Two-color radishes, five-flavored melon strips, and grilled fish strips... Some authentic Chinese dishes have been spread overseas through the British Luban Workshop.

Thanks to the British Luban Workshop -- jointly built by the Tianjin Economics and Trade School and Chichester College in the United Kingdom -- foreign chefs become keen to Chinese specialty dishes.

At the performance session of the 2022 World Vocational College Skills Competition, students of the British Luban Workshop prepared four cold dishes, six hot dishes, and two pastries. Chinese chefs gave online comments on the dishes depending on their completion, Chinese-style plate setting and Chinese food etiquette.

The British Luban Workshop is the first Luban workshop built by Tianjin in Europe. It offers standardized academic course of Chinese cuisine cooking, which has laid a solid foundation for the standardization of Chinese cuisine cooking skills worldwide. Since the education certification was launched in 2018, it has trained more than 1,500 people.

"Chinese chefs usually cook and add seasoning relying on their experience, but to promote Chinese cooking to the world, the cooking process must be standardized," said Liu Enli, principal of the Tianjin Economics and Trade School.

"When we made teaching texts for the British Luban Workshop, we hired a professional translation company, but the translators were at a loss. After repeated communication, we finally explained these terms in a reasonable way and worked out a standardized teaching material."

In addition to teaching cooking, Chinese teachers also attempt to allow the foreign students to learn about the culture of Chinese food.

"Chinese pastries highlight the beauty of cooking techniques, raw materials, and the taste, and the production process itself is full of beauty. I want my foreign students to experience the beauty and have an understanding of Chinese culture and aesthetic taste," said Zhang Yakun, a pastry teacher at the Tianjin Economics and Trade School.

Featuring the Tianjin flavor, the British Luban Workshop has arranged five Chinese cuisine teaching modules, such as eating etiquette, plate decoration and cold dish making, hot dish making, pastry making, and Tianjin-style dough modeling that meet the needs of British catering. A total of 200 teaching videos have been made for use.

In addition, the Chinese cuisine education at British Luban Workshop is exploring integration of industry and teaching, which also helps Tianjin products such as seasonings and red wine to reach  overseas.