Eat Dining Festival at Ayala Center Cebu: Eat's a hit!

MANILA, Philippines - Mention Cebu, the oldest city in the Philippines with the second busiest airport, and probably the first thing that comes to mind — off the top of your head, or should we say, the tip of your tongue — is food. Make that glorious food!

Eat’s that good that people from near and far, armed only with their insatiable appetites and humongous zest for life, troop to Ayala Center Cebu on a sultry Friday for the EAT Dining Festival cooking demos at the giant tent of The Terraces. The brooding rain clouds threaten to cast a shadow over the afternoon’s cooking demo, but as soon as chef Tristan Encarnacion takes center stage in his impeccable chef’s uniform with a matching smile as bright as sunshine, nothing could dampen the Cebuanos’ spirits as assorted foodies, aspiring chefs, and students fill the venue to overflowing. Chef Tristan’s young fans couldn’t wait for a photo opt with their dashing idol. Say “Cheese!”

Chef Tristan further heats up the scene with his pan-seared duck breast with blackberry cream sauce. He rolls up his sleeves, gets all the ingredients and tools ready, and gets down to brass tacks. He instructs us to sear the seasoned duck breast, fat/skin side, in a hot pan with oil. Flip the duck breast, pour demi-glaze, lower the heat, then add the all-purpose cream and brown sauce. Add the green peppercorns and sprigs of fresh thyme. Cover and simmer for a few minutes. Stir in the raspberry (or blackberry) and white sugar if needed. Season the dish with salt and pepper. Check the duck breast and make sure not to overcook it. Remove the breast from the pan and let it rest for a few seconds or a minute. Slice the breast, drizzle with the sauce and serve it with mashed potatoes. Easy, isn’t it?

The crowd’s verdict as little bowls of the dish are passed around for everyone to sample: Chef Tristan’s pan-seared duck breast with blackberry cream sauce is truly berry delicious!

Hosting the afternoon’s event is jazzy VJ Chazzy Cortez of Y101 and RCTV, Cebu’s homegrown channel with RRV7’s Princess of ASAP Sessionista dishing out song numbers.

The following day, Saturday, chef Shirly May Galvez of, hai,  Sumosam and chef Roy Andrew Tan of John and Yoko take their turn behind the frying pan and give a most sizzling performance. Shirly proves real saucy as she teases our taste buds with her salmon with wasabi cream sauce. She gives a sprinkling of warning: “Don’t put any garnish on your dish that’s not edible.” Aye, aye, Chef!

And here’s the beef: Chef Shirly creates a stir with her beef teppanyaki with bean sprouts, bell pepper, onion, and garlic. “Ideally, you have to put everything together, at the same time and not one by one,” goes her friendly advice. “Vegetables shouldn’t be overcooked so you get all the nutrients.”

Cooking duo Shirly May Galvez and Roy Andrew Tan give some hot tips. Photos by FERDINAND EDRALIN and REYNAN VILLENA

Herself doting mom to eight-year-old Lorenzo, Shirly tells moms: “Choose colorful veggies to get your children to eat.”

Chef Roy, who charms the audience with his unassuming ways, lends Shirly a hand as they share their recipes for California Roll (a soo-delightful sushi rice laced with mango and cucumber and topped with kani stick with mayo); mushroom linguini (a three-mushroom pasta with carrots and bokchoy, swirled in butter and garnished with spring onions); and ebi-utiful tempura dish.

“I was simply overwhelmed not only by the big turnout of culinary students but also by the fact that they were attentive, they asked questions, and interacted with me,” Shirly recounts.

All around the tent are booths selling palate-tickling specialties from the participating restaurants. For instance, there’s Red Kimono with its starry, starry dish inspired by the STAR called Chicken Staryaki. For the EAT Dining Festival promo, order this dish and get a chance to win a raffle prize .

Spicing up Shirly May’s culinary offerings are the song numbers dished out by Pinoy Big Brother teen housemate Matt Evans and young star of ABS-CBN’s Star Magic Empress Schuck.

Aussie does it, Steve Shrimski tells us! Affable Australian chef/owner Shrimski of Canvas Bistro Bar & Gallery shows us how easy it is to do his peppered venison fillet with bitter chocolate jus, roesti potato & balsamic beetroot, though it may be a bit hard to pronounce it. No venison? No problem! Chef Steve says: “You can use beef tenderloin for this dish, but you may increase the oven cooking time and cook the beef to your required doneness. Medium rare is best for beef. Let it rest for five to 10 minutes before serving to allow any blood to drain off.”

Note, too, that if you’re using beef tenderloin, omit the chocolate and have a red wine jus for the beef.

Capping the three-day treat full of delightful eats from The Philippine STAR, Ayala Malls, and BPI is pastry queen Heny Sison who regales her audience with her sinfully delicious choux puffs (cream puff pastry) with mushroom filling. So light, so right, with the finest crispy crust. She leaves us with this important dough, er, do: “Master the basics or fundamentals and everything will fall into place.”

Heny also generously shares her recipes for strawberries in marsala with honey and mascarpone cream and penne pasta with two pestos (basil and walnut pesto). It’s pasta perfect!

Over dinner at Casa Verde where we share the biggest hamburger we’ve ever seen and tasted that’s called Big Bang, which is good for four people with big appetites, Heny zeroes in on her food finds: “Now, there are a lot of homegrown restaurants in Cebu and the prices are cheap. Cebuanos now dine a lot. Before, they’d try a new resto and after that, they never go back, they just eat at home. Before, there were just holes-in-the-wall serving grilled food, puro inihaw. Before, all I would find were the sutukil  (sugba, tinola, kinilaw). Now, they’re Westernized because of the malls. There are a lot of homegrown ideas that can be franchised. There’s a saying that if you can make it in Cebu, you can make it anywhere. Cebu is the testing ground.”

Eat’s like no other! As the day draws to a close, our stomachs feel full, our spirits light, and our hearts warm.

The next EAT cooking demo will be held at Alabang Town Center with chef Stephanie Zubiri on Sept. 16, chef Ernest Gala on Sept. 17 and chef Heny Sison on Sept. 18.