Joining Chef Juna To Rieta Amalia, ICA Chef Expo 2025 Officially Held

JAKARTA - The Indonesia Chef Association (ICA) has held another prestigious event for the sixth time, ICA Chef Expo at Jiexpo Kemayoran from May 7 to May 10, 2025.

This year's ICA Chef Expo event is filled with celebrities in the culinary field who are the favorites of the Indonesian people such as Chef Juna, Chef Chandra, Bunda Sisca Soewitomo, Chef Axhiang, Chef Mutho, Chef Yongki Gunawan, Mama Rieta and other celebrities.

Arief Parsetyo Adi, Head of the National Food Agency, gave his appreciation for the holding of this event. For Arief, this event is part of the preservation of local Indonesian foods.

"This is an education to the wider community on how Indonesia's culinary can expand widely," said Arief Parsetyo Adi at the opening ceremony of the ICA Chef Expo 2025 at Jiexpo Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, Wednesday, May 7.

"Then, the existing food sources are local food sources. This is in accordance with what ICA friends aspire to introduce nutritious food. So, it's not just delicious. A nutritious food is balanced and of course safe," he continued.

Chef Santo as President of the Indonesia Chef Association explained that the holding of this event was proof of ICA's commitment to preserving local Indonesian food.

"Actually, the addition is not significant, meaning that from year to year there will be a slight addition, most importantly our commitment from ICA has not changed, to preserve Indonesian culinary," said Chef Santo.

"So all of these competitions must be with Indonesian recipes," he said.

One of them is with a cooking competition with the theme of Indonesian specialties. Slamet Jarwanto, Chief Event Chef Expo 2025 explained that for the competition itself, 200 participants will be divided into 2 categories, professional chefs and juniors.

"This year we have participants for 8 classes, the number is around 200 consisting of professional chefs of Indonesia, then juniors from hotel campus students and vocational schools," explained Slamet Jarwanto.

"Then there is a competition that is prestigious with a Black Box Culinary Challenge, they are formed from teams that have competed abroad and then Indonesia cooks from ingredients that are hidden in three sets of Indonesian menus," he continued.

In this competition, Rieta Amalia, Nagita Slavina's mother, is trusted to be one of the judges who will assess the results of the dishes from the participants. He explained that there will be several points that will be the basis for the assessment.

"There is a sense, there are decorations, there are preparations, cleanliness is like that," explained Rieta Amalia.

Gandeng became the judge himself, Rieta admitted that she did not have special preparations, only preparing herself to taste the food from the participants.

"Preparation of an empty stomach, empty your stomach. You have to empty your stomach," he concluded.