Chefs from 12 nations had been expected at a Chinese cooking competition that was to begin yesterday in Manhattan. However, the Chinese-language television network that is sponsoring the contest now says that only 11 nations would be represented — including Britain, France and Germany — because one country did not permit its chefs to leave for New York.
That country was China.
The network, New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDT), an independent network with its headquarters in New York, had been counting on 11 chefs from Shanghai to take their places at the cooking stations.
But the network said none of the 11 were allowed to make the trip, though there had been no official explanation about why permission had been denied.
The chef Hua Zhang (張華), who won a gold medal in the contest, the International Chinese Culinary Competition, last year and is now part-owner of a restaurant in Whippany, New Jersey, said he knew five of the would-be contestants and had encouraged them to enter.
The five filled out the required paperwork in preparation for the trip, and one of them had received a visa in July, he said.
The four others had expected their visas to be issued by mid-August.
However, in early August, Zhang said, one of the five called and reported that the police had visited the chef who had received the visa and had confiscated his passport.
“The security people told him they would go visit the other four,” Zhang said.
He would not identify the five chefs for fear of causing them more trouble. He said he had not been able to reach them in recent days.
The chef who called in August had said he was under 24-hour surveillance, Zhang said.
“They threatened him that if he does go,” Zhang said, “the consequences will be severe.
“They said if you dare to go to the competition, think about how your wife and your son will live their lives,” Zhang added. “My friend was afraid.”
The five chefs had already missed the Asia-Pacific preliminary round of the third International Chinese Culinary Competition, which was held on July 24 and July 25 in Kaohsiung. More than 70 chefs took part there.
The North America preliminary round was scheduled for yesterday in New York to accommodate other chefs.
Lei Xi, a vice president of the television network, said Zhang was “feeling so bad that he got his friends into this; that’s a burden he carries now.”
Zhang said he had trouble leaving for the first annual competition in 2008, when he was still living in Shanghai. He said the Chinese authorities stopped him as he boarded his flight and detained him for about 48 hours. He finally arrived in New York just as the competition was ending — he did not get to cook anything. He did not return to China.
Last year, with several partners, he opened Chef Jon’s restaurant in Whippany.
Samuel Zho, the acting executive vice president of the network, said one of its goals was “to provide free-flowing information.”
Network officials said that included showing elements of Chinese culture, like cooking.
New Tang Dynasty Television says Duffy Square in Manhattan would be decorated to look like the Chinese capital from the Tang dynasty. Large video screens will carry the play-by-play during the eight rounds of the competition.
The contest was scheduled to be open to the public yesterday and today.
On Sunday, the network is planning a US$60-a-person reception in the afternoon and US$275-a-person dinner at Pier 60, in the Chelsea Piers complex at West 23rd Street.
The money will go the network, which was organized as a nonprofit corporation and sends its programming to China.
One reason Beijing may be blocking Chinese chiefs from taking part in the cooking competition is that NTDT is affliated with the Falun Gong movement — which is banned in China — and the Epoch Times.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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