Food Tasting # 10: Passion Cooks

*This is now my 10th food tasting entry. Wow, food tasting is now becoming an addiction. Haha.*

Last Friday, Cyndee and Cris, two of my fellow batchmates in W@W, joined me during my food tasting with Maja of Passion Cooks. We have been dying to meet with each other ever since we learned that we are all excited 2014 brides, and this food tasting gave us an excuse to meet up. I'll talk more about our-mini EB and in a later post. For now, let's focus on the most important part: the food!

I have been hearing raves about Passion Cooks from brides everywhere. I love looking at their Facebook account for pictures of their clients' weddings because the styling is superb. Every wedding has a unique element to it; Maja and her team makes sure that no wedding would look exactly alike despite the common themes. Passion Cooks gives perfect attention to every detail to fully showcase the couple's motif or theme. And let's not forget the food! My mouth just watered while reading their menu offerings; everything sounds so delicious and extraordinary! :)

Of course, all that good quality comes with a hefty price tag. Right from the start, I knew that Passion Cooks was out of our budget. However, I just couldn't resist the lure to schedule a food tasting with them. I really wanted to taste their food to see if they truly deserve all that great feedback. Plus if we really do like them, maybe I could convince Mox to stretch our budget so that we could afford them.

We were served fewer dishes than usual during our food tasting because Maja said that since our wedding is still in 2014, there could be changes in their menu by then. We only had one salad, two main entrees (chicken and seafood), and two desserts.

Oriental Salad

For our salad, we had their best-selling Oriental Salad. This salad is filled with assorted fresh greens topped with crispy catfish and drizzled with mango-tomato salsa. It may look like the normal ensalada dish, but its main selling point is the crispy catfish toppings. Janelle, our AE, said you have to mix the catfish with the greens, mangoes and salsa to truly enjoy the flavors of the dish. The catfish's salty taste is the perfect complement to the salsa's tangy flavor. However, the salsa on our salad was too sour that it overpowered the saltiness of the catfish. Cyndee agreed with me but Cris liked it because she loves anything that is sour. Haha.

Chicken and Ham Crepe

We were then served chicken for our first main course. The Chicken and Ham Crepe is Passion Cook's version of the Chicken Cordon Bleu. Chicken, ham and cheddar cheese is rolled up in a sweet crepe and topped with gravy sauce. I love the crepe's crunchy texture. Partner it with the gravy sauce and it's as if you're eating the skin of your favorite Jollibee Chickenjoy. That's how crispy the crepe is. My only complaint was that the gravy sauce was not enough to satisfy my craving. Haha.

Baked Prawns Thermidor

Our last main course was a seafood dish: Baked Prawns Thermidor. They served us three large prawns stuffed with ham and mushrooms and topped with cheese and cream. I was excited to taste this dish because one, I love prawns, and two, I have been hearing raves about this dish. And true enough, it did not disappoint. I love its rich, creamy flavor; you can taste the prawn, ham, mushroom and cheese in every bite. Some may find the cheese and cream too overpowering though, but I love it. Hehe. Since there were the three of us during the food tasting, they served us one prawn each. Again, one prawn was not enough for me, but Janelle told us that they would serve the guests two prawns during the reception proper. Kaya hindi sila mabibitin.

Mango Cream Pie and Chocolate Lazy Cake

Now to the favorite part of the food tasting: DESSERTS! We were served two desserts, the Mango Cream Pie and the Chocolate Lazy Cake. The lazy cake is not your usual soft, moist chocolate cake; it is actually sweet biscuits rolled in milk chocolate syrup. Since they are biscuits, it can be a bit difficult to slice off a piece of the cake with your spoon. But I'm ready to overlook that fact because the cake is so delicious! The syrup has the right amount of sweetness in it—not too bitter nor too sickeningly sweet.

But the real winner for me is the mango cream pie. It may seem like the usual frozen dessert—layers of mangoes, crushed graham crackers and cream mixed together in a shot glass—but the mango cream pie is nothing but ordinary when it comes to its taste. The cream is sweet, but it does not overpower the natural sweetness of the mangoes, while the graham crackers balances the overall creaminess of the dessert. I particularly love the scoop of mango on top. At first I thought it was a lemon, which was put purely for aesthetic purposes, but no, it was really a scoop of mango.What a pleasant surprise. :)

VERDICT: Again, Passion Cooks is way out of our budget. Their cheapest package starts at P850 and they don't allow price locks for 2014. So that P850 can increase to up to P900! Plus, Janelle said that the styling that we usually see in their pictures in Facebook are all upgraded setups. The upgrade fee depends on the pegs that we will show them, but it usually starts at P10,000 and reaches to up to P70,000! Of course, Passion Cooks can customize their menu to suit your budget, but still, I really couldn't afford them, lest I want our budget to hit the P500,000 mark. :(

PASSION COOKS CATERING
18 V. Fernandez St. VOB Village, BF Homes Phase 1, Paranaque City
482-5628 / 506-2454
events@passioncooks.co.cc