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Chef Liu Weiji instructs young chefs about the finer points of making jiaozi at Chopsticks & Beyond's Kids Rock the Kitchen event. [Photo/CRIENGLISH.com]
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In China, children always steal the show. Not that that's always a bad thing. For Chopsticks & Beyond's latest installment this past Saturday, it invited a crew of kids out to see how they'd handle a little friendly competition in the kitchen. Sixteen kids aged 5 to 16 came out to BCIS ready to get their hands dirty.
In accordance with the capital's dropping temperatures, jiaozi (dumplings) was the food of the day, a dish common dish in China that's particularly popular in the chilly winter months.
First, professional chef Liu Weiji from the Renaissance Beijing Capital Hotel demonstrated to the group how to mix up the jiaozi fillings, before getting to the arduous task of rolling out the dough and wrapping each dumpling.
To begin, each contestant was to create 20 dumplings, one of which would be scrutinized for its artistic perfection, or lack thereof.
The children sprinted towards their ingredients and began stuffing handfuls of ground pork and green onions into their bowls. At their stations, they mixed and mashed their fillings to a pulp. Then they got to work on the green, red and white doughs, slicing off chunks and rolling them flat; many contestants managed to get the dough flat enough to wrap jiaozi, but not quite flat enough to be delicious. Parents were allowed to help out the children aged up to seven, but it was still the children who completed most of the task.
