Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) partners with the trade once again to organize the first culinary training session for professional chefs in Macao. Co-organizing the Celebrity Chef Workshop with Galaxy Entertainment Group today (24 May), the Office encourages local chefs to keep enhancing their culinary expertise and carry on Macao’s gastronomic culture with creativity. The workshop also aims to promote exchange among culinary professionals and join each other in steering the city forward as a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy. The organizers will edit the video of the workshop into a lecture version for tourism and catering industry professionals and people interested in pursuing career as a chef to view and learn more about the cooking skills involved.

MGTO Director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes and Deputy Director Cheng Wai Tong, Head of Training and Quality Management Department of MGTO, Doris Leong, Director of Galaxy Entertainment Group, Philip Cheng, and Group Director of Human Resources and Administration of Galaxy Entertainment Group, Eileen Lui, attended the Celebrity Chef Workshop held at Oasis Ballroom, Galaxy Macau together with others.

Director Senna Fernandes expressed that following the designation of Macao as a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy, the society has placed increasing attention and recognition on the development of the local culinary sector, cultivation of catering industry professionals as well as preservation and innovation of the city’s unique gastronomy. By co-organizing the workshop with the trade, MGTO hopes to inspire local chefs to engage in different training activities, exchange their culinary ideas and experiences with each other to reach a new level of expertise and foster opportunities for horizontal and vertical career growth, opening up a wider scope of diversity in their career development.

Director of Galaxy Entertainment Group, Philip Cheng, stated that Galaxy Entertainment Group’s “Asian Heart” philosophy underpins all aspects of its services, including offering quality dining and leisure experiences to customers. The company is honored to partner with the Macao Government Tourism Office to organize a culinary training initiative for chefs –– the Celebrity Chef Workshop. Not only does the Workshop serve as a platform for a celebrated chef to share culinary inspiration with local chefs and to promote industry exchange, it also provides an opportunity for chef participants to express their best wishes for the 20^th Anniversary of the Establishment of the Macao SAR by presenting an auspicious dish. Galaxy Entertainment Group will continue to organize similar activities, and join hands with local catering industry professionals to facilitate experience sharing and exchanges.

Chairman of Macau Cuisine Association, Jacky Lam, is the instructor of the Celebrity Chef Workshop joined by 66 Chinese cuisine chefs. Chef Lam elaborated and demonstrated how to cook an exquisite dish of braised abalone with fried shrimp ball in coconut ginger sauce, to deliver the theme of celebration of the 20^th Anniversary of the Establishment of the Macao Special Administrative Region. The chef participants observed the cooking demonstration and prepared the dish under the guidance of Chef Lam. They also exchanged culinary inspirations and seized the opportunity to learn from Lam, gaining more techniques used in Chinese cuisine. Besides fostering enhancement of culinary expertise, the workshop serves to equip chefs to carry on Macao’s gastronomic culture and culinary art with an input of their own creativity to develop innovative local recipes. MGTO hopes that professional chefs and people interested in becoming a chef can continue to enhance their culinary knowledge and skills by joining different training activities, which will open up wider opportunities on their culinary career paths.

The workshop was filmed and edited into a one-hour lecture video to be shared later on MGTO’s Macao Tourism Industry Net (http://industry.macaotourism.gov.mo). The public, including tourism and catering industry professionals and people interested in pursuing chef career, are welcome to watch the video and learn more about the cooking skills involved.

With rich culinary experience for over 50 years, acclaimed chef Jacky Lam is dedicated to nurturing local culinary talent and building their image. He was honored with the Medal of Merit for Tourism by the Macao SAR in 2017. In the beginning of the year, Lam delivered the first special Macao culinary performance during the cooking show of the “International Gastronomy Forum, Macao 2019”, preparing his culinary creation and sharing his experience. The cooking show was a highlight of the Forum, which gathered local acclaimed chefs and young chefs from worldwide.

MGTO continues to partner with the travel trade and training institutes to organize different training opportunities for tourism and related industry professionals. Upholding the ideals of preservation, innovation and exchange, the Office supports the local catering industry to move forward and work together in developing Macao as a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy, to steer the city’s tourism industry towards diversified and sustainable development, and Macao in becoming a world centre of tourism and leisure.