The Nation

In my last column I had mentioned that I would write about my participation as a judge at the Best of the Best Culinary Competition in Hong Kong. This event has been going on for the past three years and Hong Kong Tourism board was quite serious of promoting Hong Kong as the food capital of Asia. There have been having some success in promoting Hong Kong as a destination and this event is tailored made for the tourist market not for the Hong Kong public. Surveys by the Kong Hong Tourism Board have been conducted around the world to see what countries have great potential of coming to Hong Kong for, not only shopping but also for the great variety of food in Hong Kong. This event is organized specifically for the “ Foody Tourist Market”. Unlike our TAT which usually markets Thailand as a tourist destination with all that we have to offer lumped into one large all inclusive package, Hong Kong selects one particular element in its tourism industry and pinpoint and market only one element at a time which is a basic rule of marketing. I think we Thais can learn quite a few things from Hong Kong in the way in which she markets her food industry. We Thais in fact have an advantage over Hong Kong in terms of our food which is very unique and very popular.

             I turned up for the event on 27th of October to be one of the judges in the egg and dessert category. The panels of judges are selected from local food experts, local personalities and foreign guests chefs and television chef presenters from as far as United States. It was very well organized and the judges were all very impartial and serious about their work at hand. No influences from the participating restaurants and chefs cannot be brought to bear upon the judges because we don’t even get to meet the chefs.

       Food is brought into a room in which all the judges are seated one by one and a meeting is held prior to judging by the organizers who is not allowed to vote in the tasting. We were all explained in detail on how to judge and what criteria’s were used in judging. All this was done in both English and Cantonese. A score mark sheet with list of name of the dishes, numbered one to ten is given to us and we were all allowed to make notes while judging but they were quite serious about the judges not talking to each other or trying to sway fellow judge’s opinions.

        In the egg category, there were the 10 finalists’ dishes. It was really quite remarkable what these chefs have created from eggs. I remember on of the dish that I thought was quite imaginative, which was a fried egg dumpling the shell or dough for wrapping the dumplings were made of omelets sheets and the stuffing for the dumpling as made of scrambled egg white, stock, poached baby oysters and cubed thousand year old eggs.

        The dumpling parcels are the tied at the top with cucumber strings and quickly deep-fried. The resultant dish was very interesting because you get the crunchiness of the outer shell and then the very delicate flavors and different texture of the filling. I liked it very much but it was not my voted that counted to most but the collective votes of all the judges.

        The winning egg dish recipe was from a restaurant in Kowloon which presented us with a mouth watering dish of scrambled egg white with crab and them to make the dish more interesting the take very fresh shrimps and cook them in salted egg yolk mixed with oil and quickly blanch the shrimps. This cooking technique coats the outer skin of the shrimps with a very rich slightly salty layer of salted egg yolks. I highly recommend this dish and it certainly deserves the gold medal with distinction. It is a dish that exemplifies typical and the best of Cantonese or Hong Kong Cuisine.

        We ran into some problems with the dessert category. I learned much during my discussion with fellow judges in the dessert category that their intention was to elevate Chinese desserts to the international table as one of the important courses in a meal. I must admit that I was disappointed that the desserts did not come out like a one plate of Chocolate Hazelnut Cake with caramel ice cream. But as we tasted and gave marks to all the desserts that were presented to us and right after the totaling up

       the score we all realized that the Chefs did not understand the concept of the kind of desserts that we had wanted them to create. One draw back in Chinese cuisine is the fact that dessert played a very minor role in a course of a meal and there is no tradition in the Chinese kitchen organization for a pastry and dessert shop. Consequently desserts were just treats that were created my Dim Sum chefs at a small taste treat at the end of a long Chinese Banquet.

       There were no gold medals with distinction award for this category and while we were discussing this turn of events the judges committee voted for me to go out to talk to the Chefs before the presentation ceremony to let them know why there were no Gold medal with distinction! I felt I was put right on the spot but the judges explained to me that I would go down much easier from me since I am not Chinese and I did not speak Chinese and that I had a very friendly face and a great smile! With some reservation, I accepted the task and the organizer with translate for me. But before I went out I asked if the Chefs gathered outside had brought their knives with them!

      Everything went well at the presentation ceremony. I was not knifed to death after my speech but I had about 5 reporters asking me so many questions and ask me to defend myself. All in all my experience at this competition was very positive and I must give credit where credit is due. This credit for the success of this event goes to Hong Kong Tourism Board and the organizers of the event who have maintained a very strict standard of impartiality in the judging of these dished.

       We live in the area of the world where most people from the West tend to look down on our ability to be impartial in any competition venue. This event went a long way to dispel Western misconception of the way Eastern society works. I thank Hong Kong Tourism Board for inviting me and I am grateful to them for the experience. I have learnt much about how to go about marketing one’s tourist industry in a very systematic and transparent way. I hope that Hong Kong Tourist Board will not mind if I use some of their marketing ideas to promote Thailand
in my own very small way.