For anyone planning to become a famous chef in China, a big stomach and a flair for art is needed.

The look and smell of Chinese food itself are often enough to arouse a person's appetite, but Chinese cuisine is so extensive that most people only get to taste a tiny amount of what it has to offer the tastebuds.

Now thanks to TV programs on Chinese cuisine, many budding gourmets can catch a glimpse of Chinese food culture simply by pressing the buttons on their remote control.

Just a few years ago, TV programs featuring different cuisines were not as popular as they typically followed a professional chef in a white uniform who taught people how to prepare ingredients and cook a dish.

"Cuisine programs of that time were not at all attractive. Only housewives watched those programs," said Zhou Baoqing, producer of "Bafang Shisheng (Gourmet's Gala)" which has become one of the hottest programs produced by the Beijing Television Station (BTV). Zhou has worked as director of TV cooking programs for 20 years.

She said everyone thought "cuisine programs" were nothing but "odds and ends" with woks and ladles. No one ever believed that TV programs on cuisine could win such popularity among audiences.

The debut of "Gourmet's Gala" in 1999 moved away from traditional cooking programs and caught the attention of audiences with a new approach.

High ratings

No longer an "odds and ends" program, audience ratings have put the program in the top three shows since its debut.

"It is not easy for a cuisine program to succeed," Zhou said.

Two top chefs are invited to cook, making use of just one main ingredient, for instance, fish, or beef. The chefs are required to create three totally different dishes within 50 minutes.

Four experts and gourmet chefs sit in the studio as judges. They offer scores for the dishes according to the taste, color and appearance, as well as the cooking skills of each chef.

"Our program is like an arena in a sports game," said Zhou. "The same major ingredients, same cooking tools, same score criteria with different cooking skills demonstrated by professional chefs show the creative side of Chinese cuisine."

The winner is awarded a "golden chef's hat" and faces another challenge in a following show.

While the contestants are cooking, guests are also told and shown the best ways to preserve food and are also taught nutrition.

"Both the delicate cooking skills of the chefs and the beautiful look of the dishes caught my attention at once," said Yan Mei, a middle school teacher in Beijing who happened to catch the program one night as she flicked through channels.

"To me, cuisine is nothing but a way to fill the stomach, and I am already tired of smelling oil smoke every day in the kitchen. But this program lets me enjoy all the beauty of Chinese cuisine. I suddenly found out that cooking can be so creative."

The major ingredients for each program are usually beef, fish, bean curd, spinach or egg, which can easily be bought at any market, which is another appealing aspect of the program.

Although cooking shows have won widespread popularity, some cooking fans complain that some programs only feature complicated dishes that they have no chance of creating on their own.

Zhou explained that the difference in their program is that it was designed as an entertainment program with the goal of popularizing Chinese cuisine. It is not a traditional program to simply teach people how to cook.

Competing programs

Zhou's program is not the only TV show that goes beyond the kitchen.

"Manhan Quanxi" (The delicacy of China), another cuisine program in the style of competition, shown on China Central Television's Channel 2.

The program is named after the biggest banquet of China that took place in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) in which at least 108 dishes from traditional menus of Han and Manchu cuisine were presented.

The best chefs from across the country send in applications to join the show. (More information is available at http://www.mhqx.com.)

Watching the program is like taking part in a virtual banquet 100 years ago.

Although gameshow-style cuisine programs have been widely accepted by audiences, traditional programs that teach people how to cook have also upgraded their shows in an attempt to appeal to people's appetites.

Professional chefs, who may be good at cooking but are not good at expressing themselves, are replaced by amateur cooks, who are usually well-known entertainers. Although they are not the greatest of cooks, they fill the programs with laughter.

Na Wei, a talk-show host who works for Phoenix Satellite Television, also hosts "Shiquan Shimei," which is a new cuisine program on BTV-7.

The producers chose him largely because of his humor that enchants audiences.

Na said he had never watched cuisine programs before and seldom cooked for himself at home. So his performance in the kitchen is genuinely one of a complete amateur.

"Cuisine itself is entertaining and that should give people some sort of satisfaction," Na said.

"So cooking programs should also be entertaining. Laughing and joking is the best way to achieve this."

"Daily cuisine," a traditional cuisine program on CCTV-1 that serves people with one or two new dishes at noon every day includes Wang Yang, a well-known comedian, as the host.

The popularity of these cuisine programs has established themselves as one of the channels for people to enjoy wonderful Chinese cuisine in the information age.

(China Daily May 22, 2002)