The Birth of the Taiwan School Lunch Competition: If You're Not Satisfied, Settle It in a Showdown
The summer tournament of Japan's Koshien high school baseball, now in its 100th year, came to an impassioned close. In the final, Akita Prefecture's Kanano Agricultural High School from the Tohoku region, nicknamed the "Weed Corps," faced off against the star-studded Osaka Toin High School. Although the small fry ultimately failed to defeat the big whale, their never-give-up spirit, combined with pitcher Yoshida Hoshiki's blazing 881 pitches over six games, has written a brilliant poem worthy of being recorded in the annals of history.
Unlike Japan's Koshien baseball tournament, with its long history and its exclusive association with high school youth, few people know that the nutritionists and cooks who silently dedicate themselves day after day in school kitchens also have their own dedicated competition. Launched by the private organization the 21st Century Concept Research Association and held since 2006, the National School Lunch Koshien sees more than two thousand teams compete each year for the title of the nation's strongest school lunch, and it too has left behind many memorable stories.
Nutritionist Matsumaru Sho, who represented Tokyo in 2013, not only became the first man to capture the championship banner, but his story was even adapted into the drama "The Queen's Nutritious Lunch," with the famous actress Amami Yuki playing his role. Nutritionist Takekata Miyuki, the 2017 representative for Ehime Prefecture, had a son, Takekata Kazuhiro, who also made it into the final twelve in 2013, setting the record for the first mother and son to reach the finals of the National School Lunch Koshien.
I still remember when we traveled to Tokyo, Japan, last year to conduct interviews, we could very clearly feel the solemn atmosphere emanating from the competition venue. That was no ordinary cooking contest, but a fierce battle in which twenty-four professionals, bearing the honor of their hometowns and staking their professional abilities, made good use of local ingredients to present the culture of the land on a small plate.
This spring, we decided to organize Taiwan's first-ever national school lunch competition in history, hoping to draw on Japan's experience so that outstanding nutritionists and cooks who labor tirelessly could all receive recognition. As soon as the news came out, it sparked no small amount of skepticism.
"Taiwan isn't the same as Japan. A competition like this is meaningless. I definitely won't participate." "Japan has more than ten thousand school nutritionists; Taiwan has only a bit over four hundred, and not every school has one. It's really hard!" "Some counties and cities have held them before, but the school lunches still haven't changed much." "Our school's budget is only thirty-some yuan per meal. How could we possibly beat Taipei City's fifty-five yuan per meal?"
To address the practical difficulties Taiwan faces in school meal provision, great pains were taken in designing the competition guidelines.
To encourage schools without nutritionists to participate enthusiastically, a presentation category was specially added alongside the competition category; there was no limit on ingredient costs, precisely in the hope that participating teams would present school dishes that could actually be served; the chairman of the board of directors of Japan's National School Lunch Koshien, Bamba Renjo, was invited to serve as an international judge; the nutritionist and meal preparer from the Uda City School Lunch Center, which won runner-up honors in the National School Lunch Koshien in 2017, were invited to Taiwan to conduct cooking demonstrations; and the champion of the Taiwan competition would even have the chance to travel to Japan to personally experience the charm of the National School Lunch Koshien. Every one of these measures was intended to promote exchanges between the people and let Taiwan's school lunches shine on the international stage.
Are school lunches bound to taste bad? Is a team doomed to lose if its budget can't compare? School nutritionists and cooks, this autumn, step up to the kitchen counter and settle it in a showdown, and let the ingredients and culture nurtured from the soil of your hometown become your pride, just like Yoshida Hoshiki and Kanano Agricultural High School, whose burning passion moved countless spectators.
History always belongs to those who dare to dream.
Text | Chen Ju-wei (School Lunch 22 Project Team)