AjiPanda™ is a cute panda icon that conveys someone shy, caring, happy and loyal. It personifies how a humble pack or bottle of AJI-NO-MOTO® Umami Seasoning fills the role of “Your Best Friend in the Kitchen” by offering an ever-reliable way of bringing out the natural goodness of food.

Ajinomoto’s new campaign, which also features teen queen Kathryn Bernardo, presents the benefits of its dependable brand of seasoning to a new generation of cooks and food lovers.

AJI-NO-MOTO® comes from sugar cane, corn or cassava and is manufactured through the natural process of fermentation. This product is safe, convenient and effective in making food taste delicious.

This is because it is simply free glutamate, the most common among amino acids (the building blocks of protein). It provides the taste of umami to food in the same way that sugar adds sweet taste or salt adds salty taste to food.

But what is umami? Umami, is the fifth basic taste alongside sweet, sour, bitter, and salty. It is the savory, rich and full taste we often experience in meat, seafood, cheese, tomatoes and mushrooms.

Consider the delightful composition of chicken, green papaya and malunggay in tinola or the medley of cheese, ham, pepperoni, tomatoes, green and red bell peppers on top of a pizza. The combinations and layers of these glutamate-rich ingredients make dishes very delicious and enjoyable.

Remember that AjiPanda™, your best friend in the kitchen, will help work wonders in your cooking so that you can share many happy meals with your family. Visit http://www.ajinomoto.com.ph/AjiPanda for healthy and delicious recipes.

Marvin Agustin’s journey to what he is today—a successful chef and restaurateur—is so inspiring that it became the cornerstone of his latest endorsement for Knorr Cubes.

Marvin recently signed on to become the new brand ambassador for Knorr Cubes, the favorite partner of people like him who are passionate about food and cooking. As such, he is also the new face behind Knorr Cubes’ “Door to door Sabaw Challenge” in which he will be visiting different cities all over the Philippines, challenging cooks to identify which is the better, more ma-karne and better-tasting sabaw: the one made with Knorr Cubes, or not?

During the challenge, Marvin will present two versions of sabaw, one made with granules and the other, made with Knorr cubes. Marvin believes so much in the product’s claims to deliver the meatiest taste and flavor that he throws in a promise to give up cooking if they end up choosing the sabaw that’s not made of Knorr cubes—and everyone knows how passionate Marvin is about cooking, so for him to promise that is a big deal.

Among the locations Marvin will visit are Laguna, Iloilo, and Metro Manila. There will be a series of 30-seconder commercials featuring Marvin engaging cooks and housewives to take part in the challenge.


“That’s really what it’s about: Marvin being confident about the product so much that he’s willing to give up his passion for cooking just to prove a point, which is that Knorr cubes is the meatiest out of all the cooking aids in the Philippines,” says Monica Rios, brand manager of Knorr for Unilever Philippines, which is spearheading the Door-to-door challenge.

Marvin grew up in a household where cooking was a passion. Their apartment was small, and from the living room, one could sit and smell what was being cooked in the kitchen.

His mother loved to cook Filipino dishes. “Mahilig kami sa sabaw. Mahilig kami sa sinigang, mahilig kami sa nilaga. Every meal, kailangan laging may sabaw. Sabaw at kanin,” recalls Marvin. “At we really used Knorr cubes. Kahit pinakbet, nilalagyan ng Knorr shrimp na cubes.”

As a teenager, Marvin worked as a waiter, and later, became a mascot for a popular fastfood chain. From there, he worked his way up, became a popular actor and re-invented himself into a successful businessman with a chain of restaurants that includes Sumo Sam, Oyster Boy, Marciano’s, Komrad, John and Yoko and Mr. Kurosawa.

This is what inspired Unilever to choose him to be the latest endorser of Knorr Cubes.

Says Rios: “It’s a nice success story to hear, that he started out as a waiter, and even worked as a mascot for a while. He has proven that he can rise above all the challenges in life. Now he’s a chef and a restaurateur. It’s very inspiring, the way he was able to achieve everything…maypassion siya, and he just really went for it. So it’s a nice feeling for him to be endorsing the product.”

Marvin feels honored to be chosen to join Knorr’s family of chefs. “When I first learned about it (endorsement), sabi ko, everyone knows that I really love cooking. I love cooking for my friends and my family, and Knorr cubes is really what we use for soup. So napakasaya at family-orientedang pino-promote namin na brand.”

Get the latest updates from Marvin himself! Like Marvin Agustin on Facebook or follow him @marvin_agustin on Twitter.

Knorr Philippines

Recently, my correspondent, who also my youngest brother Jefferson Montas went to attend the Umami Culinary Challenge in MOA.


Nowadays, we heard the bad effect of MSG in our body but why a lot of people still using this kind of ingredient in our food. It has been a sort of "culture" that a lot of Filipino people add MSG to make our food taste really delicious.

Is MSG safe? Yes. Research in Europe, the United States and Asia clearly shows that MSG used in prepared foods or as a condiment is safe for humans of all ages.


MSG has been safely used as a food ingredient since the early 1900's. It is one of the most thoroughly tested of all food ingredients, with hundreds of scientific studies confirming its safe and effective use. MSG's safely has been repeatedly affirmed by regulators and scientific agencies around the world.

MSG (monosodium glutamate) is an Umami seasoning which gives the Umami Taste in food. The word umami comes from the Japanese words umai (delicious) and mi (taste) and can be recognized in English as rich and savory, and in Filipino as "malinamnam" or "malasa".

Though its 3rd year that Umami hold this kind of challenge, this is the first time that I as a blogger cover this kind of event. It was really exciting, why? because it's all about food. I love cooking...very much...well as a mommy and a wife, i should know how to cook.

Every time there is an opportunity that I can cook, I really cook with love...ehem...because of the busy life...sometimes my mother cook for us...but I want to do it for my kids and for my husband..

As I read all the write ups, I learned more about the food that hopefully Ican serve it to my family...

Here are some of the pics during the Umami Challenge in SM Mall of Asia.




This event was judge by an impressive line up of judges from various fields related to food.  So they are the ones who are responsible for picking out the winners of the challenge.  Renowned culinary luminaries include: Sanday Daza (Inquirer columnist and TV show host), Chef Babes Austria (Executive Chef of Taal Vista Hotel and former Executive Chef of Malacanang Palace), Chef James Antolin (Vice PResident of Pastry Alliance of the Philippines), Chef Day Salonga and Chef Mon Acosta (Chef Consultants for opening new restuarants), Nina Daza-Puyat (Editor in Chief, Appetite Magazine), Chef Seiji Kamura (Executive Chef and owner of Mogu Japanese Restaurant), Vicky Alejandrino, (Head of Quality Assurance and Commissary for the Pancake House Group), chef Colin McKay (Executive Chef and owner of Sala Restaurant Group and Tetta Arroyo (Travel and Food Writer) among others.

The Ajinomoto 3rd Umami Culinary Challenge is a collaboration of organizations which strongly support the development o the Philippine culinary scene, among them are Glutamate Association of the Philippines (GAP), Elba, Whirlpool/Fujidenzo, Masflex, PR Gaz, Meat and Livestock Australia, and Anvil Publishing together with media partners GMA7, Appetite Magazine, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Inquirer Libre and PR Moms Network.