In response to the Cantonese cuisine training program kicked off by the provincial authority, the city launched a campaign to select chefs, restaurants and dishes that could best represent Chaozhou delicacies and held a vocational cooking contest for local dishes trainees. The activities aimed to breed more native cooks, and inherit and promote the local culinary culture.
The Campaign, jointly sponsored by the Human Resources and Social Security Department of Guangdong Province and the Chaozhou Municipal People’s Government, would select and confer titles to ten chefs, 20 restaurants and 30 dishes. All award-winning cooks would receive bonuses. Any national culinary master specializing in Chaozhou cuisine would be counted as the city’s honorary master chef automatically without their direct participation in the Campaign. Candidates needed to sign up from October 12th to November 15th; final winners would be chosen through qualification review, online voting, on-site practice, demonstration and assessment.
Yang Hongshan, deputy head of the Department, said in his speech that both events reacted to the provincial strategy of rural vitalization and chef grooming program and the goal of cultivating skilled professionals instructed by Li Xi, the province’s CPC general secretary. Yang hoped that the city could take advantage of gastronomy courses to drive employment, entrepreneurship and industrial advancement. Following the training program, there would be more cooks with exquisite dishes that could support cuisine-driven rural tourism. In this way, rural vitalization and quality economic development would be achieved.
This was a milestone for Chaozhou cuisine, said Zhang Chuansheng, Deputy Director of the Standing Committee of Chaozhou Municipal People’s Congress. He suggested that the organizers should, with a careful arrangement, work together to pick the best of the best in an open, fair, just and disciplined method. The competition could be an excellent platform to showcase our profound and unique culture and improve the city’s overall well-being. A successful campaign could enhance the city’s reputation and attractiveness by word of mouth.
