Sugbuanong Ani, a project by the Cebu Provincial Tourism Office that aims to connect small producers to big hotels and chefs, giving homage to the people’s organization whose farm produce and fish catch are their main source of livelihood. The event also pays tribute to the ordinary men and women in farms and artisanal fishermen in municipal waters. This is move that validates and solidifies the realization of the Cebu Province’s Key Development Agenda in Tourism.
This year, with the theme Taking Cebuano Cuisine Globally, Golden Prince Hotel and Suites had participated and aimed on elevating the Cebuano Heritage pieces we had inherited from our ancestors, that distinct and succinct flavor formulas that kept our cuisine alive. The inclusion of locally available ingredients and sticking to the distinct cooking techniques that characterize Cebuano cuisine while giving it a modern twist somehow made us fitting to showcase our own flair.
Our dishes served during the event all boil down to three things, authenticity, flavor and uniqueness. We worked day in and day out to conserve and capture these three qualities in our food. Borrowing the words from our Provincial Tourism, to quote, “It is no tthe authenticity of the food served here, but question of authenticity — the otherness — which sustains conversation, reflection and comparison. It is in the strangeness of the novelty, the unfamiliar familiar, where culinary tourism becomes alive.” Also, we made sure that the local flavors of Tablea and Pintos as well as the well loved Cebu Lechon gets the spotlight and enhances the entire spread.
We had been influenced to be on the go always, often forgetting the memories of good food shared with family and friends. In this event, we aim to make our guests remember how it is to be feasting on excellent, authentic Cebuano food with friends, while never forgetting why culuinary tourism exists at our very core as Cebuanos. We aimed that our guests during Sugbuanong Ani 2 will beam with pride as a Cebuano and as someone who embodies uniqueness with being blessed with an abundance of culinary tradition here in our island paradise.