The 11th Macao International Travel (Industry) Expo (MITE), organised by the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO), is a professional international tourism exhibition and Macao's first tourist product consumption show. This year's Expo featured renowned chefs from Cities of Gastronomy across the world, who demonstrated their unique culinary skills at the City of Gastronomy (CoG) Showcase and offered wine education to local students. IFTM Culinary Arts Management (CAM) Programme team had the honour of assisting in the organisation of the CoG Showcase, thanks to the invitation from MGTO and MITE. IFTM faculty member Mr. Oscar Ho delivered two wine education Seminars in the event.
The planning and preparation began in April 2023, with Dr. Christy Ng, Ms. Marieta Wong, and Mr. Benjamin Chen taking the lead and inviting 15 interested students to assist the renowned chefs in the backstage and preparation kitchens prior to the event. Ms. Marieta assisted in analysing the chefs' recipes during the event. IFTM team worked closely with all 24 chefs to ensure that the CoG Showcase ran smoothly. In addition to demonstrating their culinary skills, the students established good relationships with the chefs who were pleased with the exhibit and thanked IFTM for the assistance. Through the process, the students benefited greatly from this educational opportunity and learned how to coordinate between various locations, overcome language barriers, work with unfamiliar ingredients, and acquire new culinary skills. MGTO also expressed appreciation to the IFTM students who found such experience highly valuable.
During the exhibition, Mr. Oscar Ho delivered two wine education seminars" Introduction to Wine Tasting Sensory Techniques" and "Introduction to Wine and Winemaking" to enhance the participants’ wine appreciation knowledge through wine tasting practices and fundamentals of winemaking.