One of my best friends during my years in New York was a Korean cook by the name of Hoon Song. Hoon was forever dependable for a good joke (even though his English wasn’t that strong), loved to sing while working and was a phenomenal cook—even in New York, where some of the world’s most talented cooks live, he stood out with his skill, precision and technique. He attended culinary school in Korea, finished at the top of his class, worked in one of the best Italian restaurants in Korea, moved to the U.S., attended the prestigious Culinary Instititue of America (and again finished near the top of his class) before landing at Gramercy Tavern, where I was working.

As an international cook, he represented the best that Korea had to offer. While I met others like him from Japan or the UK or Canada, I have forever lamented that I never met anyone of the same caliber from China in all my time in NYC. With 1.2 billion people to draw from, it seems unfathomable that there aren’t at least a few Chinese cooks with the passion and discipline to pursue their careers overseas. But my former disappointment has now turned to optimism.

This January, I was invited to be a part of the jury for the China regionals of the Bocuse d’Or culinary competition, to help select one cook to represent the country in the Asian qualifiers in June. The Bocuse d’Or, named after Paul Bocuse, one of the giants of modern cuisine, is a bi-annual competition held in France with representatives from all over the world. Of the cooks showing here, three work in Shanghai, two in Hong Kong and one in Macau, but they all have different backgrounds: a few are from big hotels, a few from restaurants and a few run their own shops.

Ralph Sun from Stiller’s Restaurant eventually took the competition, but the event was great on so many levels. It was inspiring to see how much local media coverage and attention this competition got, first of all. For some other countries, funding for the competition was provided by the national government. In China, however, the vast majority of the sponsorships came from corporate sponsors or out of a wealthy patron’s pocket. More coverage is more exposure, and hopefully this will motivate others to take part in years to come.

The level of skill was also revealing. Now, I know that there are good cooks in China. I like to think that I work with some great ones with miles of potential in my own kitchen. However, the cooks that participated in the competition were truly forward-thinking risk takers. Like anything with a time constraint and a competitive setting, some showed better than others but I like to imagine everyone was still a winner inside, as trite as that sounds. There aren’t many opportunities to compete to represent your country, and the experience itself is worth the time and dedication you put into it. Hopefully, the lessons they learned can apply to the next competition two years down the road—I hope they’ll be back.

Speaking to the contestants afterward, I was especially moved to hear about their dreams and aspirations. Here were the cooks that I was looking for: people who drove themselves to be the best and pushed themselves both in and out of work. Some had already been overseas in Spain, others had staged (externed) in various restaurants around their own town, all had done whatever they could do within their own resources. With cooks like these among us, I am confident for the future of the Western culinary arts in China.

I showed my cooks back at the restaurant some pictures and menus from the competition, and two of them have already asked how they can enter sometime down the road. I almost shed a tear of paternal pride on the spot. Let’s hope I can get them in soon.

When Austin isn't busy writing City Weekend's The Dish blog he is head chef over at Madison. Check out more of his aricles here.