HCM CITY — Austrian chef Eckart Witzigmann, who received the award "Chef of the Century” from the Gault Millau guide and has worked at prestigious restaurants around the world, will take part in the 2016 Golden Spoon cooking contest to be held in three cities in the country.

Witzigmann will be the judge at the Chiếc Thìa Vàng (Golden Spoon) contest, which aims to identify the country’s best chefs and dishes, the organisers said at the launch of the contest in Bình Dương Province.

Themed “Hương vị quê nhà - Hành Trình Gia Vị Việt” (Homeland Tastes - Journey of Vietnamese Spices), the contest will take place in Hà Nội, HCM City and Đà Nẵng, with the qualifying round from June 7 to September 29. 

The semi-final rounds in the north and south will be organised in Hà Nội on October 11-12 and HCM City on October 25-27. The final round will be held in HCM City on December 6-7. 

The total prize this year will exceed US$135,000.

Co-organised by the Việt Nam National Administration of Tourism, the Việt Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Bình Dương-based porcelain manufacturer Minh Long I Company and the Business Support Academy, the cooking contest aims to seek talented chiefs who can create world-class Vietnamese dishes from each region of the country. 

The past three cooking contests help to promote Vietnamese cuisine as a main economic contributor and also contribute to healthy lifestyle, said Lý Huy Sáng, deputy general director of Minh Long 1 and deputy head of the cooking contest’s board of organisers.

Speaking at the launch of the contest, Nguyễn Quốc Hưng, deputy general director of Việt Nam National Administration for Tourism (VNAT), said: “Golden Spoon is not only a symbol but also a brand name of the country’s tourism industry.” — VNS.