Press Release - Final Round of the 2015 Golden Spoon Contest

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FINAL ROUND OF 2015 GOLDEN SPOON CONTEST

Binh Duong Province, December 2, 2015 - after more than six months of an exciting competition, a journey of exploring new and unique spices, searching and promoting Vietnam’s most delicious dishes and honoring talented chefs the third season of the Golden Spoon contest has reached the final round. This round will take place with promises of many unexpected performances, surprises and interesting activities by bringing 15 outstanding teams from over the country to compete against one another and win the coveted VND 1 billion prize and the Golden Spoon Chef Cup.

The first rounds of the 2015 Golden Spoon contest began in early June, 2015 with the subject called “Hometown taste-Vietnam spice journey,” which attracted 357 chefs from 119 hospitality outlets. The restaurant, hotel and tourism sector of 39 provinces from around the country were represented. Of the total, 42 teams came from 4 or 5-star hotels. An excess of 1,400 delicious dishes have been introduced and promoted with more than a dozen new and unique spices displayed for the first time in the Golden Spoon contest. By searching and exploring new spices and ingredients with which to develop new menu with reasonable structure and balance and applying fusion style, unique cooking techniques 15 out-standing teams are lucky to participate in the final round. Such great examples include the delicious and attractive dishes developed from folk stories and special culture by the chefs of Lotte Hotel Hanoi; an alternative of Hanoi’s traditional dish done by Hanoi Sofitel Plaza’s chefs through special ingredients, cooking techniques its presentation; the risky menu that used “trái giác” or “trái bình bát” as its main ingredient from Kim Do Royal City Hotel in Ho Chi Minh; a journey of a dessert that used more than 10 spices that was introduced by Novotel Danang Premier Han River; the technique of bringing a great combination between new spices, strange ingredients and a sense of art to win “double” the top position in consecutive rounds by the chefs from Binh Quoi I Tourism Area. The remaining 10 teams represent no less competition and work well in the top 15 best teams as testament.

Within the top 15 best teams there are only a few chefs that have previous such competition experience in the final round. Most of the rest are new, attending the contest for the first time. Almost everyone was worried and curious about what they have to prepare and what will be required since the final round has special rules. Chefs aren’t allowed to bring any prepared ingredients (only tools). The most challenging element is that chefs enter the kitchen without prior knowledge of what ingredients they must cook.

The secret ingredients will be selected by the organizing committee. They will be put in a black box and sealed. All the team will withdraw and they have to set up a menu for four dishes with any ingredients that they get from the black box. Meanwhile during this one hour there will be a country-side market set up near the contest area to sell vegetables, fruits, spices and from which the chefs can select. This market will be erected to emulate a floating market in the Mekong Delta. It will also include a rice field and indigenous spices, meant to introduce the unique and rare spices of the season. When the time is up the market will be closed. The next 90 minutes will be for chefs to prepare their ingredients (without seasoning or cooking) and set the table for presentation. The official time for cooking section will be 120 minutes (two hours). The contest will take nearly a full day.

The judges of this contest will be a jury of experienced professionals as well as national and international food experts, such as Mrs. Bui Thi Suong, food artisan; Mrs.Choi Thi Trieu, elite teacher; Chef David Thai, General secretary of the Escoffier Biology Association; Mr. Paul Le, president of the Escoffier Association; Chef Sakal Phoeung; Mr. Marco Brueschweiler, president of the Singapore Chefs Association; Otto Weibel. The judges will look for comprehension and talent in this round. Meanwhile all chefs have to show all their skills, techniques as well as be ready for the stress if they expect to have the right strategy to win the Cup. “Compared with last year, the level of challenge for this year will be more difficult. The most important thing is all the chefs have to be ready with a quick reaction for the solution.

“With a limited time frame, the chefs need to imagine how to design a menu as well as set up a cooking plan as soon as possible; suitable with the ingredients as much as possible from the moment the black box is opened. To be able to do that, the chefs should prepare some ideas about a possible menu in their mind. So in case of having any kind of ingredients they will know what menu they will do. It will help them to save a lot of time,” shared Mrs.Suong Thi Bui, a returning judge from the previous season. Besides that, Mrs. Suong also thinks that the chefs should have a reasonable task assignment. The lead chef should know who is good at which dishes from the beginning. Then the team can arrange in advance. Everyone needs to be delegated and shared the tasks clearly and be responsible for execution. The team needs to measure and get the right amount of ingredients only, because any leftovers will be deducted from their final score.

All chefs of the Top 15 will compete in December 2^nd 2015 at Minh Sang Plaza (Address: 888 Binh Duong Boulevard, Thuan Giao, Thuan An, Binh Duong province). The organizing committee will support guests who with to attend the final round with arranged roundtrip transportation from Ho Chi Minh to Binh Duong. The total value of prizes is more than VND 3 billion and will be co-organized by Minh Long I Limited Company and the Center of Business Research and Enterprise Support. It is funded by Ly’s Horeca under sponsorship of two national units: the Chamber of Commerce - Industry of Vietnam (VCCI) and Vietnam national Administration of Tourism.

“We are very exciting by the new opportunities and challenges of the 2015 Golden Spoon contest. Evolving over three seasons, the Golden Spoon has gradually defined its branding and become a professional playground for talented, passionate and creative chefs. From this, the competition was able to gain more recognition and reach out to more provinces. It also addressed more the undiscovered and folk cuisine culture that is still hidden in the remote parts of the country. The meaningful achievement of Golden Spoon is to exploring, promoting and honoring more than 1,000 dishes that are not only specialties, delicious, but also very nutritious,” shared Mr. Sang Huy Ly, Deputy Organizing Committee - Deputy General Director of Minh Long I, Director Ly 's Horeca brands.

