Vietnamese chef first to join prestigious cooking contest

HA NOI — Chef Do Chi Cong from the luxury Sofitel Legend Metropole in Ha Noi will be the first-ever Vietnamese chef to compete at the prestigious cooking contest Bocuse d'Or Asia in Shanghai this month.

The 39-year-old chef will join competitors from nine other Asian countries, including Japan, South Korea, Thailand, China, Malaysia, Singapore and India to showcase his exceptional cooking skills during the three-day contest starting on June 12.

Chefs at the contest will be required to prepare a meat dish with three garnishes of their choice. The main principle ingredients for the main dish include beef tenderloin, oysters and beef cheeks, an exotic but very tough and lean cut of meat that is most often used for braising or slow cooking to produce a tender result.

Last June, Cong beat 11 other chefs from elite restaurants, hotels and resorts across the country to win the Bocuse d'Or Viet Nam. His creations – rolled sturgeon fillets with shrimps in fragrant herbs, young rice crust and stuffed chicken with prawns, pumpkin, and a light curry – wowed the jury, including French master chef Marc Foucher. The judges made evaluations based on taste, level of perfection in presentation, technical skill, cooking sophistication, creativity and visual beauty.-VNS