The Champion of the FE SOGO Cooking Competition is Announced

Seeing the climate crisis, FE SOGO Department Stores (FE SOGO), which has been advocating food safety and sustainable diet for years, organized the "4th FE SOGO Home Cooking Competition", inviting participants to "Battle Against Food Waste". The final competition was held at SOGO Fuxin Store, in which the best folk experts gathered together to present green meals combining deliciousness and environmental protection concepts with nutrition and health as the basis of the cuisine, and the Gold, Silver and Bronze medals in the Social Group and the Student Group as well as the best works of art were selected at last. The gold medal of the social group won the highest prize of NT$150,000.

The Far Eastern SOGO Epidemic Prevention Meals Winners, Student Category Gold Medalist Huang Wenhong (fourth from the left), and Social Category Gold Medalist Huang Linya (fifth from the left), demonstrated a strong commitment to zero food waste. Photo credit: FE SOGO.

Sophie Huang, Chairman of FE SOGO and Pacific Sogo Cultural and Educational Foundation, said FE SOGO was the first department store in Taiwan to bring the concepts of "food safety" and "epidemic prevention" into its supply chain management, and brought positive energy to the downturn of the food and beverage industry during the outbreak of the epidemic. After the fading of the epidemic, the competition has returned to its original goal of emphasizing healthy and environmentally friendly diets, advocating the use of "whole food", and planting the concepts of sustainable consumption and green diets in the hearts of consumers through the competition.

While the world is facing a serious food crisis, one-third of the world's food, nearly 1 billion tons, is wasted every year. The FE SOGO Home Cooking Competition echoes the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal "SDG 12 Responsible Consumption and Production" by encouraging the use of "Whole Foods", which means that whatever can be consumed should not be thrown away, and that non-toxic fruits and vegetables that are farmed in a friendly manner should be selected and utilized to their fullest potential.

This year's competition attracted 191 groups of contestants, a significant increase of 50% compared to the previous year, with ages ranging from 12 to 80 years old. Vegetarians, chefs, and catering students competed not only in culinary skills, presentation skills and storytelling, but also in the concepts of green diet and environmentally friendly food conservation, and "Whole Food Utilization", which was a bonus question in the preliminary round, became a mandatory question in the final round.

Competition in the social group was fierce, with an average age of 36. One-third of the contestants were not engaged in the catering or related industries, showing that since the outbreak of the epidemic, many people have gained experience in home cooking, not only for the sake of health, but also for practicing environmental protection through self-cooking. For the first time, there were non-catering students in the final competition in the student category. One of the entries, "Pumpkin Oatmeal Brown Sugar Egg Tart," was the first dessert entry to advance to the top of the competition since it was first organized.

FE SOGO has long been advocating food safety and sustainable diet with its influence of its channels. The Home Cooking Contest began in 2020, when the epidemic was emerging, to encourage the public to care for themselves and their friends and relatives through cooking, so that "the care is still there even for social distancing", and for this reason, it was awarded the Health Promotion Award in the AREA Asian Corporate Social Responsibility Awards.

For five consecutive years, FE SOGO has held the largest small farmer exhibition in Taiwan, and have provided systematic guidance to small farmers and social entrepreneurial products through multiple channels. For three consecutive years, we have invited popular restaurants to reinterpret the winning dishes of the House Cuisine Competition, so that more people can dine in the EPA-certified "Eco-Restaurant" and enjoy healthy and tasty food, and to promote green diet in conjunction with our business.