At the press conference, the book "The Golden Spoons - the Essence of Vietnamese cuisine" was officially released to the public and was greeted enthusiastically. All the dishes displayed and previous contest winners were gathered. Instructions on how to choose ingredients, processes that needed to be followed and presentations were strictly adhered to. The demonstrations were accompanied by beautiful and vivid pictures.
Along with the launch of the Vietnamese cuisine handbook, the successful, local and regional culinary festivals held in the previous seasons will be replaced by a culinary exchange program between entrepreneurs and managers of restaurants and hotels in the area. In the province where the contest will be taken place, approximately 50 local diners will enjoy a menu of dishes selected from the book "The Golden Spoons - the Essence of Vietnamese cuisine". These will be prepared and served by previous seasons’ winning chefs. After enjoying their meals diners can cook for themselves using recipe instructions from the book.
Quotes from the press conference:
Binh Duong Newspaper: Dear sir, is there any change in the rating method this year?
Mr Sang Huy Ly - Deputy General Director of Minh Long I Co. Ltd. Deputy Chief of the contest: Besides rating on spices and cooking techniques we are also giving scores for the Q&A sessions and some questions about a chef’s expertise (such as food safety and process). I want to find a winner who not only knows how to cook but also has a wide knowledge about food in general.
Marketing world magazine: The theme of Golden Spoon last year is drawing Vietnamese Cuisine map; this year is drawing Vietnam spices. Will these two maps be the same?
Mrs Hanh Kim Vu - Director of BSA Center: “Drawing a Vietnamese cuisine map” is to be a treasure trove of collected, discovered and recovered dishes from over the country. During development process of Vietnamese delicious dishes we heard from experts and realized the difference between Vietnam cuisine with cuisine of other countries is we have a huge treasure of spices which changes according to region, local characteristics and seasons The dishes depend on the various cooking styles of the chefs who created them.
Chef Huan (Chef of Hotel Majestic) said that he is producing a sauce made of breadfruit recently, this proved highly popular among Canadian tourists. I am sure that we will continue to develop this recent innovation. I think a Vietnamese spice map will be more precise than a cuisine map. It means that we can record name of fresh processed and dried spices in each region. Nowadays we are looking to integrate our spices into a chain of global ones.
It is the same story as Vietnam's pepper export which is now being sold in American supermarkets. I think developing Vietnamese spices together with exploring and recording the name of dishes on a Vietnamese spice map is a journey that runs parallel with the Vietnamese cuisine map. They enhance each other, rather than compete. You never know but maybe we will do another map next year to help Vietnam cuisine map and develop the diversity of its cuisine.
TTXVN Newspaper: I really care about the regulation of spices in the contest. Will the Organizing committee be able to control spices that aren’t traditional Vietnamese used for Vietnamese dishes?
Culinary expert Suong Thi Bui: In the two previous seasons most of outlets used Vietnamese spices. The preliminary round has the theme of “Home taste” and we do not guarantee that all contestants will use only Vietnamese spices. The semi-final round is called “Golden dish”. This means that all contestants will present their unique dish and many restaurants will not serve only Vietnamese food but also European dishes. This is a chance for a cultural exchange to be addressed in this contest. Some of restaurants still prepare Vietnamese dishes but modify them, using Western spices. In the final round known as “the Secret black box” the majority of ingredients are Vietnamese and we also try to limit European spices. We have wines of various kinds. The spirit of the contest is to honor Vietnamese cuisine and this remains our focus. We are able to control this and we also hope that both fresh and processed Vietnamese spice will benefit in the long term.
Mr Ly Huy Sang: I knew Vietnamese and western spice from instant Vietnamese coffee, as it is very popular but actually the coffee wasn’t from Vietnam but was imported from France. If we said that we could use only allow Vietnam spices then surely we wouldn’t have any coffee. For example if we talk about Italian food, you will see that there wouldn’t be popular spaghetti, as it was adopted from China. Yet the spaghetti noodle became Italy’s symbol. So I think that although we are honoring what we have in Vietnam, we also have diversity. Therefore we shouldn’t pay too much attention to how it’s called or where it is from. I believe that with a thoughtful innovation we should open our minds to adopting and maintaining good things and make them become our own products.
