MGTO and IFT Co-organised Muslim Cuisine Seminar and Cooking Demonstration Workshop to Promote Muslim Friendly Cuisine and Boost Tourism Diversification
12/6/2011
2588/039REL/RP/11
To help hospitality and food and beverage professionals understand Muslim cuisine, stimulate their interest in the cuisine and help them identify non-Halal ingredients which are forbidden in Muslim friendly menus, Macau Government Tourist Office and Institute for Tourism Studies co-organised IFT Introduction to National Cuisines & Cooking Demo Series：Muslim Cuisine Seminar and Cooking Demonstration Workshop on 6 December 2011. Chef Farouk bin Othman, Chef Consultant, and Chef Faizul Rizal bin Mt Akhir, Chef Lecturer of Taylor’s University, Malaysia were invited to share the concepts of Muslim cuisine and demonstrate three traditional recipes.
Macao’s tourism has been growing rapidly. Last year, visitor arrival reached 25 million and the increase in visitors from India and Muslim countries is obvious. MGTO realises the increasing demand for halal gastronomy as there are currently only a few chefs in Macao who are able to provide food that complies with Muslim food regulations. Therefore, MGTO joins hand with IFT in bringing a seminar and workshop that familiarise local chefs with the philosophy and preparation of Muslim friendly cuisine.
Both the organisers hope that the participants will learn how to set up a Muslim friendly buffet menu or breakfast menu after this event and their hotels and restaurants are willing to introduce Muslim elements in their menus to provide more food options to tourists, to meet the needs of different visitors to be in line with the goal of tourism diversification.
IFT has always been dedicated to organise promotions of different ethnic cuisines for the public. At the same time, it arouses the interests of food service industry in Macao to explore more ideas in cooking. Through this Muslim food introduction event, co-organised with MGTO, IFT once again forms a communication platform for local and overseas chefs. The institute will make more efforts to offer more training programmes to help enhance the knowledge and skills of industry professionals.
The whole-day event was composed of three sessions, a Muslim cuisine seminar in the morning, a cooking demonstration workshop in the afternoon and a buffet dinner featuring various active cooking stations with traditional cuisine, as well as western favourites. Twenty three participants of hotel and restaurant Sous Chef or above attended the seminar and workshop at IFT and were presented a certificate for their participation. The two Malaysian chefs brought the traditional Muslim cuisine to those who joined to the dinner, including Eng. João Manuel Costa Antunes, Director of MGTO, Dr. Fanny Vong, President of IFT, General Managers and Executive Chefs of hotels and restaurants and the seminar and workshop participants.