Lee-Ming Institute of Technology won the championship in the Far Eastern Chef Competition, which helps young people to go international

        The final of Far Eastern Chef Competition, which has the reputation of "Oscar in the catering industry", was launched on December 7. It is a young culinary competition with the highest award and the first combination of internal and external venues. On the day of the final, the top ten teams will compete for the championship. Finally, the team from Lee-Ming Institute of Technology won the championship. Far Eastern Group Chairman Douglas Hsu presented the trophy in person. This is the second time for the event to cooperate with California Dairy Association. The champion team will not only receive a high bonus of 300000 yuan, but also be invited to visit the Culinary Institute of America as the representative team of Taiwan.

        

        "Far Eastern Chef Competition" is the fiercest competition with the highest standard and the highest bonus in Taiwan's youth culinary competition. The event is the first domestic "competition with real situation". Since its first establishment in 2007, it has been held for 10 consecutive sessions. Every year, it attracts new catering talents from colleges and universities to register for competition. It has become an indicative catering competition and is known as "Oscar in catering industry". More than 50 million expenditure have been invested in the event over the years, and more than 2000 catering talents have been cultivated. With the theme of the event, we can convey correct catering service concepts, international catering trends and respond to food safety issues. In three aspects of catering education, elite cultivation and national strength improvement, we have comprehensively strengthened Taiwan's "food" strength, and won the 2019 " Global Views Corporate Social Responsibility Award" “outstanding program - education promotion” model award, it deserves the fame of Oscar in the catering industry.

        

        On December 7, the award ceremony was held immediately after the final, and Far Eastern Group Chairman Douglas Hsu attended in person to hang ribbon and present trophy to the excited champion. Douglas Hsu, who just won GCSA–Professional said that this year is the 70th anniversary of the Far Eastern Group, the group held a series of public welfare activities in cooperation with affiliated enterprises, conveying the concepts of “Together for a Promising Future” and "create a bright future together; you and I will go together", which express deep appreciation for Taiwan and social commitment of taking roots. The Far Eastern Chef Competition, which gives full play to the synergy of the retail and sightseeing services of the Far Eastern Department stores, aims to improve the catering education in Taiwan '. Chairman Douglas Hsu encouraged the candidates: “ranking is not the most important thing, one must broaden his horizon to go international”

        

        Douglas Hsu not only presented the Champion Award in person, but also encouraged the members of the champion team to express their feelings in English to the foreign guests. Douglas Hsu stressed that although the performance of the candidates, especially the level of conscientiousness and diligence are perfect, only language can make them go international.

        

        In response to the international trend of environmental protection and cherishing food, this Far Eastern Chef Competition is themed with "ugly food / delicacy", which provides "special food" (ugly food) planted by farmers with defects in appearance but with no risk of quality. Those were common ugly food material: taro, green pepper, yam, radish, beef tomato, cabbage, etc. the contestants are invited to turn the dust into glory and make full use of the material which is considered as waste. The organizer, Pacific SOGO Department store and SOGO New Life President, Sophia C.W. Huang, pointed out that cherishing food is a new food trend in the world, which not only reduces waste of food, but also contributes to environmental sustainability. SOGO has always been committed to environmental sustainability, and is looking forward to further fighting against the discrimination of the public against ugly fruits and vegetables and moving towards low-carbon healthy life.

        

        Turn the dust into glory The gorgeous transformation of rotten food

        

        Gourmet made by previous champions, taro cheese dumplings

        

        At the awarding ceremony, Pan Weixiang, the first champion, and Lai Yicheng, the fourth champion, were invited to demonstrate their miraculous cooking skills. The two masters joined hands to cook the western style " taro cheese dumpling" (full name: pan fried green garlic duck breast with taro duck meat spicy cheese dumpling and tomato green pepper salsa sauce). Lai Yicheng, now the chef of western restaurant in five-star hotel, pointed out that autumn and winter are the best time to enjoy duck, and duck is also very nutritious. In practice, he took taro duck, a Chinese Kung Fu dish, as his idea, with pepper Jack cheese and cream cheese from California dairy products, and considered the proposition of ugly ingredients, then made taro duck cheese dumplings by taro, yam, cheese and duck, and at the same time, he made use of ugly ingredients tomatoes and green pepper to made a fresh salsa sauce, creating a multi-level taste.

        

        At the same time, Chairman Douglas Hsu, Chris Frederick, section chief of Amerrican Institute in Taiwan Agricultural Trade Office and Mr. Glenn Millar, international director of California dairy association were invited to the stage for tasting. Chairman Douglas Hsu, who had just eaten the Michelin banquet the other day, couldn't help but praise: "wonderful!" it is indeed a good dish! "

        

        VIP gathered to test the players' ability

        

        The final invited leaders to score the contestants' meals, which is the highlight of all previous events. This year, 20 special guests, including Qiu Jiayu, Chairman of China Television Company, Ltd., Xiao Hengqian, content director of United Daily News, Chen Wanhui, Secretary General of Self-Regulation Alliance, Wang Wenjing, former Executive Director of Business Week, Deng Xiaohua, Executive President of Estee Lauder, Lin Shuting, President of Hi-Lai Foods, Inc., Xie Xinhui, Director of Ogilvy & Mather, LV Jiatian, special assistant of President of Victoria Hotel were invited to test contestants' skills in explaining the dishes, serving and strain capacity. Meanwhile, Chris Frederick, section chief of Amerrican Institute in Taiwan Agricultural Trade Office and Mr. Glenn Millar, international director of California dairy association and Randy zupanski of Far Eastern Plaza Hotel, Taipei and other foreign guests also gave the contestants the opportunity to provide catering services in fluent English and show international service etiquette.

        

        In the cooking part, contestants are limited to serve three courses, namely, the appetizer, the main dish and the dessert within 165 minutes. In addition to the use of designated ugly food materials, the appetizer and the dessert must also use California dairy products. Each course needs to be made into 5 servings, which were respectively used for the cooking review, the clothing review and evaluation, and the display of the dishes. The culinary judge is led by Liu Guanlin, director of catering of Far Eastern Plaza Hotel, Taipei. Dishes were scored for hygiene, skills, color, taste and creativity.

        

        With a total bonus of more than one million, Lee-Ming Institute of Technology won the champion with the best culinary performance, with a bonus of 300000 and a rare opportunity to visit the CIA abroad. The second place belonged to Hungkuang University, and the third place was National Kaohsiung University of Hospitality and Tourism.