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Top catering school dreams up a menu fit for Confucius

Teachers and students from a Taipei catering school on Thursday presented a six-course menu to salute Confucius (孔子) — the philosopher whose teachings have been followed by Chinese societies for more than two millennia.

The students of the Culinary Department of Taipei Kaiping Vocational School, which is a multiple prize-winner in cooking competitions at home and abroad, developed the six courses after making a field trip to Confucius’ hometown of Qufu in the northern Chinese province of Shandong in June.

There they learned the essence and culinary arts of the Confucius family that have been passed down through the generations.

SIX COURSES

The six courses are: poached seasonal vegetables; stewed tofu; roasted grouper fillet with ginger and purple perilla; braised pork with oolong tea; assorted grain noodles with shrimp and green onion; and buns of taro and Yilan citrus.

Addressing the presentation, Hsia Hui-wen (夏惠汶), founder of Taipei Kaiping, said the teachers and students developed the courses based on the spirit of Confucian lineage cooking — processing and cooking in a style that turns plain ingredients into elaborate dishes.

Liu Kuan-hung, a chef and director in charge of the school’s Chinese culinary teaching and administrative affairs, said traditional Confucius family cooking involves no frying and most of the dishes are prepared by braising, poaching, roasting and stewing — making the dishes light and delicate.

However, Liu said, the so-called Confucius family cuisine that people find nowadays generally tastes spicy, sometimes sour, salty and oily.

SUCCESS

Students of Taipei Kaiping — the second-largest culinary institution in the nation — are no strangers to success in domestic and international cooking contests.

The Kaiping students’ most recent successes were a gold medal won by Wang Hsin-chuan (王信博) and Liu Chieh-ling (劉倢伶) for a duck entree called the Duck Trio in the fourth City-Cup International Secondary School Culinary Competition held on the Gold Coast in Australia earlier this month.

Kaiping, which dubs itself “The Chef’s Factory,” teaches Chinese and Western cooking techniques.
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