B: The first Egg Festival, showcasing the variety of dishes that can be made from eggs, has taken place in Hanoi.

A: Eggs are a great source of protein, vitamins, and minerals. They’re easy to prepare. And they’re versatile! Eggs can be combined with many different ingredients and can be cooked in many different ways. Not surprisingly there are thousands of recipes that include eggs.

B: The theme of this year’s Egg Festival was creativity in using eggs, from everyday meals to the fanciest dishes of Vietnamese and international cuisine. At the festival, 10 chefs from across Vietnam competed in a Creative Chefs contest, where they showcased their best egg dishes.

A: Today we’ll meet with two famous chefs, Le Nguyen Hoan Long and Nguyen Chu Tam, who won this year’s Creative Chefs contest with their unique egg dishes.

B: Chef Le Nguyen Hoan Long, a lecturer at the Hutech University of Technology, won first prize with a dish he calls “Goose egg 4.0”. He’s creative even in naming his dishes, I think.

Chef Le Nguyen Hoan Long and his “Goose egg 4.0” dish. (Photo courtesy of chef Le Nguyen Hoan Long)

A: For “Goose egg 4.0”, chef Long uses mostly goose eggs combined with a few duck eggs served with salad ingredients and several kinds of sauce.

“I use goose eggs for this dish. Now, it’s difficult to find goose eggs in the market, so I have to order them in advance. I make poached goose eggs. It sounds very simple to make poached eggs, but I modify it in a unique way to create an amazing flavor. First, the egg is rolled with a mixture of pickled turnip, carrot, and cucumber, then poached. The dish is served with Sichuan pepper caviar sauce and the Salmon tartare of Western cuisine,” said chef Long.

B: When preparing the dish, Long creates a mixture of boiled yolks of goose and duck eggs, Japanese Yuzu kosho red, condensed milk, and green mustard, and serves it in an eggshell with a chili sauce.

A: Long says he had the idea for his “Goose egg 4.0” to elevate Vietnamese cuisine to the level of fine dining.

“Now that everything is being digitalized, I wanted to raise Vietnamese cuisine to a more sophisticated fine-dining level while preserving its Vietnamese character. In my dish, in addition to Western ingredients and techniques, I still use ingredients typical of Vietnam, like fish sauce, sugar, pepper, and Sichuan pepper,” said chef Long.

B: Chef Nguyen Chu Tam of Pane e Vino Italian Restaurant & Wine Shop won third prize in the Creative Chefs contest for his Italian baked salmon with quail eggs.

“This is my new recipe made with eggs. The dish has a typical Italian flavor and, served with butter sauce and bread, is suitable for breakfast or dinner,” said chef Quan.

A: The main ingredients for the dish include Norwegian salmon, mozzarella and parmesan cheese, Vietnamese quail eggs, and a number of spices.

Chef Tam describes his recipe, “The salmon is cut into small cubes, seared with thyme, spices, and white wine, then put into the oven. The next step is to pour over the salmon the tomato sauce, which is made with garlic, shallot, salt, pepper, thyme, and rosemary.”

”Sprinkle the cheese over the salmon and bake it in the oven for 5 to 7 minutes until the surface turns golden brown. Finally, beat four quail eggs over the baked salmon and bake it again in the oven for 7 minutes,” Quan added.

Chef Nguyen Chu Tam at the Egg Festival (Photo courtecy of chef Nguyen Chu Tam)

B: Italian baked salmon with quail eggs is served with bread, rocket, cherry tomatoes, and red radish. The disk drew a rave review at the festival from food expert and critic Benoît Chaigneau.

“It’s a very, very nice combination of eggs, fish and vegetables. There are some Vietnamese flavors and some European flavors. I’m half French, half Italian and it reminds me of my origins. A very, very nice dish and very creative,” said Benoît Chaigneau.

A: There are myriads of recipes that use eggs. The creativity is endless. Our chefs have shown off their talent and creativity at the Egg Festival. You may have your own ideas about what to do with eggs. Please let us know on our Facebook fan page: VOV5-English-Service. Thank you for joining us today on VOV24’s Food Delight. Goodbye.