Food Heritage of Antique Project: Advocating Use of Local Produce in F&B Industry

It was my first time to experience a five-star hotel chef cooking gourmet food using local produce right in front of me . It was like those "Wolfgang-Puck-cooking-show" on TV where a celebrity cooks for the audience.

The event dubbed as Food Heritage of Antique Project, held at the Advance Central College (ACC) Annex, was by invitation only and had this exclusive ambiance.

Mr. Rani Rodriguez, President of ACC in San Jose, Antique, organized the said event to increase knowledge of his students on various techniques of food preparation using local produce and also to promote use of local produce among local restaurateurs.

He has invited over Chef Aurora "Babes" Austria for the Project. 

According to this article,  Chef Babes is a former Malacañang Palace Executive Chef. She was  a budget and finance expert, a CPA with a degree in law, she held the post as Finance Director of the Department of Social Welfare and Development under the leadership of then Vice President Gloria Arroyo. She is also a retired executive chef of Taal Vista Hotel and is now a food consultant for the SM Hotel group.

Chef Babes emphasized that the local restaurateurs could help the local economy by buying local produce (such as the moscovado, coconut vinegar, fish and vegetable produce, tableya) for their menu.

As Chef Babes shared her techniques while cooking, she said that aside from helping the local economy it is also a social responsibility to serve healthy food to your clients by removing unwanted fats (beef fats in broth) or avoiding artificial additives in ingredients (citric acid in commercial vinegar).

After the cooking demonstrations, guests, selected students and ACC faculties sampled the Chef's masterpieces for lunch which includes: Tanguige ceviche using local coconut vinegar and malunggay flowers; Fresh shredded sayote salad with dried salted shrimp (locally known as kalkag) and passion fruit - honey vinaigrette; Antique batwan lechon; Baked chicken with alupidan (vine which serves as host of rafflessia) leaves; Ensaladang talong using local coconut vinegar; Gaway-gaway (katuray) salad; Seafood paella; Deep-fried pinindang, Gourmet KBL (kadyos, baboy, langka); Baked fish (dorado) with bell pepper and native tomatoes; Garlic bread with fried dilis with olives, katuray and native tomato; Fried dilis and ray (locally known as pagi).

Thank you Sir Rani and congratulations for the successful conduct of the Food Heritage of Antique Project with Chef Babes Austria.

It was an awesome experience!

Baked Chicken with Alupidan Leaves

Fried Dilis and Pagi garnished with native tomatoes

Garlic bread topped with anchovies (dilis), olive, slice of native tomato and gaway-gaway

Deep Fried Pinindang

Fifth from left is Chef Babes Austria.

Fish (Dorado) with native tomatoes and bell peppers

Gaway-Gaway Salad

Tanguige Civiche

Antique Batwan Lechon

Seafood Paella

Suman Using Local Tableya

Sayote Salad with Dried Fish (Kalkag)

Ensaladang Talong

*Some bits of wisdom picked up from Chef Babes (translated and/or paraphrased):

"From the soil to the plate." 

"When mixing with acid, such as vinegar, do not use metal mixing bowl. Use plastic, ceramic or glass. If you use metal, the food will taste metallic. This is a basic in culinary school. "

"

DOT holds tour package dev't and delivery seminar

"Antique should move from awareness to selling," said Atty. Helen Catalbas, Regional Director of the Department of Tourism  VI.

Atty. Catalbas also said that hopefully by the end of the  seminar-workshop, participants will be able to put together a travel itinerary for Antique that is salable to the market.


Statistics  have shown that Antique is the least visited Province in Western Visayas. The Province tourism industry has been lackluster despite its proximity to world-renowned Boracay and Iloilo City. 

In line with this thrust, DOT VI with DOT Office of Tourism Standards and Regulations and  held a two-day tour package development and delivery seminar-workshop on January 28-29, 2014.

Mr. Bien Claravall, a  noted professor from the University of the Philippines Diliman Asian Institute of Tourism and writer of tourism textbook Travel and Tour Operations in the Philippines was the resource speaker.

The seminar-workshop was attended by tourism front liners from the local government units and private sector tourism from all over the Province.

Event was held in Adelaide Tourist and Travellers Inn, a DOT-Accredited establishment in the capital town of San Jose de Buenavista .

Baby green sea turtles released back to sea

 Baby green sea turtles were released backed to the sea in San Jose de Buenavista.

The first batch of was released on the evening of September 19 and another batch of more or less 37 green sea turtles was released evening of September 23 at the Marine Protected Area, Brgy. Funda-Dalipe of the town.

The first batch of green sea turtles was born in Brgy. Durog sometime July of this year.  Barangay officials notified the Local Environment and Natural Resources Officer Cornelius Yanga about the event. In cooperation with the municipal government, the barangay made sure that the eggs survived until they hatched.

On September 18, 68 hatchlings were removed from their nest in Brgy. Durog and were taken to the MPA and were released.

