. Along with a plaque and a cash prize of PHP 15,000 (about USD $280) that the two winners received, the judges also selected the 2018 GToK Best Korean Cook. Latuno was chosen as the overall winner and brought home a round-trip ticket to Korea courtesy of the Korea Tourism Organization.

Latuno's participation in this year's cooking competition is her second time. She already joined the GToK in 2017 and didn’t win, but the result didn't stop her from winning over the crowd. As a reward for her determination, her craft in cooking Korean food has finally hailed her as a grand winner this year and the best of today's top Korean cooks in the Philippines.

With the successful showcase of yet another edition of the Global Taste of Korea, aspiring Philippine chefs have shown great creativity and cooking skills in terms of the globalization of Korean food in the Philippines. It has proven popular not only in the Philippines, but all across the globe. The series of GToK contest is just proof that we will continue to enjoy and embrace the growing popularity of Korean food and through such knowledge-driven food events we will help strengthen cooking in a very inviting way.
 

wisdom117@korea.kr

* This article is written by a Korea.net Honorary Reporter. Our group of Honorary Reporters are from all around the world, and they share with Korea.net their love and passion for all things Korean.