Creating the 'World Capital of Gastronomy', Taizhou is full of confidence!

In July, let’s embark on a journey through mountains and seas.

This Saturday,

The 5th Zhejiang Provincial Sports Games

will kick off passionately in Taizhou.

This Summer，

food and sports can go hand in hand.

From July 11 to July 13,The Carnival of the 5th Zhejiang Provincial Sports Games"Tai Hao Chi Le" Food Marketwill grandly open at the Taizhou Sports Center.With "Sports Passion" as the canvas，and "Taizhou Flavors" as the brush，creating a culinary feast for everyone to participate in.

Taizhou is a culinary kingdom.Fresh, chewy, and sweet.It makes visitors want to indulge and return for more.In recent years, Taizhou has actively pursued the creation of a "Capital of Gastronomy".Building the culinary brand of "Taizhou Cuisine" and continuously enhancing the people's sense of fulfillment and happiness.

The "Mountain-and-Sea Fusion" Characteristic of Taizhou

As a major representative of Zhejiang cuisine, Taizhou cuisine can be described by the six words: fresh and savory, soft and chewy, sweet and delightful.

Marked by a fresh and sweet flavor profile, Taizhou cuisine employs home-style cooking as its fundamental technique, often incorporating methods like brine-blanching and simple boiling to preserve the original taste of ingredients. Its representative dishes include Bean Noodles with Sea Anemone, Home-style Braised Yellow Croaker, and Clear Soup with Octopus. Taizhou boasts 52 municipal-level intangible cultural heritage culinary projects, with 6 having been selected as provincial-level representative intangible cultural heritage projects.

Traditional Taizhou ingredients are characterized by a "mountain-and-sea fusion," featuring both the natural freshness of seafood and wild mountain delicacies, as well as uniquely processed accompaniments like ginger juice, dried fish, dried shrimp, and sweet potato starch. Ginger juice, extracted or decocted from local old ginger, is pungent and rich, believed to dispel cold and dampness, and used in traditional dishes like Ginger Noodle Soup and Egg Steamed with Ginger Juice. Dried fish and dried shrimp, sun-dried from fresh catches, are easy to store and used to enhance the umami flavor of noodles and soups. Sweet potato starch, made from sweet potatoes, is fine-textured and highly malleable, used for making traditional foods like Sweet Potato Starch Balls and Sweet Potato Starch Soup.

According to statistics, Taizhou has over 300 types of traditional foods and nearly 60,000 various catering businesses. The city not only features food hubs in central urban areas like Jiaojiang Xinhai Tiandi, Jiaojiang Jiazhi Old Street, Huangyan Guanhe Water Street, and Luqiao Shili Long Street, but is also home to “Xin Rong Ji”, the Chinese restaurant with the most Michelin stars worldwide. It also boasts a group of highly renowned Taizhou cuisine restaurants such as “Lin Jia Yi”,“ Shun Ji Pu Jiang Hui”, “Lao Bian Restaurant”, “Ke Long Yi Hao”, “Tai Xiang Yuan”, and “Long Yan - New Taizhou Cuisine”. These restaurants are actively expanding beyond Taizhou, with over 1,300 Taizhou cuisine restaurants now operating in Shanghai alone.

Taizhou also has a tradition of hosting events like food festivals and cooking competitions. In 2024, the city held over 80 food festival events and culinary contests, including the Taizhou Cuisine Week, "Taizhou Cuisine on Campus" promotions, the "Hundred-Bowls, Hundred-Flavors, Hundred-Feasts" Traditional Cultural Theme Banquet Challenge, and the "Taizhou Cuisine · Yuhai Feast" Masterful Culinary Championship. Taizhou actively organized its culinary industry to participate in major events like the CCTV "China Food Festival (Zhejiang Edition)" and the provincial "Tasty Zhejiang · Hundred-Bowls" Traditional Cultural Culinary Challenge.

It is reported that ahead of the 5th Zhejiang Provincial Sports Games, the Taizhou Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television, Tourism, and Sports, in collaboration with the Bureaus of Culture, Radio, Television, Tourism, and Sports of Jiaojiang District, Huangyan District, and Luqiao District, will distribute food vouchers offering "25 off 50" and "50 off 100" during the Games (July - October 2025). These vouchers are for athletes (including team leaders and referees) competing in these three districts and dining at designated "Hundred-Bowls" restaurants within them.

Advancing the Development as a "Capital of Gastronomy"

Taizhou has made significant efforts on its path to becoming a "Capital of Gastronomy".

