Little chefs showcase their lunch boxes at the Hong Kong young chef competition (top); Tazoe Chisato, a young chef from Japan demonstrates how to make omelette to the competitors. Provided to China Daily

Competitors concentrate on preparing their lunch boxes.

The winner Yung Hiu Wai (right) and Tazoe Chisato from Japan.

Hong Kong organizations join together in cooking theme to help children learn nutritional value and gain entrance in prized American cooking school. Ming Yeung reports.

By the time the bell rang, broccoli had been boiled in water and codfish fried. Mouth-watering aromas filled the air and spread far from the dishes prepared by several chefs.

In chef coats and aprons, 10 participants did their best to prepare lunch boxes in 30 minutes in a competition to gain the only place available in a five-day training course at C'est Si Bon, the well-known culinary school in the United States.

The participants were young; really young, merely between the ages of four and 12.

To participate in the Hong Kong young chef competition, which took place on July 4 at Hollywood Plaza in Diamond Hill (Kowloon), six little chefs were selected from a local young chef training program and four from low-income families short-listed by the St James Settlement, a charitable organization in Hong Kong.

The main goal of the event was to help children think about nutritional care with hands-on experience.

The requirements to participate in the cooking event were stringent: The children had to create the tastiest and healthiest meal on a budget of only HK$20. Ricky Cheung, a former five-star hotel chef, and magician Harry Wong would judge the meals' taste, appearance and nutritional content, along with the chefs' skills and hygiene during preparation. Based on this, they would select the main winner, plus first and second runner-up winners.

The energetic children all became silent, as they fried, stirred and boiled, but their parents paced nervously and took several photos of their little chefs at work.

Everybody was excited. The little participants seemed skilled and seriously competitive. They were enthusiastic, friendly and cheerful. The judges were amazed by the original menus the children created, as well as by the quality of their cooking.

"The competitors have proved today that they are well ahead of their years in terms of what they have produced and achieved here. All the entrants chose a superb quality of healthy ingredients, and their enthusiasm is absolutely essential in the creation of an outstanding dish," Cheung said, clearly proud of the children's efforts.

The judges declared 12-year-old Yung Hiu Wai the winner. The young girl said the family domestic helper had taken good care of her nutritional needs and this inspired her to learn more about cooking. Nonetheless, she had entered the contest without expectations. "Guess what? In the beginning, when I first started experimenting, no one dared to put my food in their mouth because it was so salty!" Yung said, giggling. It seems that the experimentation paid off.

Yung cooked her favorite dish - spaghetti in tomato sauce with green and red peppers - as a meal that children should consume to get enough carbohydrates, for energy. To promote a balanced nutrition, Yung made a ham omelet and fried codfish, which she decorated with cheery tomatoes. She added grapes to her lunch box, as a healthy dessert.

When asked if she found it difficult to get all the ingredients on a HK$20 budget, Yung responded, "the supermarket had big sales." Still, she admitted that she never thought it possible to cook a decent meal on HK$20.

As she loves desserts, Yung is looking forward to improve her culinary skills at C'est Si Bon. However, she is not particularly focused on becoming a professional cook. "I want to be a fashion designer so that I can apply all my creativity," she declared. "Cooking and design do have something in common. How you blend the food together, depending on the typical foods of each season, and decorate the plates, all this requires lots of imagination to conceptualize the dishes."

At only four years of age, the competition's youngest chef, Tsang Tsz Him, won one of the runner-up places. He was visibly excited about his triumph. "I love making and eating things!" he exclaimed. "I made a hamburger on the first lesson. It was super yummy!" the young boy said smiling.

Tsang's parents believe that if adults take children in the kitchen and let them help prepare meals, the little ones are more likely to eat the meals. Cooking events in general help immensely because they give children a valuable experience - not just in learning more about nutrition, but also in interacting with others.

"I want him to meet people and learn more. The first time he went to a cooking class, the instructor asked the class what kinds of ingredients were included in a hamburger and he raised his hand and answered, 'knife!' at the top of his lungs," said Tsang's mother, chuckling, as she recalled the incident. "He was a bit embarrassed after that but he ended up learning a whole lot about the food we eat everyday, like vegetables, fish and meat."

The best part about cooking programs is that they really get kids to eat vegetables. "After the lessons, he realized he needed to eat more veggies and he did," said his mother with a rather satisfied expression.

Children raised in Hong Kong, where many families rely on the help of foreign domestic helpers, do tend to grow up in an environment where all their needs are met. The negative aspect of this tends to be that they sometimes grow up lacking the ability to perform simple tasks, such as boiling water or tying their own shoelaces, as evidenced in the case of some young children. Though Tsang is pampered at home, his mother thinks that a little work will do him no harm and accidents and mistakes are part of the learning process. "One time he accidentally touched the edge of the pan when he was frying an egg and got slightly burned. I told him that next time he would remember this and be more careful - just as what I did when I started to learn how to cook."

Cooking is a skill and it is not an exclusive practice. Independently of status, everybody needs to eat - this was a central message in the competition. To spice up the competition, organizers invited 12-year-old Tazoe Chisato from Japan to demonstrate his World Cup Cake to his peers. Tazoe is the national champion of Japan's dessert-making contest. He was first influenced by his mother when he was two, and has been learning how to cook ever since.

To allow him to experiment with cooking at a very young age, Tazoe's father made a stool for him, so that he could stand and reach kitchen counters. This allowed him a full-view exploration with ingredients.

Although he is a talented cook, Tazoe is not shy about his real dream, which was literally spelled on the jersey he wore: "I want to be a soccer player."

Among the world's developed regions, Hong Kong continues to show an alarming disparity between rich and poor. Latest figures estimate that there are currently 1.25 million people living below the poverty line in Hong Kong. Among these 210,000 are children under the age of 14. The families living in poverty are typically referred to as "grass-roots" families.

"Most grass-roots families live in Sham Shui Po, Tin Shui Wai and Yuen Long. The household income is less than HK$12,000 per month for a family of four. A substantial part of this income is used by the families to pay rent and transportation," says Karin Lau, senior manager for the St James Settlement. "Because their parents work long hours, the children are often left home alone and end up looking after themselves and preparing meals for their parents."

Eleven-year-old Wong Man Sin comes from a grass-roots family. She began to cook when she was eight years old because her parents sometimes had to work until mid-night. On weekends, she now prepares three meals and never complaints. After three years of cooking, Wong has become an expert; she can cook pork chops and chicken wings. "Praise from my parents motivates me to keep cooking," she says. Wong's mother is happy with her achievement. She hopes that her daughter will take good care of herself as she grows, particularly when she no longer has her mother near.

In cooperation with the St James Settlement, Plaza Hollywood sponsors 100 children from grass-roots families in Tin Shui Wai. It provides them with hands-on cookery training in their district, from late July to August. The training course helps children use their time to gain confidence and become more competitive. Plaza Hollywood is committed to creating opportunities for children to explore their talents.

"Our mission is to teach children to build a healthy lifestyle for themselves and for their families," says Lau.

(HK Edition 07/27/2010 page4)