The DOT-designed “Chefs’ Tour” last November 2019 brought international tastemakers, Charles Olalia, Lanai Tabura, and Tom Cunanan, from ‘Murica back home as a means of cultural immersion and exchange.
The Department of Tourism (DOT) has been tremendously busy of late cooking up targeted campaigns to spark tasty conversations both here and abroad. Lobbying a two-pronged approach, these campaigns not only highlight the success stories of Filipinos who have made it overseas, but also swivel the limelight on the exciting goings on right here at home. And when the narrative gets nostalgic, we are often reminded that the best things aren’t always inventive or newfangled but have been right under our noses all this while.
One such highly successful DOT foodie crusade was the recently concluded Chefs’ Tour, which brought three US-based restaurateur-chef personalities Charles Olalia, Lanai Tabura, and Tom Cunanan back to the Philippines, thereafter hailing them the new “food tourism ambassadors.”
The first edition of the project was conducted in January 2018. It spoke to the DOT’s ultimate goal of creating an army of culinary tourism ambassadors who will bear the Philippine flag through their creations, wherever their careers might be or take them.