GREAT British Food and Drinks Festival in Vietnam

Although I sometimes watch cookery contests like Master Chef on TV, I never imagined I would take part in one.  But life is full of surprises.  And on Monday, instead of chairing the usual start-the-week meeting at the Embassy, I was at Hanoi’s famous Metropole Hotel rolling up my sleeves, putting on an apron, and discussing recipes for scones with my team-mate, Vietnamese chef and food blogger Esheep, as we got ready to compete in the first ever GREAT British-Vietnamese Bake-off.

I like baking.  But I’ve never done it in front of an audience, let alone TV cameras.  So I was pretty nervous.  And just to add to the pressure, Esheep’s and my scones  would be judged by British chef Gary Rhodes, who has picked up a total of six Michelin stars in his distinguished career.  Why had I agreed to put myself through this?

The answer was to help publicise our GREAT British Food and Drink Week, the first time we’ve ever run a campaign to promote British food and drink in Vietnam.  Throughout this week, in both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, we’re running a series of events ranging from a Scotch whisky tasting dinner, to live cooking demonstrations and TV appearances by Gary Rhodes, to online competitions for Vietnamese food lovers to submit their favorite British recipes.  We’ve had British food and drink displays at supermarkets, food safety and branding seminars, and “meet the distributor” events for British companies.  And of course the Bake-off!

Vietnamese people are passionate foodies.  Almost everyone I meet here can talk knowledgeably and enthusiastically about local dishes and specialties. The cafe and street-food culture here is one of the liveliest in the world.

But too few Vietnamese people know about the incredible quality and diversity of modern British food and drink: our superb fish and seafood, our fantastic cheeses (I’ve enjoyed surprising people this week with the statistic that we export 22,000 tonnes of cheese to France every year), our traditional beers, our wonderful seasonal fruits and vegetables.  And of course the fact that the UK is home to some of the best restaurants, and restaurateurs, in the world.

With Vietnam’s consumer classes growing fast, and taking an ever closer interest in food quality and safety, it feels like the right time to try to help British brands and products establish a stronger presence in this market. Right now, the quickest way to establish a shared frame of cultural reference with a Vietnamese friend is to talk about Premier League football.  I’m looking forward to the day when my Vietnamese friends are as happy talking about whether they prefer an India Pale Ale or a traditional brown ale; Lancashire farmhouse cheese or Wensleydale; as they are talking about Manchester United versus Liverpool. The enthusiastic responses to all of our Food and Drink Week events – 40,000 likes on our dedicated Facebook page – suggests that day isn’t too far away.

If you’ve read this far, it’s only fair to let you know what happened in the Bake-off.  With Esheep firmly in charge and my supporting efforts limited to a bit of ingredient-weighing and dough-kneading, we went for a largely traditional approach to the classic British scone – but added a Vietnamese twist, mixing in some pomelo flowers to provide a hint of fragrant citrus. Did Gary approve?  I’ll let the picture below tell the rest of the story.