MANILA, Philippines - Gardenia’s the “Next Big Sandwich Hit (NBSH)” event ended on a delicious bang.
“It was really difficult to be one of the judges in this year’s Next Big Sandwich Hit competition. Not only were all the sandwiches delicious but they were all works of art! From the preparation of the ingredients all the way to the plating, you can really see each teams’ creativity, passion, dedication, and drive to win. From start to finish, all the 10 teams really gave it their all and I have to give my commendation to them. I know how hard they all worked and in my book they are all winners,” said chef Jeremy Favia, one of the judges in the NBSH competition championship.
The last stage of this year’s NBSH competition coincided with the Happy Bread Day celebration held at the Mall of Asia Music Hall. The top 10 HRM and culinary universities who joined in this year’s competition were Adamson University, Far Eastern University, La Consolacion College, National University, Philippine Women’s University, St. Paul Quezon City, St. Scholastica’s College Manila, University of the East, University of the Philippines, and University of Sto. Tomas.
The two main components of the NBSH Championship finale were audience votes and the main cooking challenge. To get the audience votes, each team was given an hour to prepare and serve out to the audience 100 bite-sized sandwiches. During the main cooking challenge, each team had to present their two thematic full-sized sandwich recipes to the judges and was given 40 minutes to prepare both. The two sandwich themes were — a Sexy Sandwich and a Philippines City Sandwich. A “Sexy Sandwich” is healthy, yet delicious sandwich made with any or a combination of the following Gardenia breads: Gardenia Classic White Bread; Gardenia High Fiber Wheat Bread; Gardenia High Fiber Wheat Raisin Loaf; Gardenia Wheat Cranberry Loaf; Gardenia Slim n Fit Wheaten Bread; and Gardenia Wheat Pandesal.
The “Philippines City Sandwich,” is a sandwich that best depicts a certain Philippine city that was assigned to each team via drawing of the lots held during the Elimination Round. The Classic Gardenia White Bread alone or White Bread combined with any of the following Gardenia breads (Gardenia High Fiber Wheat Bread, Gardenia High Fiber Wheat Raisin Loaf, Gardenia Wheat Cranberry Loaf, Gardenia Slim n Fit Wheaten Bread, and Gardenia Flavored Bread) must be used.
The grand prize went to National University, the 1st runner-up to La Consolacion College, and the 2nd runner-up went to Philippine Women’s University.
The grand prize winner won a cash prize of P80,000, P30,000 worth of Gardenia Bread for Business, P50,000 worth of bread for the winning school plus kitchen appliances. The 1st runner-up got P40,000 and the 2nd runner-up received P20,000.