Macao was among the UNESCO Creative Cities of Gastronomy invited to attend an international gastronomy conference held in Songkhla, Thailand, from 29 to 31 August, to share the experience as a creative city and showcase its unique gastronomic culture at the event, exhibiting the destination’s profile as a world centre of tourism and leisure.

The Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) Deputy Director and other Macao SAR focal point to the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN), Cheng Wai Tong, along with Hotel Sous Chef of Raffles at Galaxy Macau, Justin Je, among others, attended the Songkhla Gastronomy Conference, held under the theme “Creative Cities for the Sustainability of the Songkhla Lake.” The three-day conference featured a diverse program with knowledge exchange sessions on creative city development, culinary showcases, along with familiarization visits to sustainable fishing and farming, creative industries and culinary projects.

Unveiled by an opening ceremony on Saturday (30 August), officiated by the Director of Tourism and Sports of the Songkhla Office, Chiravadee Onwong, the Consul-General of China in Songkhla, Wang Zhijian, the Acting Consul of Indonesia in Songkhla, Mochammad Rizki Safary, among other guests, the event brought together representatives and chefs from other Creative Cities of Gastronomy, including Phuket and Phetchaburi (Thailand), Thessalonki (Greece), and Belo Horizonte (Brazil), as well as from Thai cities in other creative fields, alongside with academics, entrepreneurs, artists, and more.

Experience as a Creative City sharing and showcase unique gastronomic culture

MGTO Deputy Director joined several sessions for focal points and other participants to discuss about the development of creative cities. Serving as one of the guest speakers at a knowledge exchange panel on Sustainable Creative City Development, Cheng Wai Tong elaborated on Macao’s experience in developing as a Creative City of Gastronomy, focusing on topics ranging from the vision and policy alignment, creative industries and local integration, community participation, cross-sector collaboration, challenges and lessons learned.

Chef creates fusion dish for culinary exchange

While Justin Je showcased Macao’s east-meets-west gastronomic heritage in culinary exchange and demonstration sessions with Songkhla and other Creative Cities chefs. Using Songkhla’s signature ingredients of seabass and palm sugar, the chef also created a fusion dish inspired by Portuguese codfish balls and a renowned Macao brand shrimp paste.

Following the designation of Macao, China, as a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy in 2017, the Macao SAR Government launched the implementation of the related working plan. MGTO actively participates in events related to the UCCN according with the plan to develop Macao as a Creative City of Gastronomy and strives to invite industry representatives and chefs to participate together, to seize opportunities for exchange, learning, and collaboration.

Established in 2004, the UNESCO Creative Cities Network has grown to encompass 350 member cities from over 100 countries across seven creative fields: crafts and folk art, media arts, film, design, gastronomy, literature, and music. This year, the network has called for applications in architecture as a newly included field, expanding to cover a total of eight creative fields. UCCN fosters exchange, collaboration, and concerted development among creative cities worldwide.