Hong Kong Convention Centre F&B team wins nine awards at international culinary competition

The Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre’s food and beverage (F&B) team have come away from the Hong Kong International Culinary Classic 2015 with a total of nine awards: one Gold, four Silver and four Bronze.

Held from 6th to 9th May 2015 during HOFEX 2015, the biennial Hong Kong International Culinary Classic (HKICC) is the largest culinary competition in Asia, this year attracting 900 participants from 13 countries and regions.

HKICC is one of only a few culinary competitions endorsed by the World Association of Chefs Societies (WACS) and is run and judged entirely according to WACS rules and judging criteria. Co-organised by the Hong Kong Chefs Association and Hong Kong Exhibition Services Ltd, HKICC 2015 was held during HOFEX 2015 to promote culinary excellence among chefs, cooks, pastry chefs and apprentices from near and far.

Commenting on the team’s achievements, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC) Managing Director Monica Lee-Müller explained that “(our) F&B team combines culinary flair and service professionalism on every occasion.

“Their outstanding results at HKICC 2015 have fully justified the commitment we have made to developing talent and providing professional training for our in-house F&B team, so they can offer exceptional service to the event organisers and the millions of visitors who come to the HKCEC from all around the world.

“Three of their nine awards were won in the Dream Team Challenge, and offer especially powerful demonstrations of our team’s ability to combine serving skills and cooking skills for a total dining experience.”

Unlike most other exhibition and convention facility management companies, HKCEC (Management) Limited (HML) HML has had its own in-house F&B team since the opening of the venue in 1988. To ensure its success, HML has assembled a F&B team of over 320 full-time staff including chefs, restaurant and catering service staff, and experienced event managers.

The F&B Team has accommodated customer requirements ranging from a cocktail of a few hundreds guests to a single banquet of over 5,000 guests to as many as seven different banquets at a time, serving 4,000 guests.

In the 2013/2014, HML’s F&B team served nearly 400 banquets, while also ensuring the smooth daily operation of the HKCEC’s seven restaurants, and also 289 mobile concession stands during exhibitions. Altogether, a phenomenal 2.44 million guests dined at the HKCEC. Of these, over one million were guests attending almost 400 banquets, which included gala dinners for multi-nationals, corporate and association banquets, wedding receptions, and Chinese and Western business lunches.

HML’s achievements at HKICC 2015: Awards Categories

Gold Award and Best of the Best Award: 
The Dream Team Challenge

Silver Awards:
The Dream Team Challenge
Butchery Skills Challenge
The Gourmet Team Challenge
Western Cuisine - Hot Cooking (Professional) Beef Short Ribs

Bronze Awards
Western Cuisine - Hot Cooking (Professional) Sustainable Fish – Grouper
Western Cuisine - Hot Cooking (U25 Apprentices) Lamb Loin
Chinese Cuisine - Modern Chinese Cuisine Challenge Hot Cooking - Pork Loin
The Dream Team Challenge 

18th November 2014 - HKCEC RECEIVES INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION FOR SUSTAINABILITY

23rd September 2014 - 1,086 EVENTS AND 5.9 MILLION VISITORS UNDERSCORE HKCEC’S SERVICES