The second batch was from Funda-Dalipe where a green sea turtle laid its egg under a house also sometime in July.






Municipal Environment Code has declared the shores of Madrangca up to Durog as turtle sanctuary.

San Jose dB, DOT train site guides for town's main attractions

The local government of San Jose de Buenavista in partnership with the Department of Tourism (DOT) conducted a tourist reception and basic tour guiding techniques seminar.

According to DOT, The seminar was designed to develop and improve the performance of front-liners in rendering first rate professional service in the tourism industry.

Moreover, the LGU hopes to improve the service in its main tourist attractions - Farmville and the Marine Protected Area especially the Coastal Resource Management (CRM) Mini Galley.

Farmville is an LGU-owned demo farm for integrated organic farming, which offers tour, lectures and training on organic farming techniques.

The CRM Mini Galley offers discovery tour of the marine ecosystem and environmental protection and conservation while the Marine Protected Area is open for snorkeling activities thru the CRM Mini Galley.

Participants from allied services such as accommodation establishments and souvenir/ craft shop also attended the training.

On the last day of the training, a mock tour was conducted to assess the compentency of the participants.

Mayor Rony Molina hopes to conduct tourist reception training to tricycle and jeepney drivers in the Municipality. 

MPA Center: There's something new this summer

DTI holds Tourism Business-to-Business Forum

The Department of Trade and Industry-Antique put together a Business-to-Business (B2B) Forum for tourism entrepreneurs from Central and Southern Antique.

B2B is a transactions between businesses or enterprises.

In the tourism supply chain there are many B2B transactions involving  sub-components and raw materials.

In the forum, DTI-Antique shared the result of Value Chain Analysis for tourism of the Province conducted by SDC Asia for the International Labor Organization.



Ritche Jermia, Tourism Officer of Tibiao, also updated attendees with recent tourism developments in the Northern Antique (encompass municipalities of Tibiao, Culasi, Pandan, Sebaste and Libertad) especially in their municipality of Tibiao.


The activity aims to strengthen the link between tourism enterprises in Antique.

What is in San Jose de Buenavista tourism industry?

What is in San Jose de Buenavista, Antique when we talk about tourism? Is there something for the Municipality in tourism? Wat needs to be done to encourage tourism in the Municipality?

These were the the questions the municipal LGU of San Jose de Buenavista, Antique is trying to answer in a multi-stakeholder workshop.

In attendance in the workshop were industry players - accommodation, food and beverage service, resort, transportation and souvenir sectors; local government decision-makers – planning officer, municipal engineer, investment promotion officer, sangguniang bayan members, barangay official, disaster manager; provincial government; academe; support agencies – Department of Trade and Industry; and local chamber of commerce.

This activity aims to were convened to determine the tourism direction of the town.

It is expected that after the workshop, the LGU will be able to come up a Municipal Tourism Development Plan and a Municipal Tourism Code.

Mayor Rony L. Molina, in his message stressed the importance of the multi-sectoral planning workshop so that the development effort of the private and public sector is synchronized.

San Jose de Buenavista is the capital town of the Province of Antique and is the center of trade, commerce and finance of the Province. It is the center of provincial government/ administration.

It serves as the tourism service center of the Province. It offers an array of conveniences, supplies and support facilities to visitors such as restaurants, fastfood stores, grocery and shopping stores, gaming and gambling establishments, banks and transport terminals. It also offers venue and infrastructure for various events such as sports competitions, meetings, trainings and seminars, and weddings and tourism activities like shopping and dining.

In the workshop, stakeholders sees that San Jose de Buenavista could capitalize on the available infrastructure, amenities and services to expand the business tourism market to MICE (meetings, incentives, conference and events/ exhibitions).


San Jose de Buenavista has been one of the pioneering LGUs in the Philippines in the Developing Tourism Statistics for Local Government Units project of the Department of Tourism (DOT) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

It has been chosen as one of the presenter in the 1st National Tourism Statistics Conference (pictures album 1, album 2) held in Manila, February this year.


The local Planning and Development Office hopes that the Municipality will serve as model for other LGUs wanting to engage in tourism but sees little hope for the industry in their locality.

San Jose dB conducts Digital Literacy Tutorial for Women Entrepreneurs

A free digital literacy tutorial was conducted in San Jose de Buenavista Community eCenter for entrepreneurs from the tourism sector.

Through this digital literacy tutorial the local government unit hopes that the entrepreneurs will be equipped with skills to access market through the internet.

 Participants of the tutorial session were women entrepreneurs managing accommodation establishment or restaurant in San Jose de Buenavista. These entrepreneurs were looking forward that through the use of the internet they will be able to improve their business operations and sales.

The digital literacy module includes introduction to computer and operating system, introduction to internet and email and special topics on e-business/e-marketing.

The digital literacy tutorial aptly coincides with the celebration of the National ICT Month with the theme “ICT: Enabling Dreams.” 

Output Sample 1 and Sample 2.

Tiringbanay Festival 2012