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Chinese cooking contest has everything
but Chinese chefs
POLICE THREATS:One of the 11 chefs entered in the New York
City contest said he was visited by security agents, who took his passport and
told him not to travel
NY Times News Service, NEW YORK
Chefs from 12 nations had been expected at a Chinese cooking competition that
was to begin yesterday in Manhattan. However, the Chinese-language television
network that is sponsoring the contest now says that only 11 nations would be
represented ˇX including Britain, France and Germany ˇX because one country did
not permit its chefs to leave for New York.
That country was China.
The network, New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDT), an independent network with its
headquarters in New York, had been counting on 11 chefs from Shanghai to take
their places at the cooking stations.
But the network said none of the 11 were allowed to make the trip, though there
had been no official explanation about why permission had been denied.
The chef Hua Zhang (±iµŘ), who won a gold medal in the contest, the International
Chinese Culinary Competition, last year and is now part-owner of a restaurant in
Whippany, New Jersey, said he knew five of the would-be contestants and had
encouraged them to enter.
The five filled out the required paperwork in preparation for the trip, and one
of them had received a visa in July, he said.
The four others had expected their visas to be issued by mid-August.
However, in early August, Zhang said, one of the five called and reported that
the police had visited the chef who had received the visa and had confiscated
his passport.
ˇ§The security people told him they would go visit the other four,ˇ¨ Zhang said.
He would not identify the five chefs for fear of causing them more trouble. He
said he had not been able to reach them in recent days.
The chef who called in August had said he was under 24-hour surveillance, Zhang
said.
ˇ§They threatened him that if he does go,ˇ¨ Zhang said, ˇ§the consequences will be
severe.
ˇ§They said if you dare to go to the competition, think about how your wife and
your son will live their lives,ˇ¨ Zhang added. ˇ§My friend was afraid.ˇ¨
The five chefs had already missed the Asia-Pacific preliminary round of the
third International Chinese Culinary Competition, which was held on July 24 and
July 25 in Kaohsiung. More than 70 chefs took part there.
The North America preliminary round was scheduled for yesterday in New York to
accommodate other chefs.
Lei Xi, a vice president of the television network, said Zhang was ˇ§feeling so
bad that he got his friends into this; thatˇ¦s a burden he carries now.ˇ¨
Zhang said he had trouble leaving for the first annual competition in 2008, when
he was still living in Shanghai. He said the Chinese authorities stopped him as
he boarded his flight and detained him for about 48 hours. He finally arrived in
New York just as the competition was ending ˇX he did not get to cook anything.
He did not return to China.
Last year, with several partners, he opened Chef Jonˇ¦s restaurant in Whippany.
Samuel Zho, the acting executive vice president of the network, said one of its
goals was ˇ§to provide free-flowing information.ˇ¨
Network officials said that included showing elements of Chinese culture, like
cooking.
New Tang Dynasty Television says Duffy Square in Manhattan would be decorated to
look like the Chinese capital from the Tang dynasty. Large video screens will
carry the play-by-play during the eight rounds of the competition.
The contest was scheduled to be open to the public yesterday and today.
On Sunday, the network is planning a US$60-a-person reception in the afternoon
and US$275-a-person dinner at Pier 60, in the Chelsea Piers complex at West 23rd
Street.
The money will go the network, which was organized as a nonprofit corporation
and sends its programming to China.
One reason Beijing may be blocking Chinese chiefs from taking part in the
cooking competition is that NTDT is affliated with the Falun Gong movement ˇX
which is banned in China ˇX and the Epoch Times.
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