U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) chef seminars at restaurants and hotels i...
U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) chef seminars at restaurants and hotels in China increased chef familiarity with U.S. pork use in Western-style and traditional dishes, and resulted in more restaurants using, or planning to use, U.S. pork.
Chinese restaurants are a major potential market for U.S. pork, although most typically purchase less-expensive domestic pork. USMEF conducts seminars to introduce chefs and managers to high quality U.S. pork and demonstrate how to use it in a variety of cooking methods that appeal to Chinese consumers.
Six chef seminars, or “salons,” funded by the pork checkoff and the USDA Market Access Program (MAP), were conducted by Chinese chefs who have used U.S. pork, which provided firsthand knowledge and encouraged an informal atmosphere and participation.
"We have found the casual environment of these chef salons to be ideal for stimulating the sharing of ideas and experiences by chefs concerning U.S. pork usage," said USMEF Vice President, Asia Pacific Joel Haggard.
USMEF’s China strategy also includes retail and restaurant promotions and well-designed point-of-sale materials to increase U.S. pork’s visibility. But the seminars are the key activity that encourages chefs to use U.S. pork in their dishes.
At the cooking seminars, chefs learn U.S. pork is lean, nutritious, versatile and safe, but tasting the flavor U.S. pork adds to their dishes is the convincing factor.
“The concept of selling 'high quality' U.S. pork is a new one for many Chinese chefs, as pork has a history of being more of a staple protein than a dining pleasure," Haggard said.
Approximately 400 restaurant chefs, from hotels such as the Marriot, the Sheraton and the Intercontinental, were introduced to Western-style cutting and preparation methods of U.S. pork, such as using marinades and then barbecuing U.S. boneless pork butt, St. Louis ribs and bone-in tenderloin.
Many chefs feared they would be unable to reproduce the recipes back in their own kitchens, but those fears disappeared by the end of the session as all attendees felt comfortable in cutting and barbecuing U.S. pork cuts.
As a result of the USMEF seminars, a leading hotel restaurant now features U.S. pork dishes, another ordered additional U.S. pork cuts and two other Western-style hotels are seeking suppliers of specific U.S. boneless butt and bone-in pork loin cuts.
Some of the USMEF seminars included U.S. pork in hot pot, a cook-your-own dish where customers dip meats and vegetables into their own pots of boiling water. Hot pot is traditionally popular in China in winter.
Many popular hot pot restaurants sent their executive chefs and managers to the USMEF Shenyang hot pot session, which demonstrates how the tenderness and flavor of U.S. pork is ideal for hot pot cooking.
After the hot pot seminar, 80 percent of attendees recognized that U.S. pork is of higher quality than domestic. One popular restaurant added U.S. boneless butt to its menu while two other restaurants, already importers of U.S. pork, expressed interest in adding U.S. boneless butt and bone-in pork loin to their menus.
U.S. pork (including variety meat) exports to the Hong Kong/China region in the first 11 months of 2004 were up 47 percent in volume to73,283 metric tons and 58 percent in value to $82.3 million. Worldwide, U.S. pork exports (including variety meat) were up 36 percent in volume to nearly 929,000 mt, and up 40 percent in value to more than $2 billion.
The U.S. Meat Export Federation is the trade association responsible for developing international markets for the U.S. red meat industry and is funded by USDA, exporting companies, and the beef, pork, corn, sorghum and soybean checkoff programs.
– USMEF –