Huaiyang Cuisine Captures Spirit of Chinese Cooking

NEW YORK—China has enjoyed a history of culinary arts with several regional styles that have been passed down through the generations. Some of the major culinary styles are from Szechuan, Shandong, Huaiyang, Canton and the Northeast. Each of which has unique techniques and ingredients depending on local availability.

To capture the spirits of each of these regional cuisines was the goal of a first-of-its-kind culinary competition held in New York this week.

New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDTV) presented The First Global Chinese Culinary Competition at the Peking Hunan Park Restaurant on Nov. 17^th and 18^th and will close with a banquet dinner on the 19th.  This competition is one of a series of nine artistic and cultural competitions sponsored by NTDTV with the main mission of reviving traditional and classical Chinese art and culture.

The spirit of the culinary competition is to disseminate orthodox Chinese culinary skills and educate people about Chinese cuisine and culture. Many chefs from around the world including China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Europe, Canada, and the United States participated in this competition with 43 contestants entering the final round.

Within an hour, the contestants must complete two dishes specific to the regional cuisine of their expertise—one required dish, and another of their own choosing. Although they were provided with platters to display their creation, some chose to bring their own for display.

Chinese cooking uses nearly 40 different techniques, most of which have no equivalent in the English language. Chinese cooking is guided by the principals of Yin and Yang. For Yin, there’s boiling, steaming, and poaching. For Yang, it includes roasting, deep-frying, among others. Certain foods are also associated with Yin and Yang. For example, combining a winter food like lamb with a summer food like cucumber will compromise the body’s internal balance. That is why in Old China, people said, “food is medicine and medicine is food.”

Spotlight: Huaiyang Cuisine

Under intense pressure from the clock, chefs one by one completed their dishes and presented them to the judges. While the creations from all regions were delicate and tasty, one culinary style stood out for its cultural depth: Huaiyang cuisine.

It uses simple ingredients that are rarely expensive. Huaiyang cuisine, which represents the cooking of the Shanghai region, is characterized by attention to three areas: precision, harmony, and freshness.

Precision refers to the cleanliness of each cut made and meticulousness in all aspects of creating a dish. Knifing techniques such as rolling knife and carving uses primarily one tool: the meat cleaver. A qualified chef can slice a piece of dried tofu one inch thick into hundreds of uniform slivers.

Harmony refers to a naturalistic view of food. Ingredients that wouldn’t normally occur together in nature would not be used in the same dish.

Freshness refers to the preservation of natural flavors.