Palacios triumphs in inaugural Chefs’ Cookoff

Damian Palacios plates his entry in the Chefs’ Cookoff contest at the 24th Annual Taste of the Marianas International Food Festival & Beer Garden in Garapan Fishing Base last Saturday. (KIMBERLY B. ESMORES)

The Northern Marianas Technical Institute, in collaboration with the Hotel Association for the NMI, closed out the 24th Annual Taste of the Marianas International Food Festival & Beer Garden with the inaugural Chefs’ Cookoff, which named Damian Palacios its first champion.

Palacios, who graduated from NMTech’s culinary arts program in 2018, made his competition debut last Saturday at the Taste of the Marianas during the inaugural NMTech/HANMI Chefs’ Cookoff.

Despite being new to the world of cooking competitions, Palacios stepped up to the plate and whipped up a traditional Chamorro Bisteak with a twist during last Saturday’s cookoff.

Despite going head to head with NMTech chefs who have made names for themselves working at some of the CNMI’s most prestigious hotels and restaurants, Palacios came out on top.

“This is my first competition. It was really hard, I’m not going to lie. I was really panicking for a second. But it was really fun overall,” he said.

Palacios, who works under chef Ben Babauta at the Tyler’s Gelatto and Bistro Boyz, says he looks forward to defending his title if he is given the opportunity next year.

While others paired their Chamorro Bisteak with some kind of rice, Palacios decided to feature this savory island staple dish on top of some garlic bread, hence the twist. Although it seemed unconventional for others, Palacios’ decision gave him the advantage as the creativity made his dish the most memorable for the panel of judges.

Jay Santos, general manager of Triple J Payless SuperFresh & Truckload Store and HANMI board member, who was one of the judges in this year’s competition, said he never thought of pairing Chamorro Bisteak with bread and turn the dish into a sandwich. He added that that was just one example of the skills honed by the chefs that come from NMTech.

“I’m extremely pleased this year, especially with the development of this rich pool of locals, that are honing their skills to be become chefs in our local hotels and restaurants. It’s been fabulous and we couldn’t be prouder of NMTech and what they’ve done for these individuals because the food was so good tonight,” he said.

Aside from Palacios, the other competitors were Jonathan Borja who took second place, third place winner Christian Manzanares, Donovan Castro, Antonette Cabrera, and Del Lieto.

NMTech alumni chef Ben Babauta stated that the inaugural event was a success.

“Tonight’s event was the first of its kind. It’s’ the first time NMTech has partnered with HANMI to produce this chefs’ competition here at Taste of the Marianas. All the participants are either past or present NMTech students. We decided to put together this event in collaboration with HANMI to showcase these chefs,” he said.

Babauta added that NMTech is happy with the event and is excited to come back to host another.

“We saw a lot of creative dishes and we were so happy to see them take what they learned in school, in their internships, and bring it here to the competition. They really showcased what skills they really developed. Overall, we are really happy with the turnout of this event. We are so grateful to Triple J for donating the Certified Angus beef and we’re grateful to HANMI for providing the cash prizes and really putting this event together. We also thank all our chefs who participated in this inaugural competition,” Babauta said.

NMTech will be launching its Baking and Pastry course come fall and Babauta encourages interested individuals to sign up.

“This is also our culinary outreach. What we want to showcase is what NMTech can do and what our students can do so we are advertising our upcoming Baking and Pastry and culinary arts courses that will be coming in the fall,” he said.

The final night of the 24th annual Taste of the Marianas had a number of special guests and awardees.

As a surprise, the Marianas Visitors Authority managed to get popular YouTube personality Fureum Kim, better known as “Fume” on YouTube, to participate in this year’s festivities as a judge in the chef cookoff. Babauta shared that it was an interesting twist.

“It was very interesting to have our first competition be judged by a well-known YouTube personality from South Korea just because the dish featured tonight was a traditional Chamorro Bisteak. It’s very interesting to get an outside perspective and she really can be a fair judge with a clean palate, knowing she’s never had this dish before,” he said.

In addition, thw MVA also featured visitors who came out to Saipan for the Oceania Athletics Championships during a brief awarding ceremony.

MVA managing director Chris Concepcion said this year’s event was a great turnout.

“It’s very exciting to be back here at MVA and it’s very exciting to celebrate the 24th annual Taste of the Marianas. It’s been a great turnout, a very successful four nights. We’re extremely happy with the turnout. I’m very happy to be back,” he said.

“Parking and crowd control was a challenge but overall we did our best to ensure that Taste is always an extremely safe, family-friendly festival. The community has come out in full force to support the vendors here. The lines have been really long for the vendors, which is good news for the economy, so we’re happy with that. Other than that, we didn’t have any major challenges,” Concepcion added.