Gardenia’s Search for “The Next Big Sandwich Hit”!

As a couple, we love bread. It’s our morning staple with a cup of coffee when we’re not having garlic rice as a Filipino breakfast habit. So we were ecstatic when Gardenia invited Seats For Two to cover their big event “The Next Big Sandwich Hit“. It reminded me of the “Happy Bread Day” I attended years ago as well.

Gardenia’s “The Next Big Sandwich Hit”

In celebration of World Bread Day, Gardenia Bakeries Philippines held its highly-anticipated culinary school competition, “The Next Big Sandwich Hit” at White Space in Makati.

Participating schools in this year’s competitors include Adamson University, Far Eastern University, La Consolacion College, National University, Philippine Women’s University, St. Paul Quezon City, St. Scholastica Manila, University of the East, University of the Philippines, and University of Sto. Tomas.

All the schools offer Hotel and Restaurant Management (HRM), culinary and other similar courses; a prerequisite in joining the competition. Gardenia intends to promote the healthy goodness of eating sandwiches and to teach our young culinary students the value of hard work and to likewise develop their entrepreneurial skills.

During the just concluded Elimination Round, a total of 50 student teams, 5 from each university, joined the Sandwich Showdown Eliminations where contestants needed to create tasty, mouthwatering sandwiches with the themes – the “Power Sandwich” and the “Wild Card Sandwich“.

Only one team per school will advance to the next round, the Business Trial Round and then, the finale.

‘Power Sandwich‘ is basically a full-meal sandwich that used 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; Gardenia Wheat Pandesal; Gardenia Premium Pandesal.

On the other hand, a ‘Wild Card Sandwich‘ is a sandwich that best defines a Happy Bread Day sandwich. For this theme, the contestants had to use any or a combination of the following 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; Gardenia Wheat Pandesal; Gardenia Premium Pandesal; Gardenia Flavored Breads.

Each team presented two sandwich recipes: one full-sized sandwich per theme and 8 bite-sized sandwiches for the judges, the media and the general public for tasting.

I sure hope we could get a copy of the recipe so we could share them here on the blog. 😛

Besides the sandwiches, each team also had to present the recipe and equipment used as well as the product costing prior to the start of the competition. Each team was given 40 minutes to prepare their sandwiches. Taste, interpretation of the theme, and food plating and presentation were the main criteria for judging.

That same day, the winners of the elimination round were announced. Here is the list of winning teams and the student names of the winners who will cook their way to the finals:

It was a pleasant day of food tasting and camaraderie amidst pressure and competition among the student contestants. You can see the passion of cooking and preparing food in their eyes and action.

Congratulations again to the winners! For the Chamionship finale, which school do you think will earn the title as Gardenia’s “The Next Big Sandwich Hit“? Catch the excitement and taste good breads at the Championship finals to be held in SM Mall of Asia on October 18, 2014! See you there!