Filipina pastry chef Margarita Lorenzana-Manzke made the semifinalist cut in this year’s James Beard Awards – dubbed the “Oscars” of the food world.
This is the fifth year in a row the Philippines’ born and raised Filipina chef is a semifinalist in the Outstanding Pastry Chef category. Lorenzana-Manzke made the semis cut in the same category in 2015 through 2018 and made it through to the finals round of the 2017 and 2018 editions of the annual American food industry awards. In the 2019 edition of the awards given by The James Beard Foundation, the pastry chef will vie among 20 semifinalists to get to the finalists cut on March 27.
Margarita Lorenzana-Manzke is co-owner, with 3-Michelin-Star chef husband Walter, of LA-based restaurant République. LA Weekly gave her the title Best Pastry Chef in 2014 for her efforts in handling the République where she administered the department of pastry and continues to bake bread that have become popular fare and helped the cafe earn recognition and praises from customers and other chefs.
Margie also owns the popular Sari Sari Store Filipino Rice Bowl Stall at Grand Central Market LA. In the Philippines, Lorenzana-Manzke co-founded the premium food restaurant Wildflour Cafe + Bakery at BGC Taguig in 2012 with sister Ana Marie Lorenzana-de Ocampo with whom she shares love for the kitchen as they grew up in their family’s White Rock Resort at Subic Bay.
She studied pastry at London’s Le Cordon Bleu, then later enrolled in New York’s Culinary Institute of America to refine and broaden her knowledge about food and pastry. She afterwards worked in a number of restaurants in Los Angeles.
Manzke’s talent and passion towards pastry and food brought her success over the years, much like the successes of other Filipinas chefs who are recognized and awarded for their effort and hard work when it comes to food.
Post your comments below and let’s all send our well wishes to Margarita Lorenzana-Manzke as she looks towards getting a finalist spot via Twitter announcement on March 27 and then the Pastry Chef Award as James Beard Awards presents the best in America’s culinary world on May 6 in Chicago.
With reports from Marclee Agustin
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