Like athletes, chefs from all over the world specializing in Chinese cuisine have their own "Olympic Games" - the World Championship of Chinese Cuisine.

This June, the fourth World Championship of Chinese Cuisine will be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

"It will be another great party for all the excellent chefs who are keen on Chinese cuisine to demonstrate their culinary skills," said Wang Jiagen, Secretary General of the World Association of Chinese Cuisine (WACC), which is the initiator of the competition.

Founded in 1991, WACC has successfully organized three sessions of the contest - in 1992 and 1996 in Shanghai, and in 2000 in Tokyo. About 220 chefs competed in the 2000 competition in Tokyo.

Wang said that the number of participants this time is expected to top that of all previous competitions.

Chefs will compete in four different categories: hot dishes, Chinese snacks, cold plates and fruit and vegetable carving.

Taste, texture, concept, colour, hygiene, cutting technique and theme will be the criteria the jury consider in judging the chefs' creations. The jury is composed of top chefs selected from across China.

A detailed scoring system has been established for the jury members to follow to ensure that the voting is consistent and objective.

The championship was originally held once every four years, but the 4th session comes only two years after the 3rd one in Japan as a result of requests from chefs of Chinese cuisine from hotels and restaurants and people in the food industry around the world.

"The championship itself is a result of the booming development of Chinese cuisine around the world," explained Wang. "And for its part, the contest encourages the improvement of Chinese culinary skills and engenders a keen sense of competition around the world.

In the last championship in Japan, chefs from China won 11 gold medals out of a total of 12.

(China Daily March 30, 2002)