When the organizing committee opened the theme of the first round there was a strong response of contestants who brought many new and unique spices to the contest. It also became our motivation to continue to host this contest more in further years. Thanks to traveling along the country and exploring spices and Vietnamese dishes, we realized that Vietnamese cuisine has high potential value; much more than what we imagined. If we had just thought of creating a spice map of Vietnam before in such a simple we could have published a book dedicated to the topic. I think spice is a factor that we would like to spend more time and efforts to explore, record and provide instruction on how to use. Then all chefs can use it as a tool to improve their profession and promote Vietnamese dishes further.

In 2015, with new changes that aimed to a higher level of professional we organized a separate night to honor and award chefs officially but not combine them as previous years. This recognized and honored chefs that contributed to Vietnamese cuisine. In 2016 the contest won’t be stopped at this level, but its content will be developed and designed more professionally throughout. The organizing committee expects the Golden Spoon contest to contribute to building a bridge that connects various cuisines not only within the country, but also with the intention to lift it up to an international level. Vietnamese cuisine will be together with tourism become an important economic sector. In addition, Vietnam cuisine can also enrich the country’s travel messages through promoting the nutrition of the food."

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Information about Golden Spoon Contest

The first season of the Golden Spoon contest was organized in October 2013 with 103 contestant teams. The second season was organized in May 2014 with 140 teams. Out of them there were 43 restaurants and 4 and 5-star hotels located throughout the country, and the contest was organized at 10 different locations. Also in the same season, 77 outlets from 26 provinces attended the “My Hometown Flavor” festival offering traditional dishes and flavors.

The Golden Spoon Contest will take place with three rounds: Premilinary rounds at six locations spread along the country; semi-final and final rounds. The third edition of the Golden Spoon contest has the theme “Traditional Vietnamese cuisine goes international- Vietnam Spices Journey” with five criteria:

1. Searching traditional and rustic dishes with ingredients and spices that are typical and have regional culture features from throughout the country with the message: “Every single dish will promote culture for its own region.”

2. Find talented chefs who have knowledge about nutrition and local or healthy eating, ensure the cooking is done properly and address creation, refined display and art in presentation to lift Vietnamese cuisine up to an international level.

3. The dish has to promote the existing value of Vietnam’s cuisine; “not only delicious but also nutritious.”

4. Honoring excellent chefs and restaurants that have developed and enriched Vietnamese cuisine and culture.

5. Build an advanced culinary industry. Accelerate the movement of "culinary tourism" in Vietnam by gradually building a brand of national culinary tourism to attracting increasingly large numbers of international tourists.

* About Ly’s Horeca products

Ly’s Horeca products of Minh Long Co. Ltd have more than 250 product codes, provide a wide range of products that are specialized for the Horeca channel to serve retail customers, elite or group customers, wedding or party customers and follow both Asian and European style with many various art forms. Products are produced with high quality ceramic material that are heated in a high temperature and covered by delicate enamel applied by nano technology to effectively get its solid, durability and scratch resistance. In addition, Ly 's Horeca also undergoes testing for the most discerning standards of Europe to ensure the system is compatible with oven, microwave , dishwasher and restaurants.

The designers of the German - French collaboration with Minh Long I chose an ivory white uniform for this product according to the general trend of high-end restaurants in the world. Ivory coordinates with subdued light of the restaurant, the hotel offers warm, friendly and closer feeling for the competition’s banquet.

As a sole sponsor of the national Golden Spoon contest, Ly's Horeca is very proud to facilitate talented and excellent chefs of Vietnamese cuisine to have better conditions to flourish. It could be said that this is a cooperation of the elite between Vietnam cuisine and products made of ceramic formed through the sophisticated creativity of Minh Long I artisans.

* About Minh Long I Co. Ltd

Minh Long I Co., was established in 1970, but in fact until now it was the 4^th successor of the Li family in Vietnam; a tradition of pottery that began from the time of Mr. Ly Ngoc Minh’s grandfather (founders) as of now has more than 100 years. In addition to the first standard for high quality of products, Minh Long I also invests in research on both artistic expression through individual product designs and floral motifs. The cultural beauty, the hometown image bearing deep Vietnamese cultural traditions as well as the cultures of the countries in the world are portrayed by the company and integrated into each product so that the design retains the characteristics of that culture, but still have the modern style at international level. It is now present throughout the country, alongside other leading ceramic brands.

Minh Long I ceramics company always saw his product as his baby so all must be taken care, educated and take exams. The company has four “no” criteria: no time, no borders, no gender, no age. Likewise they keep four “yes” criteria: culture, art, style and soul. The product of Minh Long I ever-deserving to be called one of the top manufacturers of ceramics in the world.

For further information please contact:

Mr Quang Linh

HP: 0918 23 89 85

Email: linh@minhlong.com

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(*)Support guests of the Golden Spoon Contest 2015 to understand about Minh Long I ceramic products. Location for picking up: 163 Pasteur, Ward 6, District 3, HCM City. HCM - Binh Duong: 7 AM, 10 AM, 13 PM. Binh Duong-HCM: 11 AM, 15 PM, 19 PM. For guests who have needs please register and confirm participation before December 1st 2015 followed Ms Huynh Thi Suong 0902.800.396 - Hotline 0947 039 206