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Belmont Mactan holds 24-hands dinner for Cebu Food and Wine Festival

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Text and photos by Jeeves de Veyra

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="Jeeves de Veyra" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2023/life/06/29/20230629-belmont-mactan-via-jeeves-de-veyra-t.jpg"/><figcaption>Megaworld Hotels &amp; Resorts (MHR) managing director Cleofe Albiso, and MHR cluster general manager for food &amp; beverage Socrates Alvaro are flanked by the Culinary Council chefs. <em>Jeeves de Veyra</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>CEBU -- Filipino hotel chain Megaworld Hotels &amp; Resorts (MHR) brought together all of its chefs for La Meza De Cebu - The Modern Filipino Table - Cebu Edition, a special 24-hands dinner, at its newest property Belmont Hotel Mactan in its Mactan Newtown township in Cebu.</p><p>This isn’t the first offering of this kind as Richmonde Hotel Iloilo has offered La Meza Ilonggo since last year. The aim of the La Meza dinners is to display the creativity of the chef by showcasing local flavors and elevating the experience.</p><p>For La Meza De Cebu, Belmont Hotel Mactan executive chef Paolo Aviso conceptualized a menu that aims to bring guests on a culinary tour around Cebu, highlighting ingredients and recipes from different barangays. It was up to the other chefs to interpret and execute the entrees in the lineup.</p><p>This was Belmont Hotel Mactan’s special event for the 3rd Cebu Food and Wine Festival. MHR scheduled its F&amp;B Culinary Council Conference to coincide with the festival, and thus made this display of culinary prowess possible.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/life/06/01/23/cebu-food-and-wine-festival-returns-with-more-chefs-events">Cebu Food and Wine Festival returns with more chefs, events</a></li></ul><p>According to MHR managing director Cleofe Albiso , the group&#x27;s properties were mostly used as quarantine hotels during the pandemic and their F&amp;B teams served quarantine food day in and day out. The council was created last year to motivate and inspire the kitchens to move beyond the quarantine menus and rediscover their creativity. They meet regularly to continuously improve service standards as well as what the properties can offer moving forward.</p><p>The hotel group has grand plans for the near future including opening the all-new Chancellor hotel in the Boracay Newcoast township and the massive 1,500-room Grand Westside Hotel in Entertainment City Manila that will be the largest hotel in the country when it opens.</p><p>In the meantime, watch out for entrees from the F&amp;B council to be offered at all MHR properties</p><p>“When you eat at one of our properties, you don’t just get the food of one chef. You get food from 12 chefs,” Cleofe Albiso said.</p><p>Here are the MHR Culinary Council’s La Meza De Cebu culinary creations:</p><div class="media-content"><div class="slider-for"><div><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2023/life/06/29/20230629-belmont-mactan-via-jeeves-de-veyra-1.jpg"/></div><div><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2023/life/06/29/20230629-belmont-mactan-via-jeeves-de-veyra-2.jpg"/></div><div><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2023/life/06/29/20230629-belmont-mactan-via-jeeves-de-veyra-3.jpg"/></div><div><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2023/life/06/29/20230629-belmont-mactan-via-jeeves-de-veyra-4.jpg"/></div><div><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2023/life/06/29/20230629-belmont-mactan-via-jeeves-de-veyra-5.jpg"/></div><div><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2023/life/06/29/20230629-belmont-mactan-via-jeeves-de-veyra-6.jpg"/></div><div><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2023/life/06/29/20230629-belmont-mactan-via-jeeves-de-veyra-7.jpg"/></div><div><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2023/life/06/29/20230629-belmont-mactan-via-jeeves-de-veyra-8.jpg"/></div><div><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2023/life/06/29/20230629-belmont-mactan-via-jeeves-de-veyra-9.jpg"/></div></div><div class="media-content slider-desc"><div class="item-desc"><p>Chef Marlon Tibay from Hotel Richmond Ortigas took diners to Carcar with his Lechon Cebu Arancini dressed up with pasyote aioli and Mang Tomas pearls.</p></div><div class="item-desc"><p>From Richmonde Hotel in Iloilo comes chef Jose Ariel Castañeda Jr.&#x27;s take on casajos. This is like carabao jerky from Northern Cebu but made with dried and smoked USDA beef with garlic confit and kesong puti.</p></div><div class="item-desc"><p>Kingsford Manila’s chef Chubby Timban puts saang (spider conch) from the shores of Mactan, ngohiong meatballs, and crispy egg noodles in this striking bowl of laksa.</p></div><div class="item-desc"><p>Candied labtingaw, or smoked fish from Bantayan Island, paired with Cebu mangoes give Savoy Manila chef Kit Carpio’s salad a unique sweet-salty spin.</p></div><div class="item-desc"><p>Host Belmont Hotel Mactan’s own chef Paolo Aviso’s sutukil was the first main dish -- grilled durado fish with a kinilaw coconut cream dressing and a side of mais rice stewed in tinola shots and uni.</p></div><div class="item-desc"><p>Chefs Rassel Joy Adagan and Paul Dane Aligaen from Savoy and Belmont in Boracay served up a refreshing limoncito sorbet to prepare for the second main.</p></div><div class="item-desc"><p>Chef Coke Semblante from Savoy Hotel Mactan had an inventive interpretation of balbacua with USDA ribeye steak sauced with balbacua gravy with notes of liver from tuslob buwa foam. The kamote dauphinoise and pistachio bits made for a rounded dish.</p></div><div class="item-desc"><p>The first of the desserts -- Eastwood Richmonde Hotel chef Pete Paluga’s Lupa ng Cebu -- was a rather clever way of representing the sandy beaches of Mactan with crushed polvoron, edible white chocolate “limestone” and masareal.</p></div><div class="item-desc"><p>Chef Edge Antonio from Twin Lakes Hotel in Tagaytay bookended the dinner with his sailboat-like dish of Cebu pasalubong favorites -- torta, pintos streussel, tablea, and bukayo.</p></div></div></div><div><strong>Related video:</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=2699972" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div>

For La Meza De Cebu, Belmont Hotel Mactan conceptualized a menu to bring guests on a culinary tour around Cebu, highlighting ingredients and recipes from different barangays. 