News Agency newspaper: Will the best cuisine of Binh Duong Province be added into the “Golden Spoon and Essence Vietnam cuisine” book?
Mr Sang Huy Ly: the criteria of the book are to select the best dishes from the contest and it was a pity that Binh Duong team has missed the opportunity to have their name into the Golden Spoon Book. Binh Duong team didn’t attend the contest in 2013. They did in 2014 but went home empty handed. In 2015 we hope that the Binh Duong team will have dishes recorded in the Golden Spoon book. If there are really delicious dishes from Binh Duong but teams don’t want to perform, then we won’t know how to add them into the list of dishes for the Golden Spoon.
Culinary expert Bui Thi Suong: We know that there is a grilled chicken with durian dish in Binh Duong and also a salad made of mangosteen, which is really delicious. But we don’t know if restaurants or hotels still serve these unique dishes. But in festivals they have achieved excellent standards.
Tuoi Tre Newspaper: Last year I had opportunity to join some rounds of the Golden Spoon Contest and I was very interested in spice world. I shared my interest about these spices to my colleagues at the newspaper, and also with my family. They often ask me how we can obtain these spices. Some of the feedback I receive is that they remember spices that I recommended but when they went to look for them, they couldn’t find them in supermarkets or anywhere else. So what we can we do to obtain these spices that have surfaced in wonderful dishes posted in the Media.
Mr Sang Huy Ly: I love to discover new spices and new dishes. I usually face difficulties when I want to find specific spices that I need. We will try to search and update information about spices on the official website of the Golden Spoon, for readers to access it easier.
Tuoi Tre Newspaper: Why is it that this year the number of team was increased but number of locations reduced?
Mr Sang Huy Ly: It does sound illogical at first, but there are two reasons that we had to do this. Firstly because the contest’s scope is getting larger meaning that the contest locations require better furniture and conditions. Secondly if we organize the contest in each province (64 provinces) so it means only contestant of that province will compete to each other. This will limit the opportunity for contestant to exchange and learn from the others. This year we organized at 6 locations rather than 10 as in 2014.
Chefs of previous season preparing dishes selected from the Golden Spoon Book 2013
Tien Phong Newspaper: I feel that after the last two seasons finished, it was a bit of an anti-climax for the contestants. There weren’t many promotional activities for contestants after the contest.
Mr Sang Huy Ly: This is one of the changes we have made this season compared with the last two. We have published the book "The Golden Spoons - the Essence of Vietnamese cuisine" which includes precise information about dishes, restaurants and chefs. This makes it so readers can access these restaurants and enjoy the foods. This is the way we connect people who love the cuisine and like to connect with the chefs. The contest organizing committee is also thinking of establishing a Club called “Golden Spoon Chef Club” to connect chefs who won the prizes in previous season together. This will create a team of professional chefs who can continue to share their passion and promote Vietnamese cuisine. We already enjoy great diversity and refinement and this is welcomed by many international diners from all over the world.
The Club will aim to connect with diplomatic agencies, embassies or service authorities and departments for providing services in VIP parties. Golden Spoon’s Chefs will choose the menu and directly cook dishes selected from the book "The Golden Spoons - the Essence of Vietnamese cuisine". So these chefs not only win the prizes of Golden Spoon program but also have chances to practice in everyday life.
Tien Phong Newspaper: Could you share with us information on the development of Ly’s Horeca?
Mr Sang Huy Ly: The Golden Spoon contest recently coincided with the launch of Ly’s Horeca new range of products. The rate of development of Ly’s Horeca wasn’t so clear because it is suspected that many people only learned of Ly’s Horeca because of the contest. Obvious the quality of Ly’s Horeca’s products stood. But the brand has improved a lot and has especially grown in markets abroad, such as Belgium and Holland. Recently a chain of resorts in France who own 40 restaurant-hotels will change to using Ly’s Horeca products because its design and suitable quality. We sent some samples to them in order to decorate party tables.
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