Story
In September 2024, the "Beautiful Flavours of Zhejiang ¡ª Hundred Counties, Thousand Bowls" Traditional Culture Banquet Challenge was held in Huangyan, Taizhou. Twelve teams from eleven cities each had two hours to prepare a full banquet ¡ª four cold dishes, four hot dishes, and two dim sum items ¡ª live on stage.
Wenzhou sent the Rui¡¯an Ruili Coastal Hotel wedding team, with Wu Jie ¡ª secretary of the Wenzhou Restaurant, Hotel and Culinary Industry Association ¡ª as technical advisor. The team¡¯s chef, Jin Zhengzhou, designed a "Dragon Boat Feast" inspired by Rui¡¯an¡¯s dragon boat tradition. The ingredients were local: Beiji yellow croaker, Huling beef, Lumu bamboo shoots, Rui¡¯an Zha Yang (Straw-Tied Braised Chilled Mutton), Oil-lamped cake, Fuling (poria cocos) cake. The presentation included a dragon boat sculpture and Ou plastic art depicting Rui¡¯an¡¯s Longshan Pagoda (ancient navigation beacon) and Feiyun River (Rui¡¯an¡¯s mother river).
The judge, Ye Hangsheng ¡ª a Chinese Cuisine Master and the competition¡¯s chief referee ¡ª told the team: "The Dragon Boat Feast already has a strong cultural foundation. With some refinement in presentation, I think it has a chance of being served at a state dinner."
The feast came third in the professional judging and won the Best Popularity Award by a unanimous public vote. Chef Jin introduced the feast to judges and audience in Mandarin with a Wenzhou accent, explaining that the dishes were designed to convey "the passion, resilience, and innovative spirit of the Wenzhou people."
The six professional judges scored on cultural depth, banquet name, dish pairing, raw materials, technique, presentation, nutrition, and innovation. The twenty-two public judges ¡ª team leaders and technical advisors from each city ¡ª voted by preference.
What the banquet challenge tests is what a single dish cannot: the ability to tell a story across ten dishes. The Dragon Boat Feast used Rui¡¯an¡¯s local ingredients as characters ¡ª yellow croaker from Beiji, beef from Huling, bamboo shoots from Lumu ¡ª and arranged them around a cultural theme. The skill lies not only in cooking, but in deciding which ingredient should carry which part of the story and how the dishes should come together on the table. The chief referee¡¯s comment ¡ª "state dinner-worthy" ¡ª was not about a single flavour. It was about whether ten dishes, cooked in two hours from local ingredients, could carry a cultural story strong enough to resonate beyond the competition.