Two Student Chefs Bag Award at 2021 Passadena Creative Seafood x Baking Contest Final
Release Date 27 September 2021 Mandarin
The 2021 Passadena Creative Seafood x Baking Contest was an annual competition hosted by NKUST and sponsored by Pasadena International Group Co., LTD, to give the top prize with a total value of NT$10,000.
The final of the contest was held at Nanzih Campus. The final theme was to use Kaohsiung local seafood to create healthy and friendly desserts for the elderly. This on-campus event invited outside judges to evaluate students' works.
Two student chefs from NKUST won first place, National Ilan University (NIU) the second, and Tainan Nan Ying Senior Commercial & Industrial Vocational School (NYVS) the third and Uni-President special award. All winners were invited to submit their creative plans to Uni-President Corp. Ltd. (Uni-President).
The contest was supported by U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) and Pasadena International Group Co., Ltd (Pasadena). The final was built around the concept of an ageing society. It saw competitors using specially selected local seafood and ingredients to prepare a set of afternoon tea, including quiche, sandwich, and tea cake, with their work being completed on-site within 5 hours.
The Country Director in Taiwan for USW, Boyuan Chen, commented: “Taiwan locally-produced wheat products only account for 1% in its market, whereas Taiwan imports more than 80% of wheat products from the U.S. The USW values the feedback from Taiwanese consumers, as they have the pickiest of taste buds. If the U.S wheat products can win over the hearts of the Taiwanese, they certainly capture the hearts of consumers around the globe.”
Our VP for OAA, Dr. Hsieh, Shu-Ling, stated that NKUST Seafood Science Department (DSFS) built a training building for students to utilize knowledge and skills they learned in classrooms at the campus. Dr. Hsieh was also co-project head of the Ministry of Education USR project, “Revitalizing Yung An Fishing Village: A Project to Develop Innovative Local Products.” Indeed, she recommended the contest to Yung An Fishermen's Association, who provided fresh seafood for competition teams creating elder-friendly protein food.
Earlier this year, the preliminary contest was not held in a physical venue due to the COVID. Still, there were 17 teams that joined the preliminary, such as KSVS, CSVS, NYVS, SAVS, NIU, HKU, and other institutions. NKUST sent all ingredients to competition teams. They created dishes at their schools and sent complete products back to NKUST for judgment. Eight of them made it to the final.
Students' works were judged by Huang, Li-Fang (黃麗芳), chef of Pasadena, Su, Siao-Fen (蘇曉芬), chef of Chi Mei Frozen Food, Lai, Yan-Liang (賴彥良), chef of President Nisshin Corp (President Nisshin) and the other three experts.
NKUST student chefs won first place with their work “Fishing Village Trilogy (魚鄉三部曲).” Their idea came from a poem written by Poet Li Shen (李紳). One of the desserts called “each grain is the fruit of the farmer’s labor (粒粒皆辛苦)” attracted heated discussion among chefs.
Judges praised the 2021 finalists for mixing flour with rice flour or other grains to create low glycemic index food and using local ingredients, such as sergestid shrimp, sweet potato, purple yam, mochi, and quinoa, to trigger the childhood memory of consumers. It was a touch one for judges.
The challenge of this final included inventing elderly-friendly fish desserts. Still, many young chefs strove to create their best dishes. Some even amazed judges and showed the potential to be a product on the store shelves.
“It is a great opportunity for students turning their design of creative dishes into actual product.”
DSFS Associate Professor Hou, Chih-Yao (侯智耀) stressed: “It is a great opportunity for students turning their design of creative dishes into actual product.”
Several organizations sponsored food ingredients for the contest. For example, Uni-President supported flours, President Nisshin kinds of butter, and Yung An Fishermen's Association fishes.
All winners were invited to submit their product proposals to Uni-President and to learn through the process from product design to mass production.
Further Reading
Translated/Edited by Jess Lin
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