《TAIPEI TIMES》Chefs selected for global six-month cultural tour

By Liu Tzu-hsuan / Staff reporter

A group of Taiwanese chefs have been selected to tour 20 countries across the Americas, Europe and Asia to promote Taiwanese cuisine, the Overseas Community Affairs Council said on Tuesday.

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The chefs were recruited to participate in 106 gourmet lectures at 55 locations as part of the International Tour of Taiwan Gourmet Cuisine, touring from next month to October, the council said.

The chefs are to run cooking demonstrations, consult with overseas Taiwanese restaurant owners and visit catering businesses in efforts to promote cultural exchanges and conduct “citizen diplomacy,” it said.

The council has organized the tour annually since 2010 to assist catering businesses run by overseas Taiwanese, promote Taiwanese cuisine and enhance Taiwan’s international visibility, it said.

The event is returning to its usual size after being suspended in 2020 and 2021 and downsized last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A chef and an assistant are to work in pairs in nine regions — the western and eastern regions of the US and Canada, the southern US, Central America, South America, Oceania, Europe, Asia-Pacific and continental Asia.

Council Deputy Minister Ruan Jhao-syong （阮昭雄） handed letters of appointment to the chefs on Tuesday and wished them well.

The chefs were drawn from across Taiwan for their diverse expertise in Hakka and indigenous cuisines, along with environmentally friendly recipes and food presentation skills.

Tsai Wan-li （蔡萬利）, director of the Department of Restaurant Management at Chi-ying Senior High School, plans to demonstrate a recipe that employs cuttlefish balls to complement works by world-champion fruit carver Yang Sheng-kai （楊勝凱） in the US and Canada.

Chang Ko-chin （張克勤）, executive chef of indigenous restaurant Badasan, and Hamp Court Palace executive chef Lu Kai-yuan （路凱源） have created a presentation of diverse delicacies, including mullet roe and shrimp marinated in indigenous fermented rice wine, for their tour in the southern US.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES