KUCHING: The E.A.T: Taste of Borneo Conference 2022 (EAT) was successfully held at the Borneo Convention Centre Kuching from Oct 14 to 16.

The three-day conference was participated by more than 200 delegates from around Southeast Asia.

“It is important to tackle Sarawak’s food security and food waste management as it is something that benefits the community as well as the business and tourism industries.

“It is also in line with the three sets of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) mission – SDG 2 Zero Hunger; SDG 12 Sustainable Consumption and Production and SDG 13 Climate Change Action, which this conference aims to achieve,” Minister for Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts, Datuk Seri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said in his opening speech.

This event was created in line with Kuching Chefs Association’s (KCA) mission of promoting and advancing the culinary culture and offerings of Kuching and Sarawak as a whole.

The conference served as a platform for stakeholders from across the food industry to discuss critical issues, exchange thoughts and network.

The conference featured over 30 speakers with different areas of expertise – among them; Violet Oon, Singapore’s icon for Peranakan Cuisine; Datin Donna Drury Wee, chairman of Culinary Heritage and Arts Society Sarawak where she highlighted the importance of preserving the culinary history of Sarawak’s essential food ingredients and its effort to advocate Kuching’s status as a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) creative city of gastronomy; and Marco Sandri, global manager of The PLEDGETM on Food Waste where he shared his insights into food waste reduction.

“We are so proud that this collaboration between KCA, BCCK and ARC has enabled us to pull off successfully the first international gastronomy conference in Sarawak. We hope to garner more support and participation from the F&B industry in EAT Conference 2.0 in 2023,” said KCA president Abang Abdul Rahman.

“The strategic alliance between KCA and ARC supports our vision to promote the growth of local business events and to place Sarawak in the global business events scene.

“We have been so privileged to have the continuous support from the Ministry of Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Sarawak, as well as BESarawak in supporting and believing in this event and our partnership.

“Without the strong support of all parties involved, especially our collaborators and our sponsors, this event would not have been such a huge success!”, said BCCK chief executive officer Eric van Piggelen.