Three Filipino chefs ended two decades of near-misses on April 23 when the Philippine Pastry Team claimed a bronze medal at the Asian Pastry Cup 2026, breaking a podium drought that had defined the country’s regional competition history.
Chef Vergel Iral, 28, served as team coach and jury member, while Chef Janelle Toh, 36, competed in the chocolate category and Chef Gian Aguirre, 28, in sugar work. The trio brought a delegation of 16 assistants and transported their own tools and equipment to Singapore for the biennial competition, which drew eight Asian nations including India, China, South Korea, Malaysia, Japan, and Indonesia.
This year’s edition required teams to incorporate endangered sea life into their showpiece — sugar elements representing natural marine environments and chocolate work depicting human activity — all within an 80-centimeter round buffet table at a maximum height of one meter.
The Philippine team answered the brief with “The Reef,” a concept drawing from the sardine run of Moalboal and the whale shark waters of Southern Leyte and Donsol, Sorsogon. A Filipino diver navigating the archipelago’s coral ecosystems served as the central image, threading together the sugar and chocolate elements on the competition floor.
Their food components carried the same marine identity. The frozen dessert, called The Anemone, combined peach, hallabong, and jasmine tea. Accompanying cookies, shaped to evoke sea currency, offered yuzu-yoghurt and pistachio flavors. The travel cake, The Urchin, was a chocolate cake built around peanut butter and strawberry. A plated dessert called The Moon Jelly closed out the lineup with watermelon, aloe, and yoghurt.
The competition format gave teams five hours of preparation on the first day and an eight-hour execution window on the second. Each country was required to present 30 frozen compositions, 24 cookies, 26 travel cakes, 16 plated desserts, and a unified showpiece integrating both sugar art and chocolate work.
While the Philippines had previously qualified for the Coupe du Monde de la Pâtisserie — the World Pastry Cup — a top-three finish at the Asian regional level had remained out of reach since the country’s first participation in 2006. The bronze places Team Philippines in January 2027’s Coupe du Monde de la Pâtisserie in Lyon, France.
The Pastry Alliance of the Philippines and student assistants from the Academy of Pastry and Culinary Arts Philippines and Lyceum of the Philippines University-Manila were among those credited by the team for supporting the campaign.
