The world-class Chaoshan cuisine exhibition was held for the first time in Shantou

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Text, Image/Yangcheng Evening News All Media Reporter Zhao Yingguang Zeng Kequan Yao Zhide Intern Chen Zimin

On the morning of the 12th, the Chaoshan Historical and Cultural Expo Center in Shantou was bustling with people and delicious food. A grand event in the Chaoshan food industry, which integrates beauty food appreciation, cultural exchange, and skill competition, the 2024 World Chaoshan Cuisine Conference, opened here.

This world-class Chaoshan cuisine exhibition will last for 3 days and is the first time held in Shantou city. During this time, a series of activities will be held, including the first Shantou Catering Industry Expo, Chaoshan International Forum, Chaoshan Prefabricated Vegetable Production Competition, World Chaoshan Cuisine Master Performance Competition, and "Eating in Guangdong" Bay Area Food Carnival. The "Chaoshan Cuisine Think Tank" and Food City Alliance will also be established, and the joint construction of an "International Food Brand City" will be launched, Committed to "creating an important window for promoting Chaoshan cuisine culture and showcasing the charm of Chaoshan cuisine", "gathering industrial resources, promoting the development of Chaoshan cuisine industry chain and ecosystem", "promoting the high-quality development of Shantou Chaoshan cuisine industry, further enhancing Shantou's international influence and competitiveness" and other goals.

Inviting guests from all over the world to share the "trendy taste"

Chaoshan cuisine has a long history and is an important part of Chaoshan culture. It is also a famous card of Shantou at home and abroad. It has won Shantou the reputation of "the hometown of Chaoshan cuisine in China", "the national food landmark city" and so on. Chaoshan cuisine has also followed the footsteps of Chaoshan people, venturing into Southeast Asia and exploring the world, becoming a nostalgia on the tongue of overseas Chaoshan people.

In recent years, the Shantou Municipal Party Committee and Government have taken the comprehensive implementation of the "Guangdong Cuisine Master" project as a guide and vigorously promoted the development of the Chaoshan cuisine industry. At present, there are more than 40000 catering enterprises in Shantou city, including nearly 50 national and provincial-level famous restaurants, with over 500000 catering employees, accounting for nearly 10% of the city's permanent population. There are 72 inheritors of intangible cultural heritage related to catering and cooking.

On this basis, how to further promote the agglomeration of Chaoshan cuisine industry resources and achieve new breakthroughs in Chaoshan cuisine industry brand and scale?

"Combining the exhibition economy, using 'meetings' to lead' exhibitions', integrating the upstream and downstream industrial resources of Chaoshan cuisine, creating a Chaoshan cuisine characteristic exhibition brand, and promoting the integrated development of Chaoshan cuisine related industries." This is an active exploration and attempt by many Shantou catering professionals to solve the above problems, and the 2024 World Chaoshan Cuisine Conference is an important lever for this exploration and attempt.

Following the concept of "promoting exhibitions through exhibitions", there are three exhibition areas set up at the venue of this conference, namely the Taste of Shantou exhibition area, the Food Supply Chain exhibition area, and the Greater Bay Area Food Carnival exhibition area. Among them, the taste of all kinds of seafood, beef balls, lion head geese, Chaoshan rice cakes and other Chaoshan dishes in the Shantou exhibition area filled the whole venue with "Chaoshan" flavor, and many citizens and tourists linger in front of more than 200 special catering brand stalls, shopping and punching cards; The food supply chain exhibition area also attracts guests to visit pre made dishes such as meat and seafood, as well as various intelligent cooking equipment.

This conference also attracted 10 renowned Chaoshan chefs from both domestic and foreign markets to showcase their culinary skills on site. Through unique cooking techniques, they exchanged and exchanged culinary skills with Chaoshan cuisine, showcasing and promoting stunning visual and gustatory Chaoshan cuisine.

82 experts hired as "Chaoshan Cuisine Think Tank"

In recent years, with the continuous exploration of Chaoshan cuisine, Shantou has officially emerged as a "food island". With the opening of the Shanwei to Shantou South section of the Shantou High Speed Railway, Shantou is attracting more "foodies" to cross the mountains and rivers, immersing themselves in Shantou cuisine.

How to ride the "east wind" of this world-class Chaoshan cuisine exhibition, further build the Chaoshan cuisine industry chain and ecosystem, and promote the global dissemination of Chaoshan cuisine and Chaoshan cuisine culture? The Shantou Chaoshan Cuisine Development Expert Committee (Chaoshan Cuisine Think Tank) established at the opening ceremony of the conference is a beneficial exploration and vivid practice of Shantou's "using intelligence as the driving force, steering direction, and further enhancing the endogenous driving force of Chaoshan cuisine industry development".

The reporter found that the first batch of 82 cultural celebrities, industry experts, chefs, and others from both domestic and foreign countries were hired as "storage" think tanks, with Chinese culinary master Dong Zhenxiang, who is renowned both domestically and internationally for his "Da Dong Roast Duck," serving as the general consultant.

"The establishment of a think tank is an important measure for Chaoshan cuisine to actively integrate with the international community, and will also provide intellectual support for the high-quality development of the Chaoshan cuisine industry." Huang Jinghui, an expert at the Chaoshan cuisine think tank and Michelin's two star famous chef, said in a media interview that they will work together to leverage the "external brain" advantages of the think tank, fully leverage important functions such as technological leadership, further broaden their horizons, and empower the Chaoshan cuisine industry to carry out international and domestic exchanges and cooperation, To create a regional culinary highland in Shantou, and to promote the high-quality development of Chaoshan cuisine.

Yesterday afternoon, the conference also held the Guangdong Catering Industry Development Conference and the 7th China Catering Industry Business Model and Capital Operation Summit Forum. Experts and scholars from various organizations such as the China Food and Beverage Industry Research Institute and the China Grain and Oil Society have engaged in ideological collisions and exchanges around the future development, brand rise, and innovation of Chaoshan cuisine. Through discussions, they have explored the development path of Chaoshan cuisine and even the national catering industry.

Xing Ying, President of the World Federation of Chinese Food Industry, stated that Chaoshan cuisine is not only an excellent representative of China's exquisite culinary skills, but also a cultural ambassador who tells the story of Chinese cuisine to the world. I hope that Shantou can take this conference as an opportunity to comprehensively promote Chaoshan cuisine culture, accelerate the development process of Chaoshan cuisine industry throughout the entire chain, promote the global development of Chaoshan cuisine throughout the process, comprehensively strengthen international food exchange and cooperation, and achieve creative transformation and innovative development of Chaoshan cuisine at a high level.