(From left) Nawat Itsaragrisil and CJ Opiaza. Images: Facebook/Miss Grand International
CJ Opiaza appeared to have tickled the funny bone of Miss Grand International organization head Nawat Itsaragrisil, after she gave a witty response to an question about Filipino fans’ propensity to accuse the Thai-based pageant of being a “cooking show.”
On social media, fans would sometimes tag pageants for being a “cooking show” when their favorite candidate didn’t make the cut for the next round, or wouldn’t be crowned with the winning title.
Itsaragrisil asked Opiaza about this particular claim during the pageant’s closed-door interview while noting the latter’s love for cooking. He didn’t mention any specific incident, but it can be noted that the Philippines has yet to snag a Miss Grand International title.
The country’s highest placements in the pageant were secured by Samantha Bernardo and Nicole Cordoves, who were named first runner-up in 2020 and 2016, respectively.
“One of your hobbies is cooking,” he began, as seen in a video screen-recorded by one @Dainsleif_10 on X (formerly Twitter).
“All Philippine fans would call us a cooking show. What do you feeling? [sic] You happen to like cooking and they call me cooking show. How you feeling? [sic] And what do you want to say,” Itsaragrisil continued.
Miss Grand Philippines 2024 CJ Opiaza Closed door interview.
Nawat: All Philippine fans call us Cooking show. How do you feel about that? And what do you want to say?“Cooking in THAILAND, their dishes is what I am looking forward.” – Best answer CJ😂👏… pic.twitter.com/RqM3J5U4nM
— Yashael 👑❣️📸 (@Dainsleif_10) October 19, 2024
A chuckling Opiaza said in response: “I would say to all the Filipino fans, cooking in Thailand, [cooking] their dishes is what I’m looking forward to. I love their dishes,” which made fellow beauty queens and the pageant’s officers laugh in response. Itsaragrisil was seen giggling as well.
In a seeming display of wit, the Castillejos, Zambales-based stunner said fans should focus more on the “definition of cooking” itself while implying that the pageant simply wants to choose the “perfect girl” to win the title.
This prompted Itsaragrisil and the pageant officers to laugh in response.
Opiaza was crowned Miss Grand Philippines 2024 barely a week before flying to Cambodia and Thailand in hopes of winning the country’s first golden crown.
A pageant veteran, she was named Miss Bikini Philippines in 2016. She also competed in the Binibining Pilipinas 2022 pageant and was named first runner-up at the Miss Universe Philippines 2023 tilt.
The Miss Grand International 2024 coronation will be held at the MGI Hall, Bravo BKK Mall in Bangkok, Thailand on October 25. Peru’s Luciana Fuster will pass her title to her successor at the end of the pageant.