Luke Who's Cooking?

I truly missed a great opportunity when Marco Polo Hotel, through its PR Consultant Lani Echavez, invited some media friends to a hands-on cooking demonstration by Executive Chef Luke Gagnon.

It was a whole day activity that started at 10 in the morning with the group composed of The Freeman and Philippine Star' Honey Loop, Cebu Daily News' Aissa de la Cruz, Sunstar's Cookie Newman and CDN's Thea Rinen, hopping from one grocery to another to purchase the ingredients needed for the full menu dinner. Christian Purisima, the hotel's Assistant F&B Manager, meticulously picked four kinds of wine to match the menu.

The group then trooped to Marco Polo's Cafe Marco for lunch before proceeding to the main activity, the Cooking Demo, which was scheduled at 1:30 p.m.

Chef Luke J. Gagnon who is Canadian-born, is truly an expert in the culinary field with vast experience in some of the world's best restaurants and hotel chains such as the Golden Mushroom Restaurant, The Sutton Place Hotel Kempinski, The Westin Harbor Castle Hotel, Excelsior Hotel Hongkong, The Hongkong Hotel, The Shangri-la Hotel Shenzen, Shangri-la Mactan Island Resort and the Casino Windsor in Ontario, Canada.

Although I missed doing the grocery and lunch, because of previous commitments, I was able to make it to the finale -- DINNER, the time when everyone who weren't able to make it earlier, got to experience the food Honey, Aissa, Cookie and Thea prepared the whole afternoon with Chef Luke.

The dinner menu consisted of Vodka-cured salmon with pickled apple, pan-seared duck raviole on gingered beetroot, white asparagus soup with lobster and morel flan, Sake and white miso marinated red snapper and coffee tart with sherbet and brandy snap.

It was truly a feast and I doff my hat to my colleagues in media who definitely did a good job! And of course, to Chef Luke!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!