On March 25, a delegation visited Beijing to meet with Qin Changwei, Secretary-General of the Commission, and Yang Liu, President of the China Cuisine Association. They discussed the application process and reached a cooperation intent with the China Cuisine Association. Subsequently, meetings were held with Michelin China's leadership to coordinate matters regarding the launch of the Michelin Guide in Taizhou, and brand collaboration talks were conducted with the team behind Meituan's Black Pearl Restaurant Guide.

In late May, Taizhou invited President Yang Liu of the China Cuisine Association and her delegation for an inspection visit. A symposium on Taizhou's bid to become a "Capital of Gastronomy" was organized, during which the municipal government signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement with the CCA. From June 19 to 21, a delegation traveled to Leshan, Sichuan Province, to attend the 18th China Catering Industry Development Conference for exchange and learning. During the conference, the city focused on discussing work plans for the latter half of this year and the next year with the CCA, and communicated with relevant officials from Quanzhou's "Capital of Gastronomy" task force.

Taizhou has established a dedicated task force for the "Capital of Gastronomy" application. This team has fully deployed 18 key tasks across four major areas. The leading units have formulated plans, breaking down the application tasks in detail with clear timelines, and are advancing them item by item with full effort.

Efforts are underway to deeply explore the culinary culture, systematically document Taizhou's cuisine, and promote a series of research projects on food culture. Plans are being made to advance the application of culinary intangible cultural heritage items for the ninth batch of municipal-level representative intangible cultural heritage projects, and to conduct the review and assessment of provincial and municipal-level "Hundred-Bowls" designated restaurants. Since May, over 50 events have been held across various localities, integrating local cultural characteristics. These include food-themed cultural and tourism markets, and "Hundred-Bowls" promotion activities in universities, scenic spots, communities, and other venues as part of the "Six Outreach" initiative.

Building the "Taizhou Cuisine" Culinary Brand

Establishing Taizhou as a "Capital of Gastronomy" is crucial for enhancing the recognition and influence of its local cuisine.

Taizhou places high importance on cultivating culinary talent and has established a chef training system centered around the Xin Rong Ji Academy. This system includes an education center, a research and development center, a cultural studies and dissemination center, and a talent training base, all dedicated to preserving traditional Taizhou cooking techniques.

Currently, ten vocational institutions in the city offer programs related to the culinary industry, with a total enrollment of over 3,000 students. These programs cover various fields such as Culinary Arts and Nutrition, Chinese and Western Pastry Arts, and Hotel Management and Digital Operations. They serve as a pipeline for nurturing talent in Chinese culinary arts, Western culinary arts, and Chinese and Western pastry sectors, laying a solid foundation of skilled professionals for Taizhou's bid to become a "Capital of Gastronomy".

To create an urban culinary IP, Taizhou leverages Tencent's digital IP resources and hosts promotional events like food-themed consumption seasons and culinary documentaries. In 2024, seven short videos were released, garnering over 80 million exposures. Innovative initiatives, such as the interactive food map and the "Nighttime Food Code," generated over 60 million views.

In collaboration with Tencent Video and the team led by Chen Xiaoqing, the series The “Flavors of Taizhou” was launched, achieving over 80 million advertising impressions online and garnering coverage from 15 provincial and national media outlets. Traditional foods are vigorously promoted through online and offline activities like "Celebrating the New Year with Taizhou Flavors" and the "Shanghai · Taizhou Cultural Tourism and Food Market," significantly raising public awareness.

Taizhou cuisine has been featured in multiple CCTV programs. Promotion campaigns for the "Savoring Taizhou" food guide are conducted via new media platforms like WeChat, Video Channels, Red Note, and Douyin, attracting widespread attention. Plans are also underway for a dedicated Taizhou cuisine column in China Tourism News.

During this year's May Day holiday, Taizhou hosted the third Taizhou Fine Food Week, designating 107 must-try restaurants. The event attracted over 500,000 visitors, generating a turnover exceeding 7 million RMB.

Across the city, 30 large-scale food events were held, such as the "Great Song Dynasty Night City Summer Food Festival," attracting more than 2.25 million participants. Specifically, in Jiaojiang District, the Thousand-Person "Rolled Pancake Banquet" at Jiazhi Old Street and the Xinhai Lobster Night events boosted surrounding catering consumption by 30% and 40%, respectively.

Translator：Jiayang Lin