Jin Cheng, a chef from Shanghai Jinghengyan Restaurant, cooks Shanghai cuisine at 2011 METRO National Cooking Competition in Shanghai, Dec 14, 2011. [Photo/chinadaily.com.cn]

SHANGHAI - A Shanghai chef took the crown at a national cooking competition that ended this month.

Jin Cheng, a chef from Shanghai Jinghengyan Restaurant, received his golden chef hat with his Shanghai cuisine.

The competition, jointly held by retailer Metro Cash & Carry China and China Cuisine Association, aims to explore the world of Chinese cuisine and discover Chinese gourmet cooking.

The cooking competition lasted 10 months and attracted over 160 professional chefs. A total of 10 elite contestants took part in the final round of competition, which was held at Metro's Shanghai Putuo Store.

They were the top winners from regional competitions in southern, eastern and northern China covering 13 cities.

To win the competition, the chefs were asked to fuse the essence of China's 5,000 years of culinary history into their dishes.

While the chefs were firing away with their recipes, the jury also offered simultaneous comments about the contestants' cooking techniques and choice of ingredients, which not only was a tremendous boost to the atmosphere, but also gave the audience new cooking ideas.

The cooking competition introduced Metro's Star Farm to ensure the "safety, nutrition, health" aspects of dishes.

Under the system, people can know the food origins and production process by just inputting the bar code labeled on the ingredient into the computer, which would show the food's production date, storage location, transportation and sales information, and even its original harvest location.

After fierce competition, Jin Cheng beat out the competition with his Shanghai cuisine.

"This national cooking competition offers a great exchange platform for the culinary industry. It's also an opportunity to improve the awareness of ensuring food safety when providing appetizing delicacies," he said.

André Van Regenmortel, vice-president of customer management at Metro Cash & Carry China, said, "As a leader of global self-service wholesale, we want to utilize professional culinary products and services offered by Metro China，to gather top professional chefs across the country，to explore the finest ingredients, and to become the first choice supplier of our core customers, including hotels, restaurants and canteens."