MAGGI, DepEd, and Nestlé Wellness Campus stage live finals of Sarap Sustansya Cook Off

MAGGI the kitchen ally of Filipino homecooks, and the Nestlé Wellness Campus, the flagship health and wellness education program of Nestlé Philippines, in partnership with the Department of Education (DepEd), today held the grand finals of the Sarap Sustansya Cook Off among eight finalists representing public junior high schools across Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. 

The Sarap Sustansya Cook Off is an inter-school, inter-region cooking competition for students in Grades 7 to 10 that advocates the goodness of homecooked meals and eating food that is both delicious and nutritious. 

“MAGGI hopes to inspire students to choose healthier food options while instilling in them a deep appreciation for cooking as an essential life skill,” said Rosalyn Simba, Business Executive Officer – Food and Dairy Culinary, Nestle Philippines. “By making their experience more interactive, this program has helped participants become more engaged in learning about key nutritional concepts like balance, moderation and variety, as well as more complex lessons like budget-keeping, food sustainability and cooking with creativity.”

Starting kids young on the art and science of cooking healthy and tasty meals

Each team is comprised of three students and one teacher-coach from the school. In the Division level, the challenge was to create a dish that best captures the sarap sustansya concept, ideally made with vegetables harvested from their school’s Gulayan sa Paaralan or their home. This dish, including dessert, must be enough for four people and cost no more than 500 pesos. Today, in the finals, teams will be tasked to create a full menu with a protein, vegetables and carbohydrates, along with dessert and beverage for a family of four and a budget of 1,000 pesos and within 90 minutes. 

“This exercise teaches kids the value of making meals more economical by choosing affordable and readily accessible ingredients,” added Simba. “The real skill is in how they transform simple ingredients into magical dishes that their whole family will enjoy.”

As part of the competition, participating students, along with their parent and coach-teacher, took inspiration from the MAGGI Sarap Sustansya Kusinaskwela videos on YouTube, where they learned about meal planning, “palengke” tips and adding efficiency in the kitchen. They also featured the Go, Grow, Glow food groups following the Pinggang Pinoy recommendations of the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) in their entries. 

Rewards that go beyond prizes

Teams who qualified for the finals also underwent a unique mentorship session with renowned chefs in their regions. Hotel and resort F&B veteran Chef Denver Generosa mentored teams from Calabrzon and NCR, Chef Carla Altea mentored teams from Bicol and Western Visayas, restaurant expert Chef Mark Manlapaz mentored Central and Eastern Visayas teams while Chef Anne mentored Davao and Northern Mindanao teams. During the mentorship, students learn more about food handling and cooking techniques to help drive their creativity and kitchen confidence.

But for these eight teams, the stakes are truly high with the champion slated to receive Php 75,000 worth of prizes that are essential in creating a complete kitchen such as cooking range, refrigerator, food processor, mixer, microwave oven, cooking equipment and kitchen tools. Second and third place winners received Php 60,000 and Php 50,000 worth of prizes respectively.

Now armed with a wider knowledge of how to cook with sarap and sustansya, these junior high students are proving that enjoying a balanced meal on a limited budget can be as easy as child’s play.