Chef Maverick A. Javier as Best Chef 2024. He took up his Professional Culinary, Baking and Pastry Arts course at the Global Academy, where he finished in 2016. Now Kitchen Production Team Leader at Ikea Philippines, he has won a number of gold, silver and bronze medals in the annual Philippine Culinary Cup (PCC) competitions from 2016 to 2023. Chef Mav clinched the highest honors, the Best Chef title, at the recently concluded PCC 2024 held in conjunction with the World Food Expo 2024 (WOFEX 2024).

… Chef Nelson Javier Gamurot as Best Pastry Chef 2024. He was chef instructor of the Lyceum of the Philippines University-Laguna (LPU-Laguna) team.

… Marriott Hotel Manila as Grand Champion, Professional Category. To earn this distinction, the hotel had to first bring home three highest gold, one gold, two silver, and 11 bronze medals from the PCC 2024 competitions. And so it successfully defended this very same distinction, which it also earned in 2023, for an impressive back-to-back championship in the Professional Category.

… Lyceum of the Philippines-Laguna as Grand Champion, Non-Professional Category. Like Marriott, the school had to earn its fair share of medals before being recognized as this year’s best in the Non-Professional Category.

A distinction much coveted by every hotel, restaurant, resort and school serious about advancing its culinary arts program and becoming a haven for budding chefs.

Now on its 14th year, PCC has been an annual venue for culinary professionals and students to showcase their potentials and skills and be recognized for it. It started in 2010 with the Les Toque Blanches-Philippines (LTB-Philippines) taking the lead in partnership with the organizers of WOFEX, one of the biggest food expos in the metro, which now also has editions in the Visayas and Mindanao. They met in an event at Milky Way Makati, where WOFEX organizers broached the idea of a partnership to create a culinary competition to LTB-Philippines officials.

“We had a condition. It had to be a first-class competition with topnotch sponsors. Take it or leave it,” explains chef James Antolin, owner of Ikomai/Tochi, and director of Competitions of the PCC.

Apparently, WOFEX officials had the same objective in mind. The partnership was forged. LTB-Philippines officials — with Pastry Alliance of the Philippines’ chefs Buddy Trinidad and James Antolin, and LTB-Philippines’ movers chefs J Gamboa and Fernando Aracama taking the lead — got down to work on it immediately. They set the rules, laid down the foundation for the different competition categories, brought in distinguished foreign chefs to serve as judges along with the best and the brightest Filipino chefs, and got the first PCC underway.

It turned out to be a resounding success and resulted in the much-anticipated annual staging of the PCC in tandem with WOFEX.

“Our mission has always been to create standards for Filipino chefs to uplift them and their skills to meet global standards and for the young ones to improve their skills and learn from foreign judges and competitors,” adds chef James. “This year’s batch of competitors and winners showed very high skill standards. They are very passionate about what they are doing, and their skills have improved a lot.”

Congratulations to the winners!