The second edition of “MGM Chef Nic Gastronomusic Fest”, jointly presented by MGM and Chef Nic, offered an unparalleled dining and entertainment mash-up experience to locals and tourists on December 9 and 10 at MGM COTAI, which has welcomed approximately 7,000 participants in two days. Striving for originality and excellence, MGM teamed up with Chef Nic to bring about a stellar line-up of 16 elite chefs from both teams, and curated a “one-bite fine dining” multisensory extravaganza combining a sumptuous feast from 11 international signature cuisines and high-octane music gigs by pop artists from Mainland China and Hong Kong that blew away the audiences. The “fork n’ roll” festival ended the year on a high note, further solidifying the status of Macau as a Creative City of Gastronomy.
“MGM Chef Nic Gastronomusic Fest” is created as a platform for cultural exchange through international cuisines; together with Chef Nic’s team of seven chefs including Danyi Gao, Edward Voon, Beichuan Yang, Domino Dee, Amanda Strang, Hilda Chan, and Chef Nic himself, and nine elite chefs from MGM including Adam Mathis, Yang Dengquan, Homan Tsui, Mario Gil, Sihui Pan, Jefferson Lim, João Costa Casimiro, Bruno Le Francois and Neo Ng. The festival brought in culinary favorites from 11 global dining capitals, in 20 dishes. Guests savored all the trendy eats from around the world in one setting at the event, which showcases the essence of a Creative City of Gastronomy.
The two chef teams displayed manifold dining capacities: the seven star chefs created dishes that embodied some of the world’s most popular flavors, such as Korean, Southeast Asian and paid homage to the French culinary foundation, in the form of reinvented desserts and more. Vegetarian and pescatarian options were available to appeal to a wider audience. On the other hand, MGM’s chef team took charge of Cantonese, Sichuan, Macanese-Portuguese, Filipino, French and Pan-Asian creations. A cuisine that cannot be missed in Macau, the Macanese-Portuguese creation – Roasted Octopus, Grilled Bellpepper Rice, Sepia Garlic Puree – was one of the highlight dishes among the crowd. Other all-time-favorites were Chef Nic’s Signature Chocolate Mousse Pop, Chef Edward Voon’s Black Pepper Crab Au Gratin, and MGM Chef Homan Tsui’s Braised Beef offal and Wagyu Beef Cheek, to name a few.
Many dishes at the food booths were based on recipes of traditional cooking and re-interpreted by the creative MGM’s chefs and enhanced with quality ingredients. Behind the scenes, the integrated resort had mobilized about 100 team members to come together in order to make this a successful and unique gastronomic event.
Hubert Wang, President and Chief Operating Officer of MGM China Holdings Limited, said, “We are excited to have co-created another year of successful collaboration between MGM and Chef Nic team. Together, we make up a dream team to reinforce Macau as the ‘Creative City of Gastronomy’. This is another endeavor of MGM to continue positioning ourselves as a pioneer in cultural tourism, creating original and diverse entertainment offerings to appeal to both locals and international travelers. We look forward to surprising our customers and partners by coming up with more innovative and crossover initiatives in the areas of gastronomy and entertainment.”
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Nicholas Tse said, “Four years ago, MGM made my dream of putting my two passions together a reality, with the amazing venue, and professional teams that they have. I am more than thrilled that we have the same vision and acquired taste for different forms of art in life. This time around, we are making the gastronomic component more interesting, so that together, we showcase the possibility of diversified culinary offerings that we can make happen.”
MGM Chef Nic Gastronomusic Fest was pleasing to the audiences’ taste buds and their ears: headlined by Nicholas Tse’s high-octane rock ‘n’ roll performance, alongside with Chinese rock band Tarzan, pop stars Hailey Liu and Young Cao from Mainland; Hong Kong band Dear Jane, pop singers Edmond Leung and Gin Lee, heartthrobs Panther Chan and MC Cheung, and girl group XiX warmed up the crowd as the opening act. The impressive lineup, each of unique style, put an electro spin on the rousing party in a high-energy atmosphere for an all-rounded experience that appealed to the five senses.