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Some of the most exciting pasta creations are coming out of kitchens across Asia today. A fact made deliciously clear at the recent Barilla Pasta Championship Asia finals in Kuala Lumpur, celebrating a new wave of chefs weaving regional flavours, personal stories, and serious technical finesse into one of Italy’s most beloved staples.
Now in its second edition, the championship reflects Barilla’s long-standing commitment to empowering chefs of all levels across the region with high-quality ingredients and expertise in Italian gastronomy. With more than 145 years of pasta-making heritage behind it, Barilla provides the kind of consistency chefs rely on: quality pasta with that springy al dente bite and the versatility to carry bold new flavours. And across Asia, chefs have been proving just how versatile that canvas is.
As Filipino chef Aaron Joseph Gulinao of Westin Manila and winner of this year’s championship puts it: “Barilla pasta is the definition of consistent quality and texture. It was the perfect foundation for my dish, allowing me to blend my Filipino traditions with an iconic Italian staple and achieve a perfect balance of textures and flavours.”
Carbonara with a hearty Filipino twist
Chef Gulinao’s dish riffs on carbonara while drawing deeply from his family and home country. He layers Barilla Spaghetti with a ragu inspired by Alaminos longganisa, the boldly spiced sausage from Pangasinan, a province in the Philippines. Then tops it with smoked kesong puti mousse, made with Filipino cheese from his hometown in Bulacan, and a bright hit of calamansi. It’s a plate that feels both comfortingly familiar and thrillingly new.
Simple spaghetti dish with a deeply layered sauce
South Korean chef Jung Chul Lee of fine dining Italian restaurant Monocle Dosan in Seoul clinched second place with his bottarga spaghetti. It’s deceptively simple, spotlighting the purity of Barilla Spaghetti No. 5. But behind that simplicity sits a deeply layered sauce made from three complex stocks, including chicken, fish and clam, creating a restrained yet quietly powerful tribute to a traditional Italian dish.
Omakase take on pasta
Representing Singapore, third-place winner chef and Media Choice’s Award recipient chef Felix Chong of 1-Group brought an omakase twist to Italian tradition. His Barilla Penne is plated in the colours of the Italian flag, surrounded by a pasta-cracker amuse-bouche and an olive oil consommé 'dessert'. It’s a dish that speaks to both the different textures of pasta and the vast heritage of Italian cuisine.
Other chefs from China, India, Japan, Malaysia and Vietnam also impressed judges with inventive creations, from locally inspired sauces to modern reinterpretations, each demonstrating how Barilla pasta adapts seamlessly across cuisines and cooking styles.
Barilla’s pasta is prized in professional kitchens for its al dente texture and consistency, and those same qualities carry through when you cook with it at home. With good quality pasta, meals can become exciting and fun-filled – because when the base is solid, your creativity has room to shine. Discover more Barilla products and recipes here.