PHILIPPINE food diplomacy is making a mark in Canada as Filipino street food took center stage and bagged a culinary win in Ottawa this week.<\/p>\n
The Philippine Embassy in Canada, represented by Filipino chef David Vinoya and chef Jan Michael Co, won the Judges\u2019 Award at the 2026 YMCA Embassy Chef Showcase held in the Canadian capital on April 16.<\/p>\n
The Philippines put a spotlight on \u201cKanto\u201d or street corner-themed Filipino cuisine, offering judges a curated selection of Filipino favorites from beef tapa barbecue, chicken inasal barbecue, longganisa barbecue, pork barbecue and achara (pickled papaya) \u2014 collectively presented as \u201cD\u2019 Original Mang David\u2019s BBQ.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did not only want Ottawa to get a taste of Philippine street food. We wanted to let Ottawa experience how Filipinos end their work days, whether waiting in Cubao for their buses or jeepneys, or going home to their barangay, by eating comfort food at grill stations very much like D\u2019 Original Mang David\u2019s BBQ,\u201d Philippine Ambassador to Canada Jose Victor Chan-Gonzaga said on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The YMCA Embassy Chef Showcase brought together 15 countries, represented by their missions, each presenting their nations\u2019 signature dishes.<\/p>\n
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By signing up with an email address, I acknowledge that I have read and agree to the Terms of Service<\/a> and Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n At the awarding, the panel of judges,\u00a0chaired by world-renowned Canadian cookbook author Margaret Dickenson, recognized the Philippine entry for its \u201cexcellence in execution, presentation, taste\u00a0and\u00a0creativity.\u201d<\/p>\n The Philippine booth featured an elevated presentation of Filipino street food, blending tradition with modern aesthetics, featuring Filipino everyday spices.<\/p>\n The experience was further enriched by \u201cLove the Philippines\u201d tourism campaign visuals, including posters and video presentations that showcased the country\u2019s cultural and culinary heritage.The embassy said the Philippine booth attracted \u201csignificant attention throughout the event, quickly becoming one of its main attractions, with long lines of guests eager to sample the Philippines\u2019 offerings.\u201d<\/p>\n This opportunity to highlight the Philippines\u2019 culinary traditions, it added, is timely as it celebrates Filipino Food Month and Filipino Restaurant Month in Canada this April.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILIPPINE food diplomacy is making a mark in Canada as Filipino street food took center stage and bagged…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12777,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[6993,423,6994,61,720,2353],"class_list":{"0":"post-12776","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ottawa","8":"tag-filipino","9":"tag-food","10":"tag-judges","11":"tag-ottawa","12":"tag-street","13":"tag-wins"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}