The Philippine Embassy officially announced yesterday the launch of the second edition of Kulinarya Qatar - an initiative aimed at promoting Filipino cuisines and tourism.

“For the second year of Kulinarya Qatar, we expect greater awareness of Filipino cuisines. We established Kulinaryas as a vehicle to promote Filipino cuisines and entice more visitors to the Philippines at the same time support Filipino restaurant owners,” Ambassador Wilfredo C Santos said yesterday.

A major community event will be held next month to mark the first anniversary of the initiative which will see the participation of Filipino restaurants in Qatar. Around 12 restaurants have already confirmed their involvement to the food festival which is in one of the biggest Filipino community events this year, said Rocky Lumicao, a member of Kulinarya core team.

Major Filipino brands which are present in Qatar including Jollibee, Gerry’s Grill, Max’s and Chow King are participating in the festival. It is the main focus of the programme to help promote small Filipino restaurants, noted Lumicao, adding there are about 35 Filipino restaurants in Qatar as per their record.

Titled “Kulinarya Qatar 2016, Filipino Community Family Day and Food Festival,” the event will be held from September 13 to 15 at The Westin Doha Hotel and Spa featuring the finals of the Junior Master Chef, Pasiklaban fruit carving competition and the search for Little Miss Kulinarya.

With the theme ‘Tightening the bond of Filipino community through food and culture, the three-day event will provide visitors a gastronomic journey into the diverse flavours of authentic Filipino cuisine, fun games and live performances by Filipino artistes.

Food sampling, cooking demonstrations, edutainment activities, workshops and talks on food quality and kitchen safety and health and fitness a will also highlight the event.

Coinciding with the Eid Al Adha holidays, the three-day event, which is organised by the United Filipino Entrepreneurs in Qatar (UFEQ), is expected to witness thousands of visitors.

Ambassador Santos said he was confident “the new leadership of Kulinarya will be able to achieve their objectives of advancing the interest of the our country here, the promotion of our cuisine through the holding of Filipino Family Community Family Day and Food Festival this September as part of Eid Al Adha celebrations.”

He said Kulinarya community events are being held as a means to bring people together as well as raise awareness on Filipino cuisine and to further promote Filipino food to other expatriate communities. He also revealed plans to organise Filipino food week in some hotels here. Media familiarisation tours will also be conducted to promote tourism to the Qatari community and other expatriate communities in Qatar.

A number of activities and events have been held in the run-up to next month’s event. They included “Iftar ng Bayan” and pre-event activities of Little Miss Kulinarya, Junior Master Chef and fruit carving contest. (Source)

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