My City, My SM, My Cuisine Cookbook wins 2 Gourmand Awards

The My City, My SM, My Cuisine cookbook recently won two Gourmand World Cookbook Awards during recent ceremonies in Yantai, China.

The Prestige Award of by the International Jury qualified the My City, My SM, My Cuisine cookbook to be among Gourmand’s Best in the World. This year’s awards drew more than 12,000 entries from 205 countries.

The book was honored with a Prestige Award by the International Jury, and placed third in the Local Cuisine category, qualifying it to be among Gourmand’s Best in the World.

Founded in 1995 by Edouard Cointreau, the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards is sometimes described as the Oscars of Food Awards.  It celebrates cookbook and wine publishing, and features many renowned chefs every year.

This year’s awards drew more than 12,000 entries from 205 countries.  “It is a big success to be in the list,” says Gourmand Awards President Edouard Cointreau.  “The quantity and quality of entries has reached a new high this year.”

“A total of 205 countries participated in the Gourmand Awards,” he adds. “All the books listed are truly excellent in very different ways.”  If Mr. Cointreau’s name sounds familiar, he was born in the family of Cointreau liquor on his father’s side, and Remy Martin and Cognac Frapin on his mother’s side.

A celebration of Philippine regional cuisine, the book is a compilation of the My City, My SM, My Cuisine campaign that SM spearheaded from 2012-2013 in key cities around the Philippines where SM has malls.  A joint project with the Philippine Star, the campaign had more than 20 stops in SM’s host cities as far north as Baguio and as far south as Davao.

Gourmand Awards President Edouard Cointreau with SM Senior Vice President for Marketing Millie Dizon during the awarding ceremonies.

Published by SM through People Asia, the book has a special focus on heirloom recipes, a treasure trove of culinary gems from prominent families from each city.  In Iloilo, Tibong Jardeleza, Eugene Jamerlan and Maridel Uygongco shared their wonderful stories, and their prized family recipes – Lengua Con Setas Con Olivas, Estofado nga Pato sa Tuba, and Potato Praline Cake and YSL (a version of fried ibos), respectively.

Some of these families had heroes for ancestors, and their descendants happily shared the favorite recipes of General Emilio Aguinaldo, Dr. Jose Rizal, Marcelo H. del Pilar, and Mariano Ponce; as well as that of food historian Mila Enriquez.

Food is also culture, and the book also highlights community cuisine from the Cordilleras, the Aetas of Olongapo, the Manobo and Maranao of Davao, the T’boli of GenSan, as well as Barangay Iponan from Cagayan de Oro.

The My City, My SM, My Cuisine book is available at Kultura Filipino stores at SM Aura Premier, SM Makati, the SM Mall of Asia, and SM Megamall.