Fourth Competition: Pasta Making

The contest focus was more on the pasta making and the integration of it with the dish. I saw some pastas being made out of tomato, pesto, malunggay and kamote. I also saw someone make canton noodles. (no idea why this is what they considered pasta though.) 3 teams made raviolli stuffed with the different local food fares of poque-poque or idago and longganisa. Another team created mango and chicken in cream sauce. Another team created a pinakbet pasta with bagoong. My favorite for this round would be the mango and chicken cream sauce. It was just great and I love the texture. Another favorite of mine would be the last one to finish. They created a Shrimp cocktail pasta in a butter and herb sauce. That was just a great dish. I would gladly order that again.

I enjoyed this part of the day a lot. I found the concept and art of making pasta from scratch both an educational as well as rewarding experience. I’ve only seen shows on the Discovery Channel on how Italians make pasta from scratch. You see the back roads of Sicily littered with old ladies quickly cutting and forming clamshell macaroni pasta with one stroke. I was also amazed at how quick these Italian chefs strung out balls and balls of pasta and quickly dump it in a pot of boiling water to cook.

As for the Filipino palette, I’ve noticed that most of our pastas are a bit overcooked and are not al dente. Don’t get me wrong, we’re not doing it wrong or anything, its just that we are used to soft pastas. This was the same observation Chef Jason Stacy had before and during the competition. Our pastas were bordering soggy. Next time you cook pasta, even if out of the box, notice how your noodles are. Are they soft? Or are they al dente?