Xihe and Nanping villages in Conghua district were recently named as villages famous for Cantonese cuisine chefs in Guangzhou, capital city of South China's Guangdong province.

Focusing on training and encouraging entrepreneurship

Since the beginning of the Cantonese cuisine chefs project - an important initiative of Guangdong in its anti-poverty battle and rural revitalization- in 2018, Guangzhou pioneered in establishing a training studio of the Cantonese cuisine chefs in Xihe village to promote non-benefit training, The studio has invited Cantonese cuisine master as the principal consultant and referee of the national vocational skills competition. It is composed of 23 chefs from renowned restaurants and hotels as teaching faculty and has conducted 130 trainings to over 1,700 trainees.

The Nanping village established a training base for Cantonese cuisine chefs and has assessed the ability of 416 trainees for Cantonese cuisine. 

Guangzhou also provides entrepreneurship and rental subsidies for qualified chefs who decide to start their own business. Zhu Lingmin, a villager from Xihe village, opened her own restaurant in the village upon completion of her training and won a prize for excellence in the first Guangzhou innovation and entrepreneurship competition for young Cantonese cuisine chefs.

Promoting integrated development

Conghua adopted a development model of Cantonese cuisine plus food supply chain based on its characteristic agricultural products such as lychees, passion fruits and Chinese yams. The district has cultivated over 100 specialty dishes which has propelled the development of the primary industry.

Meanwhile, rural tourism is also integrated into Cantonese cuisine development. On top of the chef training studio, Xihe village utilized its floral resources and developed the sightseeing agriculture and modern service industry in areas such as fruit picking, B&B hotels and study tours.