Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Ministry of Youth and Sports invited Master Chef Indonesia (MCI) contestants Ray Paramarta and Agus Sasirangan as judges in the Indonesian Youth Creativity Week or Kreativesia culinary competition in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan.
The appointment of these two aims to maintain the quality of the competition.
"Ray is the Master Chef alumni from season nine, and he was in the top nine. Meanwhile, Agus is the runner-up from season one. The competition process is very tight and professional," the ministry's Expert Staff for Youth and Sports Innovation, Yohan, noted in a statement from the ministry on Saturday.
According to Yohan, 14 regions participated in this year's Kreativesia culinary competition after a series of selections from their respective regions.
The 14 regions are East Kalimantan, North Sumatra, West Sumatra, North Sulawesi, Central Kalimantan, West Nusa Tenggara, Papua Mountain, Bengkulu, West Java, Aceh, South Sumatra (two representatives), South Kalimantan, and Banten, he added.
"We held this culinary competition because Indonesia has a variety of foods from each region. Hence, they served different dishes according to the origin," he remarked.
Moreover, the ministry is optimistic that such regional cuisines would attract tourists and be managed professionally.
One of the judges, Agus, also commended the theme of the culinary competition, which presented the local taste.
Hence, participants are encouraged to create local specialties as attractively as possible.
"The main points are taste, attractive appearance, and also innovation. They should be able to level up the typical food or commercialize it with a selling value," he remarked.
According to Agus, all participants at the national level have quite a lot of potential. In fact, some of the participants can compete in Master Chef Indonesia.
"I think some of them can make it to the Master Chef. They have the ability for it," he added.
Kreativesia was held at Banjarmasin 4 State Vocational School on Friday (August 30).
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Translator: Donny Aditra, Resinta Sulistiyandari
Editor: Azis Kurmala
