Throughout history, mushrooms have been part of the human diet and are renowned for their healing and nutritional attributes. Today, this versatile “vegetable” will aspire for a historic culinary feat for the Philippines. JOLLY, the country’s No. 1 mushroom brand, will attempt to make history for the largest serving of sautéed mushrooms at the biggest entertainment convention of the year, History Con, last August 27, 2016 at the World Trade Center in Pasay City.
In partnership with History Channel, the stage was all set for JOLLY’s first world-record bid to cook the largest serving of sautéed mushrooms. The largest serving of the dish used more than 300kilos of Jolly Mushroom and fired up 10 cooking stations manned by 70 students chef from the Center for Culinary Arts Manila, Far Eastern University and La Consolacion Tanauan and Manila campuses. The tedious process took two hours of non-stop cooking; and after all the hard work of the young chefs, the cheering crowd went wild as the final mushroom dish output was poured into the weighing device and showed a total of 342 kilos, exceeding the minimum requirement of only 300 kilograms. The JOLLY team, led by Executive Chef Winston Luna of Chefwix Catering Services, was applauded for their hard-earned victory.
“We’ve been cooking a large number for banquets but for this endeavor it’s different. Using the recipe designed by Chef Mitchie Sison, we used mushroom as main ingredient, which is very versatile and is also a wonderful substitute to the usual meat that we usually have. We used sauté because it is the best-tasting way to present the mushroom. We really want the mushrooms to be the superstar for this particular dish,” said Chef Winston.
As one of History Con’s headliner event, JOLLY’s record-setting attempt was just one of the reasons that emphasizes the brand’s mission to elevate and promote mushrooms’ versatility and nutritional benefits on a national and global scale.
“History-making has never tasted this healthy and delicious. JOLLY and Fly Ace Corporation, together with our our event partners, are extremely honored to initiate this ground-breaking attempt. We are hoping to set a first world record, and of course to successfully spread the news of mushrooms’ health benefits all over the Philippines and the world,” said Fly Ace Corporation President, Jun Cochanco.
The giant tub of sautéed mushrooms was later presented at the main stage and was served as a mushroom wrap, which is another way of presenting the mushroom, or served as rice to go with each mushroom serving to the delight of thousands of event participants who queued to taste.
Recent studies by scientists around the globe underscored the importance of antioxidants as these protect the cells from within, thus boosting one’s immune system and helping prevent future diseases such as cancers. And per tests of SGS, a leading inspection, verification, testing and Certification Company, Jolly Mushrooms contain an impressive 14 mg of L-ergothioneine per 400g can.
“Mushrooms is known as the world’s “superfood”, we want more people to know about the many amazing health-boosting benefits of mushrooms. One such outstanding nutritional highlight is having the highest content of L-ergothioneine, a powerful antioxidant,” commented Marilou Acuña, Fly Ace Corporation Senior Product Manager for Jolly Food line.
Apart from promoting mushroom’s health benefits, the history-making activity also puts into limelight fresh Filipino culinary talents and the virtue of bayanihan. “This event offers the challenge as well as opportunity for Filipinos, especially our youth, to show support and commitment in making history. To make this Guinness bid successful, everyone in the JOLLY team must work closely together to bring that goal into fruition,” Acuña added.