Beijing's Western food sector prepares for Olympics

The annual festival is an effort to boost the development of Beijing's Western cuisine and prepare for the growing demand of the future market in the upcoming Olympic Games, said Xu Bin, chief executive officer of the organizing committee, at a press conference in Beijing recently.

The festival will provide an exchange platform for the Western cuisine industry, in order that they can introduce the appeal of Western food culture, and provide service providers with opportunities to co-operate in their developments.

The organizers will invite foreign chefs, diplomatic and trade representatives, and Chinese chefs of Western cuisine from around the country as well as officials from the Chinese catering industry.

A variety of activities will be held during the one-month festival, including cookery competitions, photograph competitions and international workshops on the development of Western cuisine in China.

A bilingual guidebook on Beijing's Western restaurants will be published during the event, featuring detailed information about the 1,300 Western restaurants (referring to restaurants serving non-Chinese cuisine), including formal and casual dining places, fast food outlets, bakeries, cafes and bars.

Du Lei, secretary-general of the Beijing Western Cuisine Association, said that Western restaurants in Beijing are trailing behind coastal cities in number.

There are 3,000 Western restaurants in Guangzhou and 1,600 in Shanghai, while Beijing's existing 1,300 Western restaurants are disproportionate to its restaurant-loving community.  But the potential market is huge in Beijing since it has many foreign embassies, enterprises, companies and foreign students, and there are also large numbers of overseas business visitors as well as tourists who have come to experience the Chinese capital, Du said.

And the increasing cultural exchanges between the East and the West, rising incomes and the coming of age of a new generation of consumers, will also boost the development of the Western food industry in the capital city, Du added.