Young German Chefs Try Hand at Filipino Street Food

From left: Chef Maite Hontiveros-Dittke, Chef Niklas Siebecke, Ambassador to Germany Ma. Theresa B. Dizon-de Vega, Ms. Caroline Glusa, and Chef Bulawan Callanta. (Berlin PE photo)

BERLIN 09 September 2019 – METRO, one of the largest supermarket chains in Germany and Europe, held its Metro Cup Young Chefs on 23 August 2019 at the Metro Cooking Academy in Berlin.

The event featured six young German chefs, who were tasked to prepare Lebanese, Argentine, Japanese, New Zealand, and Philippine street food or snacks on a five course challenge.

For the Philippine course, Binaki and Latik, a popular corn-based snack in the Visayas and Mindanao region was chosen.

The adjudicators are all active chefs in Germany, including Filipino-German chefs Bulawan Callanta of AYAN Street Food restaurant and Dusseldorf-based chef and food advocate Maite Hontiveros-Dittke.

Ambassador to Germany Theresa Dizon-De Vega lent her presence to the occasion and awarded young German chef Caroline Glusa for bagging the best Binaki and Latik. Ms. Glusa received a native Philippine bag with Philippine cookbooks and food items from Ambassador Dizon De-Vega.

Asked what was the most challenging part of preparing the sweetish Southern Philippines snack, the young German chef mentioned that getting the consistency of the sweetish corn right was most trying because they had never attempted to prepare or tasted Binaki before.

The Philippine Embassy in Berlin continues to have a full slate of culinary-related activities for the remainder of the year as part of its Culinary Diplomacy thrusts. END

Guests try Binaki with Latik and food prepared by the six competitors (Berlin PE photo)

For more information, visit  https://www.berlinpe.dfa.gov.ph, https://www.philippine-embassy.de or https://www.facebook.com/PHinGermany.