THE conclusion of this year’s Taste of the Marianas international food festival on Saturday, May 25 at American Memorial Park was highlighted by Antonette Cabrera taking home the top prize in the 2nd Annual HANMI-NMTech Pastry Chef Competition. She beat seven other teams in a lantiyas-making contest.
The competition was a way to show the community what is available at the Northern Marianas Technical Institute, said its marketing coordinator, Ben Babauta.
“This is NMTech’s promotion to launch the baking and pastry and culinary arts program to entice the community, and to show that these skills can be learned at NMTech,” he said.
Official regulations stated that each participating individual chef or duo had to create a half pan of lantiyas — a traditional Chamorro dessert — and prepare the dish on site at the festival grounds. The competition organizers provided the basic ingredients for the dish, including sponge cake and cookies.
The competition featured three “mystery” ingredients. Babauta said the chefs knew they had a surprise awaiting them during the competition, and were not told what the secret ingredients were until the day of the competition. These were mango, calamansi lime, and agar agar, a gelatin substitute.
Dish appearance, taste, texture, and work area sanitation counted toward the total awarded points.
Antonette Cabrera described her winning dish as a traditional lantiyas made with the “best sponge cake” from Hafa Adai Bakery.
She said the agar agar was mixed with the vanilla curd that was soaked up by the lantiyas cake. A calamansi and mango mixture was incorporated into the dish as well.
For her victory, Cabrera took home $750. In second place was Damian Palacios, who won $500. Tied for third place were Dellina Lieto and the pair of Zyrhone Gapor and Frankie Ramon who split the $250 prize.
Palacios said he had to experiment with “basic” lantiyas recipes he found online before joining the competition. For his entry, he made a syrup of mango and calamansi and then added it to the sponge cake, topping it with lantiyas cream mixed with agar agar and cinnamon.
Lieto made a mango and calamansi topping, and sprinkled Marie biscuits on top of her lantiyas cream, which, like those of her fellow competitors’ entries, incorporated agar agar.
‘Record-breaking’
At the conclusion of the Taste of the Marianas, which was held every Saturday in May, Marianas Visitors Authority Managing Director Chris Concepcion said sales appear to be “record-breaking.” He added that the final count had yet to be completed, but the tentative figures looked positive.
“It’s been amazing. We tracked revenue and we’re very excited and pleased with the turnout. Community support is there, the support of the tourism industry is there. So we’re very happy with the turnout,” Concepcion said.
He noted that demand from South Korea and Hong Kong is “picking up” for the summer months.
But he said the CNMI will need at least 500,000 total visitors a year to “break even,” repeating a point made by the Hotel Association of the NMI and the Saipan Chamber of Commerce.
In 2023, a total of 215,543 tourists visited the CNMI. In 2019, prior to the pandemic, the Commonwealth recorded 487,008 tourist arrivals. For 2024, the forecast is about 300,000 arrivals.
“That amount of arrivals is what we need for the industry to stabilize,” Concepcion said. “We need to hit that number [500,000] ASAP. The challenge with that is we need a third source market that’s going to fill that void.”
He said the CNMI should develop the Hong Kong, China, and Taiwan markets.
Currently, almost all of the tourists visiting the CNMI are from South Korea. Prior to the pandemic, the islands had three main source markets: South Korea, China and Japan.
From right, Antonette Cabrera, Damian Palacios, Frankie Ramon, Dellina Lieto, and Zyrhone Gapor.
Antonette Cabrera prepares her lantiyas at the 2nd Annual HANMI-NMTech Pastry Chef Competition.
Antonette Cabrera reacts with surprise and happiness when she learns she is the top chef at the 2nd Annual HANMI-NMTech Pastry Chef Competition.
Zyrhone Gapor and Frankie Ramon are hard at work at their station during the lantiyas competition.
Judges sample one of the lantiyas prepared especially for the competition.
Northern Marianas Technical Institute students participate in the 2nd Annual HANMI-NMTech Pastry Chef Competition.
