Taizhou Cuisine Tapped as “Golden Calling Card” for City Branding–– Municipal Gastronomy Industry Development Conference Kicks off

“Food is the people’s first necessity; it shapes a city’s soul.”

On 23 April the City Party Committee and Municipal Government convened the Taizhou Gastronomy Industry Development Conference, unveiled the Xinrongji Academy, released the first 16 “Taizhou Signature Dishes of Tasty Zhejiang,” and called on the whole city to build a distinct Taizhou culinary school, accelerate the sector’s leap-forward growth, and race toward the title of “UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy”.

City leaders Li Yueqi, Wu Xiaodong, Wu Haiping, Ye Haiyan, heads of relevant departments and representatives of catering enterprises attended.

Blessed by mountains and sea, Taizhou’s terrain and its restless creativity have simmered into a cuisine prized for its fresh umami and velvet-soft bite. Led by flagship brands—Xinrongji, Shunji, Taixiangyuan, and Lin Jiayi—Taizhou restaurants have lately pushed beyond city limits, setting tables in Beijing, Shanghai, and Hangzhou and turning local flavour into rising national fame.

Taizhou has already drafted the Implementation Opinions on Accelerating the High-Quality Development of Taizhou Cuisine, setting the creation of a “UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy” as the lodestar, Taizhou’s own culinary canon as the brand, and six flagship projects as the engine. At the conference, Xinrongji Catering Group, Taizhou Vocational & Technical College, the Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, TV, Tourism & Sports, the Municipal Commerce Bureau, the Municipal Bureau of Agriculture & Rural Affairs, and Jiaojiang District Government all took the floor, pledging to join forces and let the aroma of Taizhou dishes travel to every corner of the planet.

Li Yueqi, then Secretary of the CPC Taizhou Municipal Committee, noted that cuisine is a living custom and culture, carrying social, spiritual, and economic value that unlocks the urban buzz, happiness and consumer vitality of a city. Taizhou, famed as “A banquet of delicacies outshines the world; one bay of seafood fresh for millennia,” already commands market recognition, cultural depth, industrial muscle, a brand matrix, and a seamless “eat-stroll” ecosystem—all rocket fuel for Taizhou cuisine to break the circle. Next, the “one capital, one cuisine, six projects” roadmap will shift the city’s food industry into top gear.

He declared the creation of a “UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy” the city’s flagship drive and ordered immediate, concrete moves to catapult Taizhou cuisine onto the global menu. He called for a culture-led project that locks the flavours “Fresh-from-the-Sea, Sweet-as-Honey, Soft and Sticky” into a modern, place-rooted cuisine; for a corporate boost that propels flagship firms beyond city limits while forging a “peak-plus-plateau” cluster; for field-to-fork supremacy that turns every ingredient into a premium, traceable Taizhou brand; for a vocational-education pipeline that keeps chefs, managers and techs flowing; for landmark food quarters where celebrated restaurants, star cooks and signature dishes cluster into must-visit streets; for a “food-plus” engine that blends cuisine with culture-tourism, city marketing and rural incomes, multiplying every meal into visits, sales and jobs; and for a year-round calendar of viral festivals and IPs that keeps the city’s tables—and hashtags—permanently hot.

Translator：JingJing Shi