Knorr - Now I K-Now How's It's Pronounced

Who would have thought the humble chicken stock cube that I grew up with has actually such a pedigree history behind it? And who would have imagined so many Chefs, from all genres, use it as well.  And who would have thought that it is such a versatile item, so much more than just "chicken stock".  AND I honestly never knew that the K in Knorr is NOT silent, unlike knock or know or knickers.

The media launch for the Knorrs event was a lavish affair, held at the Ritz Carlton, complete with three Chinese Celebrity Chefs in tow.  The event catered mainly for the chinese media, as most of the press conference was in smatterings of Mandarin and Cantonese, and translated only to the MD of Unilever Food Solutions, Mdm Nusrat Perveen.

With the theme 40 Years of Golden Choice, Knorr Chicken Stock ambassador Master Chefs Sun (陈志新师傅) and Wong Wing Chee (黄永帜师傅) led the way with an insightful chefs’ forum and conducted cooking demonstrations to the delight of the other participating chefs, topped with sampling of selected dishes.

According to Hong Kong Chef Wong says whilst the Chinese cuisine internationally is very wide and draws influences from even the middle eastern cuisine, the Malaysian Chinese cuisine is largely skewed to Cantonese cooking.  But it is an evolving cuisine, which Malaysian Chef Sun agrees

“With more than 5,000 years of Chinese food culture, it is no wonder that the true essence of this Oriental cuisine has evolved so well through history", says Sun.

It is in this context that both chefs say Knorr Chicken Stock brings out the best flavours of natural ingredients because of its natural chicken umami. It is made from real chicken with a perfect blend of quality spices which are slow cooked with high-tech drying process that fully retains the flavours and aroma.

Chef Wong says: “For budding chefs, think out of the box as you continuously innovate dishes and constantly benchmark yourselves with international cuisine for greater development.”

Chef Sun’s specialities include creating new fusion Chinese dishes through bold innovation and to break away from tradition, combining Chinese style food materials with Western-style decoration,

His credo for up and coming chefs - don't be afraid to ask more, never forego learning and work hard! Anyone who wants to be a successful chef and boss should have plenty of enthusiasm, great curiosity and thirst for knowledge!

And by the looks of it, both their credo seems to be, "do not hesitate to use Knorr's chicken stock", certainly dispelling any preconceived myths that top Chefs do not resort to these kind of everyday shortcuts that us mere mortals take.

Unilever Food Solutions (UFS)  is the food service division of Unilever.

Their ingredients are some of the staples of professional kitchens in 74 countries.  As one of the world’s top foodservice companies, UFS provides professional ingredients and services to meet the many different needs of their customers — from hawker centres to 5-star hotels; and from school canteens to large food chains. They help chefs all over the world serve tasty, wholesome meals,

One particular product on display that caught my eye, and according to food guru, Alice Yong of Jom Makan, is a great product, is the powdered salted egg yolk.  With salted egg being quite the flavour enhancer is so many dishes, this product certainly would be a boon to those hesitant to use copious amounts of salted eggs from scratch.

Q&A session with the panel of Chefs, before they proceeded with the cooking demonstrations...

And for the cooking demos, the following dishes were displayed.

DISHES FEATURED:

1) 孜然盐煎海鲜盘 (Seafood Platter) by Chef Sun

2) 金汤胜瓜虾球 (Sauteed Chinese Okra with Prawns) by Chef Sun

3) 青葱翠绿拼鸡卷 (Asian Vinaigrette Chicken Roll) by Chef Alan

4) 红鲷鱼泡飯 (Red Snapper with Rice in Soup) by Chef Wong

5) 糯米蟹 (Crab Glutinous Rice) by Chef Wong

Seafood platter by Chef Sun.

Asian Vinaigrette Chicken Roll by Chef Alan.  This was actually my personal favourite, the vinaigrette had a nice balance of tang and other flavours, whilst the chicken was reminiscent of that gelatined chicken roll which you hardly see these days.

Petola With Prawn.  The broth surrounding the dish, presumably made from the chicken stock, was actually very nice.

Red Snapper in Rice With Soup, which I thought was a bit strange to be serving at that hour in the day... (4pm).

And the final dish, prepared by the Hong Kong Celebrity Chef Wong, was delicious but far too filling, and a bit difficult to eat truth be told.  But nevertheless it served its purpose to highlight what great food enhancers Knorrs Chicken Stock can be.  The cooking looked effortless.

For further media information, please contact Angeline Mah or Thong Kok Wah of Integrated Public Relations (iPR) Tel 016 6239 180 / 012 388 6023 or email integratedpr@gmail.com