Cebu’s Comfort Food Gets a Flavor Upgrade

What happens when Cebu’s most iconic dishes meet a pantry full of new possibilities? At The Great Clara Olé Food Trip in Cebu, Chef Celina David answered with a tasting menu that treated lechon belly, balbacua, and local pastries not as untouchable classics, but as canvases for bold new flavor.

Held at Illumine Café inside the Magsaysay Institute of Hospitality and Culinary Arts (MIHCA), the event put Clara Olé’s new Multipurpose Sauces and Cake Spreads front and center. Rather than replacing Cebuano tradition, the pairings showed how a well-chosen sauce can highlight, deepen, and reinvent the flavors Cebuanos already love.

From Table to Pantry
Each sauce found a surprising home on the plate. Clara Olé’s Ginger & Garlic Blend added an aromatic edge to lechon belly; Paella Blend brought earthy, tangy complexity to balbacua; Tomato Guisado Blend became the foundation of a croquette dip; and Aligue Flavored Blend gave grilled stuffed squid an even richer seafood finish.

Great home cooking does not always start with a complicated recipe. Sometimes, one versatile ingredient is enough to make a familiar dish feel exciting again.

Pastries Get Playful
Cebu’s heritage baked goods also took a modern turn. Favorita, salvaro, galletas de bato, galletas del Carmen, and pulceras were paired with Clara Olé Cake Spreads, including Cinnamon Cream Cheese, Peach Mango with Fruit Bits, Strawberries & Cream with Fruit Bits, and Black Forest with Cherry Bits, turning traditional merienda staples into easy, indulgent flavor combinations.

“Cebuanos have a certain expectation when it comes to food, more so with their own,” said Hazel Mamisay, Clara Olé’s Innovation & Renovation Manager. “Our multipurpose sauces and cake spreads are meant to complement as well as enhance their dishes to make it easier for Cebuanos to cook their delicacies at home.”

“Olé You Need”
Through the “Olé You Need” campaign, Clara Olé is encouraging Cebuanos to look at familiar dishes in a different way. Rather than treating recipes as fixed, the brand suggests using them as a starting point for experimentation. A spoonful of aligue sauce over grilled squid or a fruit spread on a Cebuano cracker can be enough to create something new from ingredients already at hand.

The Multipurpose Sauces and Cake Spreads are available in participating supermarkets and online through Shopee, Lazada, TikTok Shop, Pandamart, and Builtamart.