Culinary culture serves up rich Sino-French exchange

Within a tension-paced 30 minutes, the highly skilled chef completes the dish, earning praise from the four judges: Li Bo, a professor at Nanjing Normal University; renowned French chef Glenn Viel; Zhou Xiaoyan, vice-president of the China Cuisine Association; and Guillaume Gomez, a celebrated chef who has served four French presidents over 20 years.

The scene is featured in the third episode of The Peak of Cook — Chinese-French Chef King's Competition, a television program aimed to boost the culinary cultural exchanges between the two countries. It was created as a tribute to mark the 60th anniversary of China-France diplomatic ties.

Produced by China Media Group, the program — which began airing on CCTV-2 on July 20 — brings together 20 Chinese and French chefs, with four participating in each of the 10 episodes, engaging in culinary competitions themed on 10 ingredients ranging from fish to chicken and animal innards.