A Feast for Top Chefs! First Liaoning Cuisine Chef Competition Kicks Off in Liaoyang

Braised sea cucumbers with spring onion, big meatball casserole, and Futing braised pork in brown sauce... No ingredient, however ordinary it seemed, could withstand the mighty skills of the master chefs as they whipped up chic, fragrant dishes so exquisite they mesmerized diners.

The First Liaoning Cuisine Chef Competition and Liaoning Catering Brand Selection Event took place in Liaoyang on March 2 and 3. The event was sponsored by the Department of Commerce of Liaoning Province and the People's Government of Liaoyang City and organized by the Liaoyang Municipal Commerce Bureau. Chefs from Liaoning showcased their professional skills and learned from each other as they prepared local specialties.

"Liaoning cuisine enjoys a long history and boasts many unique local features. It is the first of China’s local cuisines to be recognized as a national intangible cultural heritage item," Deputy Director General of the Department of Commerce of Liaoning Province Guo Bin said. "We hope to use this competition to really show off Liaoning cuisine and acquaint more people with our local food culture. We plan to train professionals with high-level cooking skills in the cuisine, passing it on to them but also empowering them to innovate to develop Liaoning cuisine into a brand of renown," Guo added.

Chefs put their superior cooking skills on display

Master chefs from 14 cities in Liaoning and the Shenfu Demonstration Zone prepared well-known Liaoning dishes and treats on-site.

Competition food

Competition food

Competition regulations called for each chef to prepare one specialty dish, one featured dish, and one innovative dish Liaoning-style on-site in 120 minutes. The dishes had to be representative of Liaoning cuisine and reflect local tastes.

The competition specialty dish was fried meatballs. A simple but important part of Liaoning cuisine, the preparation of fried meatballs is complicated by certain techniques and skills that correlate directly with a chef’s mastery of his trade. The competition invited specialists with national assessment qualifications from the various cities of Liaoning to form an expert group to hand out grades of Liaoning Cuisine Chef and Gold Medal Liaoning Cuisine Chef.