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Ailyn Agonia
DOHA
FILIPINO celebrity chef Ni?±o Logarta said he is proud to represent the Philippines in the 9th edition of Qatar International Food Festival (QIFF 2018) which had a grand opening at the Hotel Park on Thursday.
Logarta, a familiar face on Philippine television for hosting cooking shows in the past and a known culinary consultant for several food companies, is the first Filipino chef to be invited to the culinary celebration in Qatar which this year hosts top guns in the culinary world including"Iron Chef" Masaharu Morimoto and Austrian chef and restaurateur Wolfgang Puck.
On Friday, Ni?±o gave Doha residents a peek into the preparations of Filipino food at a live kitchen theatre.
"I am honoured to represent the Philippines in this event. I am very impressed with the set up and the programme in this food festival. I had an opportunity to converse with Wolfgang Puck and it is a great experience for me," Ni?±o told the local media.
For his first live demonstration, Ni?±o prepared aligue rice which is a mix of fried rice and crab fat that he made extra appealing to the diners in Qatar.
"Filipino food is very simple and straight forward. We use ingredients that are easy to source and normally do not go over 10 ingredients per dish. I am very hopeful that Filipino cuisine will get into the global market. We can inject other techniques to make our food more appealing to other cultures or use their local ingredients such as those in Arab food to heighten the flavours of Filipino dishes and make the food familiar to their taste buds," Ni?±o added.
Sharing about his culinary journey, he said he is currently a corporate chef for Mega Global and also one of the endorsers of the brand alongside actress Marian Rivera. He added that he also has his hands full in handling operations of some cooking shows and teaching in one of the culinary schools back home.
When asked to comment about the growing trend of movie and television actors trying their hands on culinary through cooking shows on youtube, the young chef said while he sees no problem in such a trend it is still important that one gets into culinary with enough knowledge of food.
"Everybody is into cooking nowadays. I just hope they really know what they are saying before they even put it out. Personally, whenever I am asked what's my speciality I always say I like cooking with familiar flavours which is Asian. It is more interesting for me. It is more dynamic and flavourful but then of course I can cook anything," Ni?±o remarked.
Ni?±o will once again grace the live cooking theatre at QIFF 2018 on Saturday to feature a Filipino food with a 'chicken' theme.
