Guests  at  the  21st Jakarta  CMO  Club 21st Power Dinner were greeted with aWine & Cheese Expo that is also a part of the Jakarta Fashion and FoodFestival 2010. This  year, the Wine &Cheese Expo are visited by 16 Chateau Representatives  from  France.

The expo will be exhibiting the best wines and  cheeses from  countries,  such as Australia, America, Argentina, Chile, Italy, Germany, Canada, New Zealand, France, Portugal, South Africa, as well as Indonesia.

After the guests had the chance to enjoy  the Wine & Cheese Expo, as usual,  the event began  with  an opening  speech  by Hermawan Kartajaya, one of the  founders of  the  Jakarta CMO Club.  After his  opening  speech, Hermawan  introduced  the Director of  PT  Summarecon Agung  Tbk., Soegianto Nagaria, asthe host of the Power Dinner. Soegianto then  continued  the event with a presentation of Summarecon’s journey ever since itsestablishment in 1975 by the Nagaria  family  and their  associates.

Summarecon has now developed into one of  the leading  property  companies in  Indonesia.  It has successfully developed  the Summarecon Kelapa Gading area ,that was once a piece of land with low productivity, into  an integrated  residential  and commercial  area with  one of  the  fastest business turnover rate, complete with a strong infrastructure and  supporting  facilities, including  shopping centers,  food  courts, lifestyle centers, family clubs, schools and hospitals.

Present  at  the event were  culinary  experts Bondan Winarno and Olivia Wongso,daughter  of  Indonesia’s  most celebrated culinary expert William Wongso, as honor­ary  guests. BondanWinarno  is  a culinary expert,  renowned  author, host of his own cooking show and involved  in many other culinary TVprograms. He is known for his famous phrase, “Mak Nyuusss”, which he often usesas he enjoys the served cuisine in the Wisata Kuliner TV program. At  the event,  Bondan  emphasized the importance  of  Indonesia’s  culinary awareness amongst the locals. He admires William Wongso  for his  commitment  in preserving and  promoting  Indonesian local  cuisine  to the world. Bondan continues  to explain that the abundance of  localcuisine  that  Indonesia has  in every province could be used as a factorin which tourists decides on a destination.

Considering  the  fact that  tourists  are able to see historical monuments,buildings, and places in one day, Bondan reminded the guests that evena full three days culinary tour would not  be  enough to  enjoy  the culinary world of one area in Indonesia .He  also  shared how  the  government in Thailand  is supporting  the  development of the Thai culinary in other countries. The government evenmade a small unit,  the export and promotion unit, under the trade department  to help individuals who want  to estab­lish a Thai restaurant in another country. He shared thisstory  in hopes of sparking a new spirit  in  the Indonesian government  to continuepromoting  the  Indonesian cuisine  ag
gressively to the world. Many  of the  guests  were very  enthusiastic of  the topic and a number of  the  international guests  were  very fond  of  the local  Indonesia  cuisines, including  Sate  Padang, Rendang and Gado­Gado.  Bondan, however, warned  the guests that  if we are  to go international with our local cuisines, we also need to be well educatedabout local food. He even explains that the Rendang has its own definition.

Bondan  reffered  to William Wongso’s defnition  of Rendang as  “caramelized  beef curry” to explain that Indonesian also needs to  be aware  of  these terms  in  order to  not mistakenly  spread the  wrong  defnition to the  world.  “If it’s  not  caramelized, it  can­not be called rendang.That would be called kalio. And before it becomes kalio,  it wouldbe  called kari  (curry). These are actually  the terms of the cooking process,” Bondan continued.

Bondan  also  announced that  he  is involved in a project of making a book that will list  100  Indonesian culinary  recipes.  Along with William Wongso, Bondan and many others in the team will be collecting 300 recipes from  all over  Indonesia.  From the  300  that they have collected, they will thenselect 100 recipes to be placed in the book. Guests  at  the event were  invited  to preserve  local  Indonesian cuisines,  as  well as promote them internationally. Summarecon  has made its  step  towards this  goal  by providing small and medium businesses with a chance to develop theirbusiness within their property and/or area. As a fnal closing, Bondan again emphasized that we need to betterunderstand our own local cuisines in order to promote them to the world. Thelocal Indonesian culinary awareness needs to begin soon, and it should beginfrom its local people first. Let us all join hands  in working  together to preserve and promote our abundance of Indonesian local cuisines.