{"id":253299,"date":"2017-05-30T06:06:24","date_gmt":"2017-05-29T20:06:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=253299"},"modified":"2017-05-30T06:06:24","modified_gmt":"2017-05-29T20:06:24","slug":"hyatt-wins-first-place-junior-chef-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/hyatt-wins-first-place-junior-chef-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"Hyatt wins first place in junior chef competition"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Participating<\/a>
Participating chefs in the annual Chefs Competition last Saturday included, from left, Imperial Pacific Resort\u2019s Shivji Sasidharan, Hyatt Regency Saipan\u2019s Tony Agulto, Grandvrio Resort\u2019s Richard Meimban, Fiesta Resort & Spa Saipan\u2019s Vicente Montoya, Kanoa Resort\u2019s Sonny Encarnacion, and Mariana Resort and Spa\u2019s Roding Domingo. (Erwin Encinares)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hyatt Regency Saipan\u2019s Tony Agulto placed first in the annual certified Angus beef Chefs Competition last Saturday during the final leg of the 19th Taste of the Marianas Festival at Garapan Fishing Base.<\/p>\n

Agulto, 25, was guided by Hyatt executive sous chef Zenn Tomokane for the competition. He prepared a dish that revolved around local produce such as plantains, sweet potato, and breadfruit along with a mango vinegar rub made from scratch. Agulto cooked steak with a chip medley and a tomato and passion fruit salsa.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a local style dish and I wanted to show what you could do with the ingredients from the farmers market in Garapan,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Agulto\u2019s dish was inspired by the flavors that were within his reach. \u201cThe idea to utilize local fruits and vegetables was mine and everybody\u2019s idea from the beginning. [Everything] was local except for the steak,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Agulto has been with Hyatt for three years and has been in the industry for about six years already. <\/p>\n

Agulto won $500 as first placer, Kanoa Resort\u2019s Sonny Encarnacion, 24, won $300 as second placer, and Fiesta Resort & Spa Saipan\u2019s Vicente Montoya won $200 as third placer.<\/p>\n

Judging the dishes were Iliana Pacheco of Triple J, Samantha Nuyda of iHop, and Ken Stewart, the \u201cGuam Food Guy.\u201d When it came to judging, Pacheco and Nuydan agreed that there were a few standouts in the group.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of them had good plating,\u201d said Nuyda.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of them had different presentations with the beef and there are certainly a few chefs that stood out. A few chefs perfectly cooked it, melt-in-your-mouth goodness,\u201d said Pacheco. <\/p>\n

According to Stewart, Saipan has always been coming up with the most creative and original dishes.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The participants] knew what kind of meat they were working with, but everyone came up with something totally different, so I found it very difficult to judge because all of them were splendid,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Six hotels participated in the cookoff, including Imperial Pacific Resort, Mariana Resort and Spa, Fiesta Resort & Spa Saipan, Kanoa Resort, Hyatt Regency Saipan, and Grandvrio Resort. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hyatt Regency Saipan\u2019s Tony Agulto placed first in the annual certified Angus beef Chefs Competition…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":253303,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[233,448,16977,16978],"class_list":["post-253299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-hyatt-regency-saipan","tag-kanoa-resort","tag-sonny-encarnacion","tag-vicente-montoya"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}