{"id":4858,"date":"2019-04-28T18:25:35","date_gmt":"2019-04-28T10:25:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2.ift.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/?p=4858"},"modified":"2019-04-28T18:29:45","modified_gmt":"2019-04-28T10:29:45","slug":"ift-chefs-to-compete-against-global-peers-in-hong-kong-contest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/ift-chefs-to-compete-against-global-peers-in-hong-kong-contest\/","title":{"rendered":"IFT chefs to compete against global peers in Hong Kong contest"},"content":{"rendered":"\u4e2d\u6587\u6458\u8981 \/ Summary in Chinese<\/span>\n

Chefs Ronald Gonzales and Jimmy Cao of IFT\u2019s Educational Restaurant are representing the Institute at the upcoming Hong Kong International Culinary Classic (HKICC). The competition \u2013 aimed at promoting culinary excellence \u2013 is one of the highlights of HOFEX, a leading food and hospitality trade show that takes place once every 2 years in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n

HKICC is certified by the World Association of Chefs\u2019 Societies, a body also known as Worldchefs. This year\u2019s edition features more than 20 culinary categories and takes place from 7 to 10 May, at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.<\/p>\n

Chef Gonzales, a pastry specialist, has participated in HKICC many times. He has been a trophy winner at the event, and at other international contests.<\/p>\n

This year, Chef Gonzales is taking part in the \u201cPastry \u2013 Professional Display: Showpiece \u2013 Chocolate\u201d category at HKICC. Competitors are required to demonstrate their abilities using a range of decorating techniques involving chocolate, applied to a single pastry item at least 60 centimetres in height.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a great opportunity, for I am not only competing with people from Macao, but from all over Asia,\u201d Mr Gonzales states. He adds that competing regularly is a good way to ensure he refreshes his skills and knowledge.<\/p>\n

Chef Gonzales, who was born in the Philippines, says ability in the culinary arts is something that runs in his family. He represents a third consecutive generation of his family to have worked as a chef.<\/p>\n

He has been at IFT for more 10 years. He started as a part-time instructor at the Institute, while also working in the industry. \u201cI became impressed by the students, who really wanted to learn about pastry,\u201d Chef Gonzales explains. \u201cI thought that with my experience, I could help the younger generations to develop their skills.\u201d<\/p>\n

He recommends that IFT students should take part in culinary competitions, in order to learn new skills and to prepare for life as professionals. \u201cI am happy to help, and teach them\u201d to prepare for contests, Chef Gonzales says. \u201cI like to share my experience and create things with students. This requires a lot of time, but it\u2019s worthwhile to see the students being able to motivate themselves and really wanting to improve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chef Gonzales is preparing for the 2019 edition of HKICC amid his busy schedule at IFT. His work for the event will need to be \u201cthe best of the best,\u201d he says. \u201cMy target in this competition is to bring honour to IFT, and to make my students understand that \u2013 under the pressure brought by competition \u2013 we can eventually achieve more\u201d than might be expected. He adds his motto is \u201cnever be afraid, never give up\u201d.<\/p>\n

Chef Cao shares a similar passion for culinary work. He has been a professional chef for more than 16 years, and joined IFT 4 years ago. He specialises in Western cuisine.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are differences between working in the kitchen of a large hotel and at IFT: the latter is more like a normal restaurant, as everyone in the kitchen actually needs to be involved in all procedures, while in large hotels usually staff specialise in different tasks,\u201d Chef Cao says.<\/p>\n

He will be competing at HKICC for the first time, in the \u201cWestern Cuisine \u2013 Professional: Pork Loin\u201d category. Competitors will have to prepare and present, within 60 minutes, 1 main-course dish, in the form of 3 servings with appropriate garnish.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have joined some competitions before, but all only at regional level in Macao. This is larger in scale,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Chef Cao plans to introduce some Macanese cuisine elements to his dish for HKICC. \u201cThe competition I am facing comes from all around the world,\u201d he notes. \u201cMacanese cuisine is found only in Macao, and through this opportunity, I can promote this special type of cuisine to other people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chef Cao believes that by participating in HKICC he can broaden his horizons and gain additional experience. He hopes to learn new things and widen his professional network. \u201cAs Macao is getting more internationalised, both young and senior chefs should join this type of competition, to enrich their knowledge and gain inspiration for new ideas,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chefs Ronald Gonzales and Jimmy Cao of IFT\u2019s Educational Restaurant are representing the Institute at the upcoming Hong Kong International Culinary Classic (HKICC). The competition \u2013 aimed at promoting culinary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":4857,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[136,62],"tags":[150,1080,1081,1079,1078,1077],"class_list":["post-4858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-main_headline","category-utm-life","tag-educational-restaurant","tag-hkicc","tag-hofex","tag-hong-kong-international-culinary-classic","tag-jimmy-cao","tag-ronald-gonzales"],"views":52,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4858"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4862,"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4858\/revisions\/4862"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}