JOLLY University Year 4 Grand Cook-Off and Congress

Kianna recently expressed an interest taking up Hotel and Restaurant Management which veers away from her first interested interest, medicine. It made an invite to be a judge at the Jolly University Year 4 Grand Cook-Off and Congress featuring finalists from 23 different schools across North and South Luzon and Metro Manila even more interesting.

With the theme “It’s More JOLLY in the Philippines”, Jolly University Year 4 featured some of the country’s top industry practitioners and leaders: Leo de Leon of Allegro Beverage, JC Libiran Author of Byahe ni Juan, Marilyn Perion of UCPB, Liza Morales of CCA Manila, Karla Reyes of La Petite Fromagerie, Nana Ozaeta of Food Magazine, Bryan Kong of Crazy Katsu, Chershire Que (nutritionist), Vberni Regalado of Philippine Star, Jose Mari Oquiñena of Gawad Kalinga, Angelica Atanacio of Anghelica’s Desserts, Kian Kazemi of Persian Grill, Rebecca Lee of wheninmanila.com, and Ms. Earth 2015 Angelia Ong.

After grueling weeks of training and preparation, all aspiring student-contenders in the country’s long-running campus-based culinary search, finally showed off their skills at the cook-off at the Le Pavilion Tent in Pasay City. 120 elite finalists prepared their best and most creative JOLLY-inspired dishes to clinch the coveted titles in the following four divisions: Individual Category (featuring Luzon Cuisines made easy, healthy and baon-ready); Team Main Dish Category (Visayas Cuisines Made Easy, Healthy and Jolly); Team Pasta Category (Mindanao Cuisines made Pastariffic) and Team Mocktail Category (Capture the Jolly Vibe of the Philippines in a Sip).

It was my first time to judge a cook-ff and it was both a fun and filling experience. I was assigned to the Pasta category where 10 dishes were prepared all having a local flavor to the theme “Mindanao Cuisines”. Participants were from University of Santo Tomas, La Consolacion College, Far Eastern University, Siena College, Rogationist College, Anihan Technical School, De La Salle University Dasmarinas, and Dr Yanga’s College.

The winning dish! Curacha Fettucini Alavar by La Consolacion College Manila.

Other entries from the Pasta category:

Here’s the full list of Jolly University 4 Congress winners:

Pasta (team): La Consolacion Batangas;

Mocktails (team): Lyceum Subic Bay;

Main Dish (group): La Consolacion Manila;

Main Dish (individual):

2nd runner up La Consolacion College Manila,

1st runner up Manila Tytana Colleges,

Grand winner University of Sto. Tomas.

Audience Choice: La Consolacion Manila

This year’s Jolly University grand winners walked away with Php50,000 worth of cash and prizes, trophies, culinary training workshop under CCA Manila, and an internship program under Fly Ace Corporation where they will receive comprehensive, job-ready skills development training from the industry’s best practitioners.

The JOLLY University Year 4 Congress is made possible with the support of event sponsors CCA Manila, Allegro, Coldstone, Glad, Fujidenzo, Masflex, PLDT HOME Fibr, Robinsons, Technogas, UCPB and Whirlpool and media partners Appetite Magazine, Breakfast Magazine, Cook Magazine, Food Magazine, Chinatown TV, Malaya Business Insight, The Manila Bulletin, Mommy Bloggers Philippines, Philippine Star and wheninmanila.com.