Five cooks working in the Ministry of National Defense’s service battalion are to compete in this year’s Taiwan Culinary Exposition cooking competition on July 21.
It is the first time that military personnel on active duty are to compete in the annual contest, the Taiwan Visitors Association said.
The association, which organizes the exposition, said that individuals or teams participating in the competition are to be evaluated by 15 culinary experts from Taiwan and abroad, who will choose the gold medal winners in the individual and team competitions.
Each team in the competition must consist of five to seven members, the association said, adding that participants must create a buffet of at least 10 dishes within the time limit and it should be sufficient to feed 30 people.
In addition to evaluations from culinary experts, visitors will be able to sample the food and vote for the teams as well.
The final marks for each team are to be calculated by combining the experts’ and visitors’ ratings, although the experts’ ratings would carry more weight in the final decision.
Military personnel participating is significant, as the public often stereotypically believe that military cooks lack culinary skills and are only capable of cooking large quantities, the association said, adding that the team’s performance would likely help improve the image of the military.
Of the seven team members, six are professional soldiers and one is a conscript. The youngest is 21 years old, while the oldest is 29 — a major contrast to the other teams, most of which are made up of experienced cooks, the association said.
The seven soldiers volunteered to join the competition and have been practicing in their own time, the service battalion said.
Minister of National Defense Feng Shih-kuan (馮世寬) has been paying close attention to the competition and has requested that a T-shirt be designed for the team uniform, the battalion said.
Feng also taught the soldiers how to make salted and fermented vegetables in the tradition of military dependents’ villages, which uses only carrots, onions, cabbage, water and salt as ingredients.
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