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Promoting Indonesia's diversity through food
Special touch: Chef William Wongso (left) cooks with the Frankfurt Book Fairâs vice president for business development Claudia Kaiser in Jakarta
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span class="inline inline-center">Special touch: Chef William Wongso (left) cooks with the Frankfurt Book Fair's vice president for business development Claudia Kaiser in Jakarta.
One way to promote a country's culture is through literature. Another way is through food.
A combination of both can be found in the world's largest book fair, the Frankfurt Book Fair's Gourmet Gallery, which has become a place for chefs from around the world to showcase signature cuisine from their home countries.
'Gourmet Gallery was established in 2010 in order to accommodate growth in cookbook publishing and rising public and professional interest in this area,' said Claudia Kaiser, the book fair's vice president for business development at the fair.
She said the participating chefs were those who had released cookbooks. Apart from giving live cooking demonstration, they could also promote their books.
From Indonesia, three chefs ' William Wongso, Petty Elliott and Sandra Djohan ' will take part for the first time in the event.
'Not many people in Germany know about Indonesian food. We have lots of restaurants from Thailand, Vietnam, but rarely find Indonesian restaurants,' she said.
Kaiser said cooking demonstrations would take place in the 900-square-meter area, which has became one of the most frequented halls of the world's largest book fair and will take place from Oct. 8 to 12.
'So this will be a wonderful opportunity to promote Indonesian cuisine,' she says.
The three chefs will serve around 12 meals in the Gourmet Gallery, highlighting the flavors of traditional and modern Indonesian cuisine.
'First and foremost, we want to take the opportunity to introduce what Indonesian flavors are like and then we start introducing how to cook the food,' William said.
At the Gallery, William will demonstrate how to make the renowned dish from West Sumatra, rendang (beef simmered in coconut milk and spices), which will suit European taste buds.
'For the past eight years, I've been participating in the travel fair in Berlin and I usually cook rendang. People would get in the line three times just to taste it. And I want to do the same thing at the Frankfurt Book Fair,' he said.
He said if it usually took about four hours for Indonesian people to cook rendang using fine meat, he would demonstrate how to make it in only two hours, or even shorter if using pork.
'We will cook rendang made from minced meat in an oven so you don't have to wait for it all the time, just check on it once in a while, and you can do other things,' he said.
Accompanying rendang, Sandra said she would serve the fair's visitors the Indonesian version of mie goreng (fried noodles).
Based on her experience after participating in the Eat & Style food festival in Germany, she said many people liked the modest but tasty Indonesian style of mie goreng.
'I believe our mie goreng tastes different, and better, because we use terasi [shrimp paste] and soy sauce. When I pour the sauce and the noodle turns black, they're just amazed with it,' Sandra said.
Petty on the other hand would serve modern Manadonese cuisine, such as cakalang woku belanga (spicy tuna stew) and tinoransak (roast pork).
'Modern here means the cooking method. At the event, I will make tinoransak with the bamboo cooking method which has been modified so it can be put in the oven,' she says.
Petty also said that modern Indonesian cooking emphasized meals that were less spicy, had more colors and an interesting texture.
'The food has to have some international appeal and standards without eliminating its traditional touch,' she says.
In addition to the live cooking demonstration at the Gourmet Gallery, the chefs will also prepare fine dining at the Blumen restaurant with the set menu that is usually served at state dinners in Indonesia.
'Indonesian food is lagging behind. Even in Southeast Asia, not many people know how rich Indonesian cuisine is. We hope by taking part in the fair, people can become much more aware of it,'
William says.
' Photos by JP/Jerry Adiguna
