A group of Taiwanese chefs have been selected to tour 20 countries across the Americas, Europe and Asia to promote Taiwanese cuisine, the Overseas Community Affairs Council said on Tuesday.
The chefs were recruited to participate in 106 gourmet lectures at 55 locations as part of the International Tour of Taiwan Gourmet Cuisine, touring from next month to October, the council said.
The chefs are to run cooking demonstrations, consult with overseas Taiwanese restaurant owners and visit catering businesses in efforts to promote cultural exchanges and conduct “citizen diplomacy,” it said.
Photo: Lu Yi-hsuan, Taipei Times
The council has organized the tour annually since 2010 to assist catering businesses run by overseas Taiwanese, promote Taiwanese cuisine and enhance Taiwan’s international visibility, it said.
The event is returning to its usual size after being suspended in 2020 and 2021 and downsized last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A chef and an assistant are to work in pairs in nine regions — the western and eastern regions of the US and Canada, the southern US, Central America, South America, Oceania, Europe, Asia-Pacific and continental Asia.
Photo: Lu Yi-hsuan, Taipei Times
Council Deputy Minister Ruan Jhao-syong (阮昭雄) handed letters of appointment to the chefs on Tuesday and wished them well.
The chefs were drawn from across Taiwan for their diverse expertise in Hakka and indigenous cuisines, along with environmentally friendly recipes and food presentation skills.
Tsai Wan-li (蔡萬利), director of the Department of Restaurant Management at Chi-ying Senior High School, plans to demonstrate a recipe that employs cuttlefish balls to complement works by world-champion fruit carver Yang Sheng-kai (楊勝凱) in the US and Canada.
Chang Ko-chin (張克勤), executive chef of indigenous restaurant Badasan, and Hamp Court Palace executive chef Lu Kai-yuan (路凱源) have created a presentation of diverse delicacies, including mullet roe and shrimp marinated in indigenous fermented rice wine, for their tour in the southern US.
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. (THSRC) plans to ease strained capacity during peak hours by introducing new fare rules restricting passengers traveling without reserved seats in 2026, company Chairman Shih Che (史哲) said Wednesday. THSRC needs to tackle its capacity issue because there have been several occasions where passengers holding tickets with reserved seats did not make it onto their train in stations packed with individuals traveling without a reserved seat, Shih told reporters in a joint interview in Taipei. Non-reserved seats allow travelers maximum flexibility, but it has led to issues relating to quality of service and safety concerns, especially during
A magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck Chiayi County at 4:37pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 36.3km southeast of Chiayi County Hall at a depth of 10.4km, CWA data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Chiayi County, Tainan and Kaohsiung on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Pingtung, Taitung, Hualien, Changhua, Nantou and Penghu counties, the data
The Supreme Court today rejected an appeal filed by former Air Force officer Shih Chun-cheng (史濬程), convicted of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) espionage, finalizing his sentence at two years and two months for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法). His other ruling, a ten-month sentence for an additional contravention, was meanwhile overturned and sent to the Taichung branch of the High Court for retrial, the Supreme Court said today. Prosecutors have been notified as Shih is considered a flight risk. Shih was recruited by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) intelligence officials after his retirement in 2008 and appointed as a supervisor