Country: China

Let the Chinese New Year give you the very best in personal, and as well as professional success, and hoping the rising sun will bring you a bundle of good luck, joy, and, happiness throughout the new year.

HAVE A VERY HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!

Very best culinary regards

from the entire team of the Worldchefs

Executive Committee

Thomas A. Gugler

President

WORLDCHEFS

Chef Li Shuangqi was appointed Young Chefs Ambassador Mentor by World Association of Chefs Societies a few days ago. Chef Li Shuangqi is World Association of Chefs Societies endorsed judge, senior technician of western cuisine, senior technician of Chinese cuisine and a public nutritionist. He also acts as the professor of International Technical Exchanges Center and the national-level judge and member of China Cuisine Association.

He won the First-rate prize of Russia Cuisine Competition in 2006 and the Gold medal of the 2013 American Cooking Competition in China. In 2014 , Mr. Li was awarded the First-rate prize of the Shanghai Young Teachers Teaching Competition. Besides, Li Shuangqi is the chief editor for such books as Basic Western Food& Kitchen: National Projecting Teaching Materials, Western Cooking Technician Tutorial Series: Teaching Materials for National Vocational Qualifications Training and Catering Operation and Service Quality Management.

He has been appointed supervisor of many cooperation projects between colleges and enterprises. It is safe to say, Li Shuangqi is one of the best young teachers of culinary vocational education.

Organized by Chinese Cuisine Association (CCA), endorsed by Worldchefs and hosted by Koelnmesse at World of Food powered by Anuga, 15 teams competed at this prestige world event. Hong Kong Culinary Team achieved an average score of 94 points, earned us the gold award and the overall championship. The first runner-up is China Yunnan, with Taiwan as the second runner-up.

Our team captain Chef Ken Tse, for his exceptional contribution also won the “Best Performance Chef”, together with Chef He Yunzhong of Yunnan Team

The inaugural Chinese Culinary World Championship concluded successfully on November 20, attracting 16 teams from 11 countries and regions, totaling nearly 100 contestants. The event is a top competition aimed at the profound and lasting promotion of Chinese food culture to enhance its global influence. Organized by China Cuisine Association (CCA) and managed by Koelnmesse, it is also the only competition in the world for Chinese cuisine endorsed by World Association of Chefs Societies (Worldchefs).

Outstanding chefs of all ages from China and abroad pitted their skills in competing teams. Boasting a 20-member judging panel comprising Asia Continental Director of WACS, Dr. Rick Stephen as the event’s chef planner and consultant, the tournament sought to establish a sound judging system and evaluation guidelines based on fairness, openness and strict work ethic, and greatly benefitted from his wealth of experience and involvement in various competitions across Asia.

Being the first competition of its kind to focus on Chinese cuisine, CCA and WACS joined hands with numerous renowned chefs and the who’s who in the culinary world to define new guidelines, while integrating with the existing general standards for global events adopted by WACS. The result: Chinese cuisine as the soul of the creation with Western-style presentation. This has not only laid a solid foundation for the event’s development, but also served as a valuable resource and reference standard for future events worldwide.

As event manager of the Chinese Cuisine World Championship, Koelnmesse contributed its extensive global resources and related experience from years of running the Thailand Ultimate Chef Challenge in Bangkok, and brought in sponsors from all over the world to the event, such as Electrolux and Meat & Livestock Australia.

The decision by CCA to host the competition at World of Food Beijing was also an affirmation of their trust in the platform, while in return it benefitted from the international exchange, trade and networking opportunities offered at the trade fair. It also served as a basis for the Association to extend into several supporting activities, such as forums, showcase of traditional Chinese cuisine, and food tasting, to promote interaction within the food and beverage industry and propagate food culture to the masses.

The two-day event from November 18 to 19 welcomed representatives from 11 overseas teams, including Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Italy, the United States, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Nepal and Korea. Representing Mainland China were the China National Culinary Team, the China Olympic Culinary Team and three teams from the provinces of Shanxi, Yunnan and Zhejiang. Each team consisted of a leader, five contestants and a kitchen helper.

Teams were required to prepare and present six items, including an appetizer, a soup, a seafood dish, a meat dish, a main course and a pastry dish or dessert, and produce 37 portions per course within five hours. All dishes were also to be plated and presented within two hours. In addition to supplying ingredients and materials required for the tournament, top sponsor, Metro, also provided full procurement support for all competing teams.

Besides subjecting all of the dishes to rigorous assessments and tasting by the judging panel, the creations were also critiqued by a total of more than 500 representatives from finance, sports, media and food institutions. This demanded not only adeptness in Chinese food preparation techniques, but also precise control of time. On top of the finished products, judges also graded teams on five key aspects: mise en place, correct professional preparation, food presentation, taste and texture, and service.

After a total of more than 3,500 servings of dishes over two rounds in the two-day event, teams from Hong Kong, Yunnan province and Taiwan triumphed over all the others to bag the Gold, Silver and Bronze awards respectively. During the awards ceremony on November 20, president of CCA, Jiang Junxian, Koelnmesse’s managing director in China, David Feng, and master chef Li Yaoyun were among those who handed out the awards to the winning teams.

As a general practice of WACS, an additional award will go to a contestant with the best performance selected by the judging panel. However, being the first-ever Chinese cuisine competition certified by the Association, precedence was set by selecting two contestants for the award, which went to Hong Kong’s Chef Tse Nam Yung and Chef He Yunzhong from the Yunnan team.

Forum activities in excess of 15 hours, spanning topics on talent and education for Chinese cuisine, management and innovation and ingredients and culture ran parallel to the tournament. Panelists shared their experience and knowledge based on their international perspectives, which won high praises and active discussions among the attendees.

The second edition of the Chinese Cuisine World Championship will be held from November 16 to 18, 2016 concurrently with World of Food Beijing, and will see contestants competing as individuals. Preparation works for the next season has kick-started. Participants can expect an even better environment to compete in and enhanced tournament rules in an effort for the contest to become a platform for international exchange and an important stage to elevate the status of Chinese food culture.

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