BY HELEN J. CATALBAS
HERITAGE cuisine is a tourism attraction in Western Visayas. Foreign and domestic tourists with their families, relatives and friends travel all the way to this region and fill themselves to satiety with a lot of take out to boot. Each of the six provinces and two highly urbanized cities of Western Visayas has its own share of heritage cuisine that has been covered and cited by international vloggers and bloggers, foodies and featured in regional, national and international publications.
This region’s heritage cuisine is here to stay and chefs make sure they do in public consciousness. As regional chefs consciously or unconsciously complement time-honored culinary traditions originally dominated by wives, family cooks and kusineros and kusineras during fiestas, wedding feasts and other special events, this kind of cuisine continues to evolve into something more both as passion and advocacy.
Very recently a well-known Western Visayas chef was presented a prestigious award for his advocacy and hard work in lifting culinary tourism to a higher level. His name: Chef Rafael “Tibong” Jardeleza Jr. His award: UPLIFT Award. The award giving institution: Manila Bulletin.
UPLIFT is acronym for Unite Perform Lead Inspire Focus and Trend. The Manila Bulletin UPLIFT Awards, according to the paper’s post, honors and celebrates individuals and institutions whose efforts to unite, perform, lead, and inspire put focus on particular issues that trended and were of utmost importance during the past year.
Chef Tibong’s talent, skills and advocacy on Western Visayas heritage cuisine are not choosy in terms of venue and platform. He has worked as effectively when he performs his craft in the public wet markets and carparks as he has in catering for the rich and famous families, five-star hotels, international food fora and congresses. The venue, patrons and audiences may vary but his enthusiasm has remained consistent through the years that simply speaks constancy of purpose.
Chef Tibong is best remembered through the Tabuan Western Visayas Ilonggo Heritage Cuisine Cooking Competition Year from 2012 to present which aims to search for traditional slow food cooking of the region’s heritage dishes using locally grown ingredients and produce; Flavors of Western Visayas from 2015 and every 3 years thereafter. It is a convention for students, foodies and any body who wants to wants to enhance his/her knowledge on Western Visayan heritage cuisine history, culture and traditions;
Sabores de Visayas Gala Dinner 2014 to present, aims to promote the traditional dishes that Western Visayans would serve in their grand celebrations as welcoming gestures for relatives and special guests, a unique trait that portrays a lifestyle of grandeur; and Ilonggo Street Food Hawkers Festival which reinvented the concept of street food, the first and biggest street food hawkers festival ever in attendance and revenue produced by a stakeholder in 2016-2019.
He participated as Judge for the Iloilo leg of the Amazing Race Asia Food Edition, featured in various national and international events and promotions such as Jason Tries Asia, Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho, Madrid Fusion 2016, World Street Food Congress and many more.
Western Visayas heritage cuisine reflects the identity of its people and the land they have called their home. Keepers of the flame like Chef Tibong and his tribe make sure that the legacy lives on for centuries to come./PN
