WACS Asia Continental Director's Monthly Report Prepared June 2004 By Frank Arne Naesheim

Contents

22nd June 2004

Dear President Metz and members of the WACS Executive Board,

I am pleased to send you the June monthly report of activities and statistics from WACS member countries in the Asian region.

Believe you have received the minutes of the regional WACS congress in Korea. We sent out all the minutes to all the attending members by email on 11 May 2004 and also in a package by post, which included a CD with all the presentations and data. We have asked for the members to give us input of what's happening in their countries.

We have received replies from all countries except North Korea to the questionnaire we sent out earlier this year to the Asian region. North Korea's email and phone contact details are not available, and we have not heard from the North Korean Chefs at all.

We are still waiting for an official letter regarding World Chefs Day which we will send out to member countries in our region. Hope we can get one from the president or from Bill Gallagher soon, so we can start planning and gaining support for this great event!

I have managed to put together the information I think is necessary to communicate to WACS, and hope that you will find it useful in the management of the association. We aim to produce this report by the 15th of every month in order to keep you regularly updated, and for further news about what Singapore chefs are up to,

Yours Truly,

Frank A Naesheim

The following chefs associations in Asia have already responded to the general membership questionnaire we sent out in April (see Appendix A).

	Indian Federation of Culinary Associations
	China Cuisine Association
	Hong Kong Chefs Association
	Association of Culinary Professionals Indonesia
	All Japan Cooks Association
	Chefs Association of Malaysia
	Mauritius Chef Association
	Myanmar Chef Association
	Les Toques Blanches (Philippines)
	Singapore Chef Association
	Korea Cooks Association (S. Korea)
	Chefs Guild of Lanka
	Thai Chefs Association

The compiled data was given to Peter Knipp and is on the website already.

ll. Regional Member Ship - Asian Countries

The present member status in Asian:
Grand Total of 110'931 Members

In South Korea, the chef's association is run by the government. It is compulsory for any chef to be a member of the association after the college or culinary school, therefore the membership in Korea is very high. This is not the same as in other Asian countries, where membership is voluntary.

III. News from the Region

HONG KONG

Western Cuisine Trade Test Raises Industry Standards

A Western Cuisine Trade Test System that has been just released will elevate professional standards and ensure that Hong Kong chefs are qualified for the jobs they are asked to perform. While testing at this time is voluntary, any chef who has passed the exam for either level of the trade test (see below) will be certified to possess the necessary qualifications. This will take out the guessing game when hiring chefs for Western cuisine. A similar test for Chinese cuisine chefs has been established for the Chinese catering industry.

The long-awaited trade test was developed by the Hospitality Industry Training & Development Centre (HITDC) of the Vocational Training Council (VTC) in cooperation with the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Koblenz-Germany. In addition, several prominent Hong Kong industry professionals, including Florian Trento as chairman, Fritz Sommerau, Perry Yuen, Klaus Mager, Bruno Burg, Marco Avitabile, Daniel Wettling, Hans Peter Kilchhofer and Jochen Kern were involved in the development of the test.

This trade test system is approved and recognised by all the European Union countries. It enables chefs specialising in Western cuisine to establish their professional credentials in Hong Kong and overseas. It comprises:

Certified Cook:
Minimum requirement - six years relevant work experience or one year full-time Certificate (HITDC or equivalent course with minimum of 1200 hours in food preparation training) and a minimum of three years relevant work experience. Must complete relevant certificate in hygiene and safety (Basic Food Hygiene Certificate for Hygiene Supervisors)

Trainer Chef:
Minimum requirement - Certified Cook Qualification; minimum 24 years of age.

Master Chef:
Minimum requirement - Trainer chef qualifications and relevant certificate in hygiene and safety. Eleven instructors in Western Food Preparation were the first ones to be awarded the 'Certified Cook' qualifications on 27 March 2004.

The first level trade test for Certified Cook is now open for application to in-service chefs in Western cuisine and will be conducted in July 2004. For more information, please contact Hans Rudi Nussbaumer at (852) 2538 2227.

MALAYSIA

Feedback on the monthly chefs tables organised by the Chefs Association of Malaysia (CAM) is encouraging - the evenings becoming more popular as members have found them to be a good opportunity to interact with colleagues and enjoy with good food at the same time. New expatriate chefs in town been are invited to attend these gatherings to help them get orientated in Malaysian culture. Local chefs also learn a lot through these networking opportunities, so both ways, it's a win-win idea. All are welcome! Contact chef KK Yau at kkyau28@hotmail.com for details.

