Now going strong on its 2nd year in a row, Gardenia Bakeries Phils. ,Inc. (GBPI), the country’s leading bread manufacturer, will once again be staging the highly-successful, “The Next Big Sandwich Hit.” Ten participating universities offering Hotel and Restaurant Management (HRM), Culinary Arts (CA) and other similar courses have qualified for this year’s healthiest, yummiest and the only sandwich-making inter-school competition of its kind, in the country today.
The universities who will be participating in this years’ competition include: (in alphabetical order) Adamson University, Far Eastern University, La Consolacion College, National University, Philippine Women’s University, St. Paul Quezon City, St. Scholastica Manila, University of the East, University of the Philippines, and University of Sto. Tomas.
Three (3) stages make up this year’s sandwich-making showdown: Elimination Round; Business Trial Round; and the Championship Finale to be held at the Happy Bread Day event in SM Mall of Asia.
In the Elimination Round, there will be five (5) teams from each of the ten (10) participating schools making it a total of fifty (50) student teams all in all. They will all battle it out at the Sandwich Showdown Kitchen Stadium at White Space Manila on September 25, 2014 until there will only be one team left to represent each school. The remaining ten teams will advance to the next two stages – the Business Trial and the Happy Bread Day Finale.
During the Business Trial stage, the ten (10) teams will each be given a working capital which they will have to grow for the next two weeks by selling their sandwiches. The teams are allowed to implement their sales & marketing strategy in any format they wish whether it be online, in school, in bazaars, etc. The money that they will earn on this round will go to the team’s fund and will likewise be a component of their finale scores.
And finally, during the Happy Bread Day Finale on October 18, 2014 at the Mall of Asia, each of the ten teams must come up with a sandwich that will best embody the 2 chosen themes – a Sexy Sandwich and the Philippines City Sandwich.
The Sexy Sandwich is basically defined as a healthy and delicious sandwich that makes use of Gardenia’s healthy line of breads including: Gardenia Classic White Bread; Gardenia High Fiber Wheat Bread; Gardenia High Fiber Wheat Raisin Loaf; Gardenia Wheat Cranberry Loaf; Gardenia Slim n Fit Wheaten Bread; and Gardenia Wheat Pandesal.
The Philippines City Sandwich, on the other hand, is a sandwich that will best represent a specific city in the country. Each of the ten teams will be assigned a certain city. Sandwich recipes must be original and each team will be given a total of 40 minutes to prepare and finish both recipes.
So, as the popular saying goes, “There can be only one” and for Gardenia’s “The Next Big Sandwich Hit Year 2,” the lone winning team stands to win, not only accolades and adulation for themselves and their school, but more so, significant financial rewards will be up for grabs and of course, the prestige and honor of being crowned this year’s “The Next Big Sandwich Hit” champion.
