Students, chef mentors battle it out at Araneta City's seafood showdown
Students and their chef mentors faced off at Araneta City's Farmers Market seafood showdown on Aug. 22 — part of a month-long festival with seafood menus, movie screenings and citywide deals through Aug. 31.
LIFE
Raymond Cardiño
8/24/20263 min read
Dampa at Farmers Market turned into a working kitchen on Aug. 22. Stoves, prep tables and baskets produce sat in the middle of the market floor, and diners eating their own seafood lunch ended up with a front-row seat to the Farmers Market Culinary Showdown: Seafood Edition, the centerpiece of Araneta City's month-long Seafood Festival.
Chef Nathaniel Uy and Binibining Pilipinas 2026 2nd runner-up Tracy Mae Sunio hosted. Three teams competed, each pairing a professional chef with culinary students:
Team A: Chef Miguel "Miggy" Moreno, a Michelin Guide 2026 Bib Gourmand awardee, with students from Our Lady of Fatima University
Team B: Novotel Manila and ibis Styles Manila executive chefs Rhenner Alair and Athena Tuble, with students from World City Colleges
Team C: Celebrity Chef Sharwin Tee, with students from Jose Rizal University
Chefs Kalel Chan, Jocen Villongco, Roberto Pengson, Gale Tan Sun, and Ms. Jon Buenaflor judged, with a few Dampa vendors pulled in to guide teams through the second round.
Two rounds, an hour of cook time each. Round one gave teams a secret ingredient and told them to build a dish around it. Round two was a shopping trip — ₱2,000 and 20 minutes to buy ingredients inside the market itself, with only three people allowed on the run per team: the chef, one student and a Farmers Market vendor rep steering them through the stalls. The three had to stay together the whole time.
What made it worth watching wasn't just the format. It was a full working kitchen dropped into the middle of an actual market, chefs coaching students through live pressure, and dishes that changed shape entirely depending on what each team grabbed off the market stalls. A few students who looked visibly nervous at the start were plating with steadier hands by round two — whatever the mentors were doing in between rounds was working.
(L-R) Team B - Chefs Tuble and Alair and WCC students win Most IG-Worthy Dish; Team C - Chef Tee and JRU students win Most Innovative Dish; Team A - Chef Moreno and OLFU students were crowned Champions
Team A took the win. Team B's plate got voted most Instagram-worthy. Team C left with most innovative dish.
The cook-off is just one piece of it, though. Araneta City is running the seafood theme across the district all August, with different spots hosting their own leg of it.
Catch a seafood-themed double feature at Gateway Cineplex
"SEA-nema: A Reel Catch" pairs the films "Flow" and "Food Delivery: Fresh From the West Philippine Sea" at a discounted rate, running through Aug. 31.
Try the new seafood spot at Gateway Mall 2
Seafood 8 by Olio's soft-launched Aug. 8 on the ground floor of Gateway Mall 2.
Try Pizza Hut's Araneta City-exclusive pizza
Pizza Hut's Shrimp Supreme Pizza is sold only at Araneta City branches through Aug. 31.
Get the seafood pairing menu at ibis Styles Manila
Le Bistro, on Level 5 of ibis Styles Manila Araneta City, is serving "A Fin-Tastic Feast," a seafood menu paired with Dilmah tea, daily from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. through Aug. 31.
Hit the sustainable seafood buffet at Novotel Manila
Novotel Manila Araneta City is holding "Plates for the Planet: A Sustainable Seafood Feast" at Food Exchange Manila on Aug. 29, a responsibly sourced seafood buffet. The Gourmet Bar by Novotel is also serving a Salmon Lime Teriyaki that day only.
Track down seafood deals citywide
"Hunt the SEA-ty" runs through August, with participating restaurants around Araneta City offering their own seafood deals. Araneta City's social pages have the running list.
The seafood festival is the first in what Araneta City says will be a series of themed, month-long festivals across the district, which has more than 350 dining outlets.