The Culinary Association of Malaysia, Penang Chapter will have their annual dinner on 21 September 2004 at 7pm at the Eden Seafood Village, complete with award presentations, live music and games. Don't miss out if you're in town.
Here are some quick details of chefs on the move in Penang.
- Beh Aik Aun is now the executive chef of the Copthorne Orchid Hotel, Penang
- Abdul Azid is now head chef at Naza Hotel, Penang
- Lim Hock Kooi is back to Sunway Georgetown, Penang
- Owen Emuang now Sous Chef at Tanjung Bungah Hotel
- Chef Johnno is now in charge of the Slippery Senoritas Café & Bar, Penang

Malaysian Chefs Seafood Seminar
Chefs Stig Drageide (Grand Hyatt Tokyo) and Jostein Medhus (Timbuktu, Stavanger)
worked hard to accomodate all the Malaysians who wanted to sample the fresh seafood from Norway. On the Indian scene Chef Krishan Lal at the Taj restaurant has been working on Norwegian Salmon recipes in the Inidan cuisine since last fall. Lal is the Asian Chef of the Year in Malaysia., was launched in front of 90 people.

The Norwegian domination of the culinary scene in Kuala Lumpur ended with a chefs-seminar where 100 Malaysian chefs were invited to a demo with chefs Drageide and Medhus. They showed their Malaysian colleagues various dishes .

PHILIPPINES

The Philippines recently underwent presidential and senatorial elections, held once every six years. These are operative to the country's economic climate and effect the future state-of-affairs of our hospitality and culinary industries. The results are not final yet but we are confident that imminent proclamations will reveal the right winners - particularly for the top positions. Political landscape aside, at midyear the Les Toques Blanche Philippines have some positive things to report. When it comes to the F&B industry, they have taken matters into our own hands, so to speak, and are going ahead with a thrust to put life back into the association. The local chapter had admittedly lost some of its momentum over the last three years after having been recognised as one of the most active chef's associations in Asia. Towards accomplishing this revival, they held a chefs' table meeting on 24 May 2004 to examine possible courses of action on how to go about it. The response has been most positive thus far, and they will publish news of resulting activities in the next issue of CW. Meanwhile, they are also making preparations for the upcoming Chefs On Parade, scheduled for 7 to 9 October 2004.

MYANMAR

Oliver Soe E Thet, president of the Myanmar Chefs Association and former executive chef is now the general manager at the idyllic 11th-century Bagan Hotel in Old Bagan, a town that is home to some of the most interesting cultural heritage sites in Myanmar. The resort property where he now works consists of 108 one-storey teakwood buildings with inlaid sculptures of mythical figures all connected via brick pathways.

MAURITIUS
President of the Mauritian Chefs Association (MCA), Murday Gopalsamy, writes:

"Mauritius has been very sad with the sudden departure of Chef Nastilli, and the big shock did prevent us from participating as a team in the Food&HotelAsia Culinary Challenge this year. Nonetheless, three of our members - Noel Chelvan and Vivek Bhaugeerothee from Le Cannonier Hotel and Ravi Gokoola from Le Mauricia Hotel - did still visit the show to represent Mauritius. They returned home to share with us the good impression they had of the overall organisation of the exhibition and competition. We need to continue to build international relationships with chefs and open doors for our younger generations to be able to live in this global village, through opportunities such as these.

"Meanwhile, an interesting professional relationship has been established recently between chef Raj Batoosam from the Le Cannonier Hotel in Mauritius and the Radisson Hotel in Chennai. He is training there now, and in the near future an Indian chef will be coming to Mauritius to experience working life here.

"Despite our good progress in the tourism and economic sectors, some medical issues are becoming crucial at this point in time as 20% of our adult population suffers diabetes, 35% have hypertension, 30% are obese and 55% have been found to have dangerously high levels of cholesterol. In such an environment - eating freshly cooked food to cope with our daily rat race of a life is becoming a must. Hence, one of our colleagues, Mrs Mansoorah is launching a recipe book on healthy eating.

"As part of our country's 'African Week' at the end of May, the MCA was privileged to host as our guests chefs from various hotel schools in Africa (among them old friends from Kenya Utalii College), as well as Norbert Gillmayr, one of the oldest chefs I know, who visited us for two weeks. We also had the pleasure of welcoming chef Craig Cormack, vice president of South African Chefs Association, who stayed at the Veranda Hotel during the festival. To bring all these chefs together, MCA committee member Alan Payen hosted a wonderful cocktail at his restaurant Le Bon Choix."

