Finland Chinese Food Night held in Helsinki

HELSINKI, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- Gathering more than 30 top chefs from China and Finland under one roof, Finland Chinese Food Night was held in Helsinki on Monday.

Co-organized by Chinese Embassy in Finland as well as China Cuisine Association and Finnish Chef Association, the event showed a great feast while exhibiting profound and unique food cultures of the two countries, and helped promote the understanding and deepen the friendship between the two sides.

Chen Li, Chinese Ambassador to Finland, and Janna Husu-Kallio, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Forestry and Agriculture of Finland, were among the high profile guests attending the event.

At the scene, the chefs from the two countries showed their talents and learned from each other by creating fine dishes.

The ambassador said that the event was a vivid example of how cultural and people-to-people exchanges between China and Finland flourish nowadays.

"Chinese cuisine is an important part of the Chinese culture. I'm very happy to see that Chinese food is getting more and more popular in Finland. And I hope we will find more Finnish restaurants in China and more Finnish food on our table," he said.

"Finland and China both have a quite proud food culture tradition," Husu-Kallio said, "Tonight we share food from each other and show respect to each other's cultural tradition, enhancing mutual understanding. Food and love are important. I hope everyone can feel the friendship and love through food."

Liu Qiang, who enjoys the title of Chinese Culinary Master, said "This event is a kind of cooperation. We have learned a lot from the Finnish masters, including ingredients, cooking methods, etc."

"Meanwhile, we introduce Chinese representative dishes to them also, hoping to make Chinese food more international," Liu said.

It is reported that the Finland Chinese Food Night is one stop of the series of activities called "Chinese Catering Delegation into Nordic", which are initiated by the China Cuisine Association. After Finland, the delegation will travel to Sweden, Norway and Denmark.