TASTE OF ASIA 2009

Britain’s love affair with Asian cuisine continued at Taste of Asia, Potters Fields London between 29th and 31st May. Taste of Asia is the part of the Celebrasian festival and for the last three years the Celebrasian festival has received significant media coverage to millions of people. Asian Woman and B4U continued their partnership in 2009 with increased coverage alongside. Other partners included Taste of Asia magazine, Food and Travel magazine and Taste London.
The organisors of Taste of Asia announced the event also gave back to the community and the Child in Need Institute (CINI) who were their chosen partners for 2009; CINI works to break down the cycle of poverty, malnutrition and ill health and provides basic educational services to some of India’s poorest communities.

Cherie Blair opened the show and Celebrity chef Ross Burden again hosted the Rangemaster cookery theatre with chefs demonstrating how to cook amazing Asian dishes. There were cultural performances on stage with an excellent range of companies exhibiting throughout the show.

Visitors could get the chance to learn from the chefs’ demonstrations how to make great Asian cuisine including what ingredients and spices were best, what were the ideal utensils to use, what wines / drinks matched different dishes. Furthermore, these gave visitors a real feel for Asia and encouraged them to make Asia their next overseas holiday destination.

There were exhibitors from the food & drink companies, travel and cultural products as well as tourism boards. Exhibitors could choose from their own individual marquee or within a country zone. They could also be within a market-style environment.

Amongst them the Korea Food section, Taste of Korea, showed a spectacular exhibition. Under the catchphrase of “Globalising Korean Food Campaign”, Korean Agro-Fisheries Trade Corp, Korea Tourism Organization UK, Korean Cultural Centre UK, Asiana Airlines, CJ Corporate, Nongshim, Chongga Kimchi, OKF Corp and THE EAST produced a very well organised cultural show under the organisation of Korea Foods Ltd, the biggest Korean food whole seller in the UK.
OKF’s Aloe Vera juice and Nongshim’s Onion snack were most welcomed by the visitors.
The Korean cooking demonstration by Ms Heewon Jun, Marketing & PR Executive of Korea foods and Ross Burden received the most appreciative responses from the thousands of visitors on that day. During the show, Ms Jun cooked BULGOGGI with CJ Sauce by demonstrating how healthy and scientific Korean food was.

“Since this year, the Korean government has been spending so much time and efforts to globalise Korean food abroad. We are very proud of introducing the national treasury food, such as Kimchi in the UK and we hope this exhibition will give more chance for westerners to experience how healthy Korean food is. With a continuous campaign and exhibitions, we strongly believe that Korean food will be recognised as the world’s most healthy and famous food within 5 years as the Korean government and company work very closely under this scheme,” said an official from Korean Agro-Fisheries Trade Corp.