A variety of satay and fried rice dishes can be enjoyed at the Culinary Conference and Festival from 9-10 October 2018 in Grha Sabha Pramana UGM, organised by UGM in collaboration with Creative Economy Agency (Bekraf).
The festival showcases various types of satay such as chicken satay, squid satay, and mushroom satay, and fried rice dishes such as seafood fried rice, goat fried rice and corn fried rice.
Rector of UGM, Prof.Ir. Panut Mulyono, M.Eng., D.Eng., in his remarks read out by Director of Community Service, Prof. Ir. Irfan Dwi Prijambada, M.Eng., Ph.D., said Indonesian culinary industry had a big potential. Hence, synergy between government, academics, and industry players is needed to develop this industry.
“Preservation of Indonesia’s original food and food of excellence ought to be done to support the country’s tourism,” he said when opening the festival on Tuesday (9/10) in Grha Sabha Pramana UGM.
Panut said the culinary industry contributed significantly around 30 percent of the total tourism revenue. A polling by CNN in 2017 even ranked rendang (beef stew) and fried rice in first and second places among World’s 50 Best Food, in addition to satay at 14th.
“With this very good potential, Indonesian food is expected to be able to support tourism development,” he said.
Research and Development Director of Bekraf, Dr. Wawan Rusiawan, said culinary industry had contributed significantly in creative economy sector. But the growth, however, is insignificant in the past five years.
The minimum use of e-commerce (38%) in this sector poses another challenge in addition to the low number of business players that have a registered business. Wawan said culinary industry so far had adsorbed 7.9 million workers in 5.5 million of business units. “This is a great potential and our homework now is how to develop this even further,” he said.
Dean of Faculty of Agricultural Technology UGM, Prof. Dr. Ir. Eni Harmayani, M.Sc., said Indonesia was a world’s gastronomic kitchen with a rich variety of tasty dishes. Unfortunately the nation’s dishes are not well known in the world.
“Therefore, joint strategic efforts need to be done to support culinary business players and stakeholders so that Indonesian food can compare with international foods,” she said.
The event also hosted a seminar on the history, economy, food science and tourism aspects of satay and fried rice as discussed by experts. There are also food photography contest, Master Class session by renown chef William Wongso, Yanto Budidarma, and Sisca Soewitomo, Food Styling by Rochmat Septiawan, and Food Photography by Agung Portal.
Event chairperson, Dr. Ir. Retno Indarti, M.Sc., explained the Conference and Festival was aimed to deepen the knowledge, understanding, and development of Indonesian food, particularly satay and fried rice.