Expo Culinary Competition: Taiwan Team Defeats 7 Nations to Win Overall Championship

▲ The Taiwan team was formed under the leadership of Huang Pingtang, CEO of Jiangsu Pengpai Catering Group, along with chefs from Sichuan Dian Xiang, Shanghai Da Hong Pao, and other renowned establishments (Photo by Huang Shiyuan).

Reported by Huang Shiyuan / Taipei

The "2015 Expo Culinary and Fashion World Competition," held on August 27 in Milan, the fashion capital of Italy, featured contestants from eight countries including Dubai, Milan, Malaysia, Taiwan, China, Germany, Spain, and Japan. Despite challenges such as customs confiscating their ingredients and a power outage during the competition, the Taiwan team, led by captain Huang Pingtang, defeated seven other nations to claim the top prize at the inaugural Expo Culinary Competition.

The Taiwan team consisted of Huang Pingtang, CEO of Jiangsu Pengpai Catering Group, along with chefs from Sichuan Dian Xiang, Shanghai Da Hong Pao, and other renowned establishments. Huang stated that after winning the invitation from the Italian organizers, he assembled a Taiwan team with members from various backgrounds. They spent about a month preparing, selecting ingredients, and designing dishes. The final menu included abalone soup with lobster, crystal tomato foie gras as an appetizer, golden phoenix dragon king as the main course, Argentine slow-cooked steak, rose laminated pastry, and more.

Although the team spent a month preparing, Huang Pingtang noted that some of the ingredients they prepared before departure were discarded by customs, while others were damaged during the flight. For example, the steak prepared by Song Jianliang was prohibited from being brought into Italy, so they had to urgently purchase local beef upon arrival. Song said that although the locally sourced beef differed slightly from what he had prepared, the quality of foreign beef was still good. He refrigerated it briefly for two days to allow it to mature, then used low-temperature cooking to achieve an Argentine-style steak.

In addition to the issue of ingredients not making it to Italy, Huang Pingtang also mentioned that during the competition, there was a power outage, and team members were separated into different areas. They had to quickly familiarize themselves with the local kitchen equipment. Nevertheless, their final dishes won the favor of the judges, and the Taiwan team took home the overall championship at the Expo Culinary Competition.

The 2015 Expo Culinary and Fashion World Competition was the first edition, with judges including Italian Michelin chef Fabio Baldassarre, renowned Italian food critic Tony Cuman, Secretary-General of the Expo International Fashion Industry Alliance Yang Fan, Honorary Chairman of the World Food Charity Alliance Italian Chapter Carlo, and Italian gourmet Gilda. The second edition of the Expo Culinary and Fashion World Competition is scheduled to take place in 2020.


▲ Lobster and Abalone Soup.


▲ Crystal Tomato Foie Gras Appetizer.


▲ Golden Phoenix Dragon King.


▲ Argentine Slow-Cooked Steak.


▲ Rose Laminated Pastry.