Seng Cu steamed rice –special rice grown in ladder rice fields - cooked with pork. Photo: Nguyen Trinh
When Mrs. Mika Sharon, culinary ambassador of Israel, went to Hoa Sua Cooking school she cooked many dishes to introduce Israeli cuisine. They are also European dishes like beef and salmon, but the ingredients accompanying were very different. She mixed a lot of local vegetables in these dishes. Passion fruit, pineapple, coriander, orange, red onion were all mixed together. A famous chef who used to cook for Madonna shared that nowadays people tend to use predominantly local ingredients to cook because it keeps the foods fresh.
This trend is also applied by many Vietnamese chefs. This was also addressed very clearly in the preliminary round of the professional Golden Spoon contest in Hanoi.
A hotel in Hai Phong province who attended the contest used local lobster to make soup with red bird’s nest from Nha Trang. Another outlet in Hanoi made green tea mousse with three kinds of “ô mai”- a kind of candy/jam made from cooking fruits with sugar then drying them.
“Ô mai” is one of Hanoi’s specialties, honored as one of the capital’s most unique dishes. A hotel from Sapa brought a live sturgeon fish. The fish was cleaned right at the cooking place to get the fresh eggs to use in the contest. This fish was raised at the fish farm of the restaurant’s owner.
Quang Ninh team showed their special dish: “sá sùng”- a sea worm- cooked with piper lolot. The “sá sùng” was still alive and moving on ceramic plating dish. Before the official cooking time all ingredients looked like a blooming flower garden. And when all of them were displayed on the party table no one could turn their back on the diversity of all the dishes.
Besides that, with the support of ceramic dishes, glasses and bowls of Minh Long could withstand the weight and heat of the dishes.
There was no repetition of the crockery. The long dish was most suitable for stuffed gourd with steamed fished that was carved in the shape of a dragon. The square dish offered enough space for a whole bamboo with grilled veal and green leaf steamed rice. The small, deep dish in the shape of a leaf delightfully held the ice cream fried with aloe vera. A small bowl was suitable for the sauce served with banana flower salad. The small dish has the shape of a golden bar for black sturgeon eggs which is also as expensive as gold.
One member of the judges – Master Chef David Thai - evaluated the party table carefully and even stopped occasionally to take a photo with a smile on his face. There were many dishes that made the judges feel happy and warm. Most of them were a combination of recipes for cooking Vietnamese food. Just a few of them were recipes featuring European dishes. Chef David Thai said, “I like this combination as well as the way they were presented.”
After the semi-final round in Hanoi finished, the other semi-final round will be organized for 32 teams coming from Mekong Delta, Southeast and Ho Chi Minh City to select the other finalists. The last competition will be organized in Binh Duong on December 10th to win the honor of the Chef’s Cup and grand prize worth VND 1 billion.
For further information please access website: www.chiecthiavang.com
Followed by Kieu Trinh
Thanh nien