Irish food board hires Chinese chefs in promotional campaign

The Chinese offices of Ireland’s food-promotion agency is working with celebrity Chinese chefs to incorporate Irish seafood into local cuisine in China’s eastern and southwestern regions.

The Chinese offices of Ireland’s food-promotion agency is working with celebrity Chinese chefs to incorporate Irish seafood into local cuisine in China’s eastern and southwestern regions.

Bord Bia, Ireland’s food export promotion agency has linked up with the New Oriental Cooking School chain and the Ming Chu [meaning “celebrity chef”] mobile phone app to host and stream demonstrations by chefs on how to use Irish brown crab, Dublin Bay prawn, and Irish conch in local dishes.

In the video campaign, celebrity chef Zhou Hou Chao demonstrates how to cook Irish crab and shrimp in Sichuanese cooking, one of the major schools of Chinese cuisine. The demonstration was filmed 28 March at the Chengdu branch of the New Oriental Cooking School chain of cooking schools, which are owned by the Xinhua Education Group, a training company founded in 1988.

Another demonstration filmed 29 March at the Jinan branch of the New Oriental Cooking School features Lin Shou Qing, an expert in the cooking of the Shandong region, home to key fishing ports and seafood processing centers including Qingdao and Yantai. 

Both demonstrations were screened by the Ming Chu app, which is popular with chefs and catering executives as well as amateur cooking enthusiasts.

Irish seafood exports to China were valued at EUR 28 million (USD 24.6 million) in 2021, a 71 percent increase over 2020, with shipments of Irish shellfish to China increasing by over 23 percent year-on-year.

Photo courtesy of Bord Bia

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