The Golden Spoon Story in... Mediterranean

Runner Hoang My went along Mr. Yan in TV series Taste of Vietnam 2012.

Hello Hoang My. You have followed all the rounds of The Golden Spoon contest 2016, haven’t you?

Of course! I have been watching to see how my candidate doing. I downloaded Golden Spoon apps to follow the contest. The dishes themselves are already attractive.

I’m so interested in exotic food or strange, even weird ingredients, which I did not think of them as edible stuff. Besides, I’m curious to know which teams will go in and which have to go back.

I usually use Golden Spoon apps to learn new cooking methods and how to combine spices. I think who can control the taste can hold the keys to culinary world. Now I’m waiting for the Middle preliminary round that will take place in Da Nang.

It has been 3 months since you became The Golden Spoon ambassador, would you make a brief of what you have done and what your plan is for next months?

Well, the last 3 months were just as quick as a wink. I had filmed a cooking show, in which The Golden Spoon’s last champions and I would instruct how to cook 4 unique dishes from last seasons. The show will be on air soon.

In the meanwhile, I have been updating my activities with The Golden Spoon contest this year on the official face book account so that my friends and followers can follow what has been going on.

Next, I will focus more on professional cooking, sharing keys and tips of using spices from The Golden Spoon contest.

Runner Hoang My met chef-candidates.

You used to say that your passion and talent of cooking was just unsealed since you had studied abroad. You might tell us more detail about it?

People say, “Circumstances alter cases”. Since I had come abroad, no one cooked for me, and I couldn’t eat out forever. Under certain circumstances, I had to work it our. At first, I had made simple and kind of boring things as steamed chicken breast, steamed vegetables, and fruits all the time.

Until a day I had felt for an Israel guy. His food was only bread and cheese, bell peppers and bamba (a featured snack of Israel) all day long. And I wondered.

It came out that his mom was not a good cook so he has had no appetite. His meal has been simple and that basic for years.

Poor guy! I cooked for him a couple basic dishes and surprisingly he loved them. Since then I had had cooked for both of us.

I started learning new dishes from the Internet, and from my mom, my relatives who are restaurants’ owners so that my skill has improved a bit.

Mediterranean cuisine is one of the most nutritious foods because of its ingredients, including many types of beans (cheakpie), seeds (sesame), and vegetable oil (olive oil, almond oil).

High-tech agriculture has also enriched their quality of fruits and vegetables. The main city Tel Aviv, where I’m living, has a diverse culinary culture because people from different culture have gathered here.

Beside featured dishes of Middle East, as hummus, falafel, and shawama, they have European food (pizza, hamburger), and also Asian food (predominantly Thai and Japanese).

Comparing with other countries in the world, Israel food is very delicious and quite exotic.

You are a professional athletic so your nutritious need is complicate, isn’t it? How do you balance a delicious yet nutritious meal?

Actually it’s not that complicated. All kinds of dainty food once getting into our bodies will basically become 3 main matters to be absorbed, which are protein, carbohydrate, and fat. Others are vitamins and minerals.

A balance meal should have protein, carb, and fat with 4:4:2 ratio or 5:3:2 and enough essential vitamins.

We prefer proteins from fish, egg whites, and white meat; carbs from fibrous produce as yam, fruits and roots, and brown rice; and fat from olive and almond oil, which contain high omega-3.

Just place all healthy food on the table then you’ll see we can cook many good dishes from them.

Do you have any advice for youngsters’ diets to provide health and beauty?

Unless you were a model, you should exercise one hour a day, 3 days a week. Yoga is the best choice. Do not stick with a diet itself but better make a routine of daily healthy dining and exercise.

Have enough food. Avoid MSG, liquors with high alcohol percentage, and cigarettes. Do not use much sugar, red meat, and instant food, such as instant noodles, snacks, hot dog, or bacon. Prefer sea salt. The most important is to train yourself a healthy habit of slow-eating, well-chewing, enough sleep, being optimistic, and finally, have hope.

Runner Hoang My and The Golden Spoon 2014 champion – chef Tran Thai Bao.

You have been in many journeys of Vietnamese spices discovery. What do you memorize the most?

I love rustic food, such as salad of coconut tree’s tips, fish in hot pot, or shrimps in coconut juice. Having those food under coconut trees is the best.

At that time, Mr. Yan and I drank up a whole bunch of Ben Tre coconut. Far away from our homeland, it’s hard to find a clay hot pot to cook fish. Furthermore, coconuts are different in different places. Only Vietnamese coconut can make the exact taste that I want.

Do you plan to learn professional cooking?

(Laugh) I’ve planed to be a professional diner. Cooking must be considered more. But if there is a cooking contest for all celebrities in Vietnam, I’m in.

Being as a judge in the final round, which elements would you pay the most attention to?

From top to toe: flavors, creativity, healthy aspect, scents, texture when the food touch the tongue, and aestheticism.

Do you have anything else to share?

I’d like to send a message to our readers that Vietnamese cuisine is our recent capital, and will be the next generations’. We should invest in it by reviewing places or dishes in travel apps in English.

Trust me, it helps a lot for now and the future. Now, let’s update to see what the chefs are cooking in The Golden Spoon contest.

Thank you so much.

“Living in the US and Israel, I recognize that Asian food is really attractive. If an Asian restaurant provides good food, it will not have enough tables for diners. The top popular foods there are Japanese, Thai, and Viet Nam. The most memorable characteristic of Vietnamese food is smooth flavors. Vietnamese cuisine does appeal international tourists visiting the country.

We’ve had received enthusiastic complimentary. However, we need to expand our markets to other countries in the world by to open Vietnamese restaurants with imported ingredients in such those countries, to make more clips about how to cook Vietnamese dishes so that foreign people can enjoy our food right in their countries.

The most crowded restaurants are the friendliest ones, where target middle-class diners and single travellers. Those people usually give reviews and feed back on travelling apps, such as TripAdvisor, or Yelp.”

By The Golden Spoon Awards