Filipino chef Pablo “Boy” Logro takes the helm in this year’s Seafood Fest UAE, which will run from Nov. 30 to Dec. 2 in the Waterfront Market, Dubai. He and his team will aim to set a world record of having the most number of participants in a seafood boodle fight.

A boodle fight, a tradition inherent in Philippine culture, is the practice of eating a meal together with family and friends while doing away with the niceties of using utensils and dishes. Food is laid out and spread on banana leaves. Everything, down to the tiniest morsel, is eaten by hand.

It is a gastronomic sight popular in Filipino parties, but how can it be done for a group of 27,000? The thought alone seems daunting. And for Logro, it may just be one of the biggest challenges of his career, according to the Gulf News last Oct. 13, as he has been working with his team since last year just for the big event.

The event comes as a celebration for the 47 years of the United Arab Emirates and is one of the ways to bring Filipinos and other ethnicities together.

“This year we are celebrating 47 years of the UAE and this is one way that the Filipinos and the rest of the ethnicities of the UAE could come together in a table — having everything shared,” Philippine consul-general Paul Raymund Cortes said in the report. “The UAE is one society made of all different nationalities and ethnicities.”

Meanwhile, Lachlan Gyde, executive director of Waterfront Market where the seafood fest will be held, said that they want to engage the community and have a great time.

“From what I’m seeing, this is an event that reaches out to everybody in the UAE,” Gyde said. “We’re very much aligned in bringing the community together and having a great time,”