Ajinomoto 3rd Umami Culinary Challenge: The Battle for the Umami Bowl

This Friday, January 20, 2012, over 300 aspiring Filipino chefs will compete in the 3rd Umami Culinary Challenge.

Dubbed as The Battle for the Umami Bowl, the Ajinomoto 3rd Umami Culinary Challenge (3rd UCC) will showcase creativeness, innovativeness, culinary skill and mastery of using umami taste to its fullest potential.

The 3rd UCC will feature participants from 29 Universities and colleges that offered HRM and Nutrition courses and from five (5) prestigious culinary schools.

Judging the competitions are 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.

This year’s Umami Culinary Challenge will be held on January 20, 2012 at the SMX Convention Center.

The Ajinomoto 3rd UCC: The Battle for the Umami Bowl 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.

Ajinomoto 3rd Umami Culinary Challenge Program Flow

About the 3rd UCC

Umami Culinary Challenge is an inter-school, multi-category cooking competition focusing on the tastiness of umami as the basic taste. It involves and engages student competitors in group and individual categories.
It highlights the creativity, innovativeness and culinary skills of the participating students in creating dishes that maximize the full potential and usage of the umami taste.

The Umami Culinary Challenge started in 2009 as a culminating activity of the Umami education program. The first year gathered more than 15 schools in Metro Manila and the 2nd year of the competition gathered more than 20 schools Luzon-wide.

The 3rd Umami Culinary Challenge is a take-off from the success of the 2009 and 2010 competition. Now that umami has become a buzzword in the industry, Ajinomoto Philippines Corporation would like to further carry on the UCC program not just an interschool competition but as an umami experiential event wherein students will not only compete, but they also will learn non-culinary skills from the experts all in relation to the industry such as – Food Blogging, Food Styling, etc. Further, to make the experience complete, we’ve invited caterers and suppliers to participate in this event.