In addition, the Chef Association of Mauritius preparing for a fund raising dinner on Saturday 26th of June 2004 . World Chefs day activities are also being planned in Mauritius, such as a culinary competition on 20th October 2004.

Educational Programmes

Singapore Chefs Association (SCA) committee member Kenny Kong organized the association Educational Programme for 2004:
- The 1st educational trip was to the Delifrance bakery on 15th April, and saw good response.
- The 2nd educational trip was to the Junshin sushi factory on 15th June with over 40 chefs in attendance.

The Singapore Junior Chefs Club (SJCC), spearheaded by Jasmine Ng
Main points from a recent committee meeting:

- Jasmine has reported that to date, there are 270 paid members, both from Temasek Polytechnic and the Singapore Hotel Association Tourism and Education Centre (SHATEC). Mathew Yim expressed that SHATEC will fully support the SJCC. There was a second membership drive in June 2004.

- SCA president Otto Weibel suggested that Jasmine could look at publicizing the SJCC logo. The logo has been designed and approved by SCA committee and will be used for all future name cards and letterheads.

- Jasmine will be proposing a 2004-05 budget to submit for SCA approval.

- Peter Knipp suggested that SJCC news should be published on the SCA website, as well as in a newsletter. SJCC to liaise with SCA publicity manager John Sloane on the this.

The World's Longest Popiah (Singaporean vegetable roll)

Held on Tuesday 8th June 2004 at the Singapore Changi General Hospital as part of the hospitals HomeCare Assist Fund programme, this record-breaking event marked the entry of our 206.32 meter long popiah into the Guinness Book of World Records. This beats the 108m long popiah cooked by Thomson Community Centre two years ago. Participating were 130 hospital workers and 270 chefs, including members of the newly formed Singapore Junior Chefs Club. The monster vegetable roll was created in 45 minutes using 670 kilos of ingredients, including 180 eggs and countless popiah skins. Of course, the best part was eating it!

For pictures of this event, please cut and paste the following URL into a browser.

http://community.webshots.com/scripts/misc.fcgi?action=invitePickup&uri=album/150669425rGGUde

IV. Competitions

World Pastry World Cup in Chicago, USA

As of this time, a pastry team from SCA is preparing to leave on 26th May for Chicago, USA for the Pastry World Cup. Kenny Kong, Executive Pastry Chef for Swissotel The Stamford is their team manager as well as a judge at the competition. Gottfried Schuzenberger, excutive Pastry Chef of The Grand Hyatt Singapore is attending as a judge.

Chef Kenny Kong has worked on the training schedule for this competition, as well as a budget statment and sponsorship proposal. The team has liased with chocolate producer Win Sin Singapore for sponsorship. John Sloane worked with chef Kong on providing cargo and baggage assistance for traveling.

Further news of the Singapore team (and other Asian teams that participated in the World Pastry Cup, if any) and results of the competition will be included in the July 2004 Continental Director's report.

V. Financial Issues

Outstanding payment for Indonesian Chefs Association is in progress.
We are still trying to make contact with the North Koreans.

Kindly advise us on the procedure of chasing for outstanding fees from our member countries.

For your reference, here is a chart of the annual fees paid by members of all local associations, converted in to US Dollars for comparison purposes.

VI. Committees and Leadership Issues

We are pleased to confirm the Philippines Chefs association Les Toques Blanches (Philippines) has been reactivated in May 2004.

I also had a meeting In Indonesia from 5 - 8 June 2004 to get familiar with the problem and issues and will feedback the results to you shortly.

World Chefs Day Declaration Letter Required

This issue was brought up and agreed upon by a number of participants at the WACS Asia-Pacific forum in May. An official declaration letter from the president and Bill Gallagher is needed for submission to individual country governments in order to apply a licence to cater for such a large event. This is necessary and urgent - I hope you understand the need.

Comprehensive minutes from the Asia-Pacific Forum are available on the official WACS website <a href="http://www.wacs2000.org"target="_blank">www.wacs2000.org</a> under the section "Official Documents" - "Minutes".

The following Asian Country Contacts were updated on 22 June 2004

Hugo Ernst Schwarz
General Manager -Executive Chef Airline Catering
Snorre Food Pte Ltd
15 B Duxton Hill
Singapore 089598
Tel : 65 6538 3303
Fax: 65 6538 0104
H/P: 65 96155208
E-mail: hugo@snorrefood.com.sg or : sales@snorrefood.com.sg