SM Master Chefs Cooking Marathon

If you can recall last July, I blogged about the SM Hypermarket Master Chefs cooking marathon, and last Tuesday, I was invited again to attend the cooking demo at SM Fairview, and it was something that I was excited about because I love attending cooking demos - as it was a great way of learning, and a great way of celebrating the foodie in me without having to eat too much.

The event was scheduled at 3pm, but as early as 2pm, the SM Hypermarket's Community Center started to fill up. In the audience section were students of Tala High School and Bestlink Colleges, as well as shoppers of SM Hypermarket.


Chef for today is Chef Deejay Santos, who was also the chef the last time I watched the cooking demo. For today though, he cooked dishes using McCormick products.

Talking a little bit about McCormick products... I'm sure you'd agree with me that it's always the first choice when it comes to spices and herbs. Now that people are giving more attention to healthy living, McCormick now introduces "Spices for Health." Seven of McCormick super spices are not only a great source of flavor, they are packed with natural antioxidants as well.

For this cooking demo, Chef Deejay prepared three dishes:

• Tomato and Herb Bruschetta. A very tasty appetizer using a mix of tomatoes, black olives, kesong puti and McCormick products - iodized salt, black peppermill, basil, and oregano leaves. It had a hint of tang (because of cider vinegar), which reacted well with kesong puti and black olives.
• Beef Stroganoff Pasta. Sounds common for a pasta dish, but what made this unique was that this was made using McCormick mushroom gravy. Was it good? Oh yes it was, and it was great even without cheese.
• Sparkling Rosemary Iced Tea. A very, very simple drink, but is packed with goodness. Rosemary is a well known culinary herb, but it's also has a lot of medicinal values. First time I tasted this drink was at the Yummy Eats event, and there was no difference between the two events; this drink was simply good!

Looking at the line up of the dishes, it was already a complete set of meal, don't you think?

In between dishes, SM Hypermarket's very own Ms. Annie (the host of the event) had trivia games and raffles... and brother got to win at the trivia event, and I got to win at the raffle. Brother and I each took home McCormick gift packs - which had a bottle each of McCormick Adobo Twist (hot and spicy) and Iodized Salt, as well as packs of McCormick buffalo wings mix, pesto mix, mushroom gravy mix, and beef & herb mix. One fun thing we did... each winners had to sing before they could claim their prize. Actually, chef Deejay sang, too! Another thing I appreciated, Ms. Annie also recognized us bloggers at the event and she also gave us a few seconds to promote our blogs. It was really an awesome event!

Before wrapping up the demo, SM Hypermarket distributed certificates to each of the audience members, and Chef also allowed the audience to have a picture with him. It was my first time to meet Joy Blanca (of Notepad Corner and Delectable Ideas) in person, happy to meet another blogger again. :)

The SM Hypermarket Master Chefs cooking marathon just wrapped up today (I wasn't able to attend because I am not feeling well the last two days), which my brother was able to attend. Now that the cooking marathon is over, one major event is in the works - the Supersized Cook Off, which is set to happen in five key locations nationwide.

ps - each member of the audience was given a recipe sheet, and I actually cooked the Beef Stroganoff Pasta for lunch today, please check back here tomorrow for the recipe.