Annual culinary festival to be held in Saigon

Taste of Korea: Bibimbap – a popular Korean dish of rice topped with fresh and cooked vegetables, raw or grilled beef and an egg. Visitors to the Taste of the World food festival will have the chance to learn about traditional Korean dishes.- File Photo

Held annually by the city's Department of Tourism, the event aims to create more opportunities for cultural exchange, tourism promotion and international friendships.

Last year, the event featured 80 display booths with hundreds of dishes from 22 countries and territories around the world, and attracted 200,000 locals and international visitors.

Nguyen Bao Anh, deputy director of the HCM City Tourism Promotion Centre, said at a press conference yesterday that the scale of this year's event was expected to grow 20-30 per cent compared to last year. The event is expected to receive 300,000 visitors.

He added that Greece and New Zealand would join the festival for the first time.

The main activity of the food festival involves cooking and serving specialties at each booth from 9am to 10pm during the four days of the event.

The South Korea-based World Food Culture Centre (WFCC) will have a specific area introducing and teaching about the cooking of traditional Korean dishes.

Anh said the Saigon Professional Chef Association was expected to set two new records for Guinness Viet Nam with vegetarian foods and fruit carving.

Anh said visitors would have a chance to see a fruit arrangement in form of a bronze drum decorated with two dragons from the Ly Dynasty.

In addition, the Five-Star Hotel Chef Party on the third day of the festival will take place on the main stage with the participation of 22 five-star hotels and high-ranking restaurants.

Others include music and dance performances, ASEAN photo exhibition, Bartender shows, and a talk show with winners of the three latest seasons of the cooking contest Chiec Thia Vang (Golden Spoon).