Ambassador Santos (centre) led the launching of ‘Kulinarya Qatar.’

By Joey Aguilar/Staff Reporter

The Philippine embassy in Doha recently launched ‘Kulinarya Qatar’ to promote Filipino cuisine in the country as a way of enticing more tourists to visit the Philippines.
“Having been in the diplomatic service for more than two decades, I have always believed that food plays a major role in promoting a country’s national identity and culture,” ambassador Wilfredo Santos said in his speech.
He was speaking at the official launch of the campaign attended by Filipino entrepreneurs, private sector representatives, other embassy officials and members of the Filipino community in Doha.
Santos stressed that promoting Filipino cuisine is among his main priorities, which is an integral part of the embassy’s economic diplomacy programme. It supports the ‘Visit Philippines 2015’ programme of the Department of Tourism (DoT).
He described ‘Kulinarya Qatar’ as “a brand that highlights the Filipino cuisine to a high level of excellence and a vehicle that promotes the Philippines as a leading culinary, tourist and business destination.”
“However, while millions of Filipinos live and work in countries around the world – including Qatar which is home to 200,000 of our countrymen – Filipino cuisine has yet to make its mark overseas,” he noted.
“Kulinarya Qatar aims to change that,” the envoy pointed out.
He said they partnered with the Filipino community to undertake events, activities and projects as part of the campaign to boost the Philippines’ standing among the world’s best cuisines.
Santos also cited several individuals, professionals working in well known companies, and key sectors who were involved in creating the campaign.
“Kulinarya Qatar is a brand that we hope will become global in reach,” he said, as he expressed confidence that the campaign’s programmes and activities can be sustained with the support of the community.
The embassy has also lined up a series of activities starting September up to July next year. These include the ‘Family Day’ from September 23 to 26; Filipino night buffet (with the different hotels in Qatar) from October to December; Filipino cooking traditions (with DoT and well known cooking brands) from January to June 2016; train cooking trainers in Qatar (with known chefs in the Philippines) from January to June 2016; and cooking competitions from January to June 2016 which aims to discover potentials among workers, and housewives.
The campaign will also launch training programmes for cooks, food processors, service and restaurant operators.
In July 2016, the embassy will come up with Kulinarya magazine and campaign to create new Filipino dishes with touch of Arabic flavour or taste and define new Adobo (meat, fish, vegetables), dips and snacks.
Santos also urged Filipinos in Qatar to work hard in making the Philippines a leading culinary, tourist and business destination in Asia and in different parts of the world.