Thirty-four foreign embassies in the nation’s capital showcased their cuisines at EventsDC’s annual Embassy Chef Challenge on July 10. 

Held at the historic Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in downtown Washington, the event was hosted by former Top Chef contestant Spike Mendelsohn and featured cultural performances and a presentation of food and drink from every continent. Awards for the top culinary creations were given in three categories.

For the People’s Choice Awards – chosen by guest votes – the top three prizes were awarded to:

First Place: Chef Maria Carmel Tagligan and Chef Paolo Penalosa from the Embassy of the Philippines for bangus a la pobre served with garlic rice and eggplant salad.

Second Place: Chef Bandar Alhenaki from the Embassy of Saudi Arabia for lamb kabsa and basbousa.

Third Place: Chef Dr. Michaele C. Samuel from the Embassy of Grenada for a calypso mango shrimp salad.

In the second category, the Judge’s Choice Awards were selected by top members in the culinary community, including Top Chef Alum and Food Network star Chef Eric Adjepong, food writers Lenore T. Adkins and Tim Ebner, past Embassy Chef Challenge awardee Chef Francis Otoo of the Embassy of Ghana and the Northeast Editor of Eater Tierney Plumb. Top prizes were given to: 

First Place: Chef Michael Ciuffardi from the Embassy of Peru for seco norteño ravioli.

Second Place: Chefs Xianglin Zhu, Wen Su, and Wenhui Jia from the Embassy of China for pineapple sweet and sour shrimp and osmanthus-scented lotus root threads cake.

Third Place: Chef Ilham Achmakou from the Embassy of Morocco for pastela with chicken and almond. 

And in the third category, the judges sipped an assortment of cocktails, mocktails, tea, coffee and more, and presented the Best Beverage award to Chef Mykola Yudin from the Embassy of Ukraine, black currant nalyvka.

Photos by Patricia McDougall