Famous Chef Uses US Potatoes at Taipei International Food Show

DENVER—(July 19, 2007) Ji Fang Tsai, a famous chef, conducted cooking demonstrations with US potatoes during the Taipei International Food Show recently in Taipei, Taiwan. The United States Potato Board (USPB) had a booth at the show where over 1,500 exhibitors from more than 10 countries around the world were in attendance. The USPB’s booth displayed US purple, red, yellow flesh, fingerling, white and russet potatoes.

Tsai showed the audience different US potato varieties, talked about their uses and made several different recipes using US potatoes. She made mashed potato salad, potato curry stew, US potato chowder and Thai style potato salad. “The cooking demonstrations drew large crowds of attendees eager to taste US potatoes,” said Sarah Mahler, USPB manager of international marketing. “Tsai provides US potatoes with credibility among housewives and the trade.” Tsai writes and publishes her own cookbooks and hosts a Taiwanese television cooking show.

There were several cable television film crews and news crews that visited the trade show and stopped at the booth to interview Steven Chu, USPB’s Taiwan Representative and to film the cooking demonstrations.

Many viable trade contacts were made with food importers, wholesalers, distributors, retailers and restaurant buyers. The purple and fingerling varieties created a great amount of interest—especially with the hotel chefs. “We had an opportunity to have several discussions with the trade to talk about getting US potatoes into the Taiwanese market including what varieties are available,” Mahler said.

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David Fairbourn is Manager, Industry Communications & Policy, at the United States Potato Board in Denver. The mission of the USPB is to increase demand for potatoes and potato products through an integrated promotion program, thereby providing US producers with expanding markets for their production. David can be contacted at 303-369-7783 or david.fairbourn@uspotatoes.com. For complete information about the programs, ROI results, and resources and tools available to all members of the industry through the USPB, please visit www.uspotatoes.com. The United States Potato Board – “Maximizing Return on Grower Investment”.