Chef Do Chi Cong from a Ha Noi restaurant will be the first-ever Vietnamese chef to compete at the prestigious cooking contest Bocuse d'Or Asia in Shanghai this month.

The 39-year-old chef will join competitors from nine other Asian countries, including Japan, the Republic of Korea, Thailand, China, Malaysia, Singapore and India to showcase his exceptional cooking skills during the three-day contest starting on June 12.

Chefs at the contest will be required to prepare a meat dish with three garnishes of their choice. The main principle ingredients for the main dish include beef tenderloin, oysters and beef cheeks, an exotic but very tough and lean cut of meat that is most often used for braising or slow cooking to produce a tender result.

Cong revealed that com (young sticky rice) and mac khen (a kind of wild herb often used in cuisine from Vietnam 's north-western region) are among the 'secret' spices that he will use for his presentation in Shanghai .

Four Asian finalists will join the international final in Lyon , France in January 2013.

Last June, Cong beat 11 other chefs from elite restaurants, hotels and resorts across the country to win the Bocuse d'Or Vietnam . His creations – rolled sturgeon fillets with shrimps in fragrant herbs, young rice crust and stuffed chicken with prawns, pumpkin, and a light curry – wowed the jury, including French master chef Marc Foucher. The judges made evaluations based on taste, level of perfection in presentation, technical skill, cooking sophistication, creativity and visual beauty.

Bocuse d'Or Asia is a part of the biennial Bocuse d'Or World Cuisine Contest which is created in 1987 by French Chef Paul Bocuse, aiming to broaden the public's understanding of the extraordinary dedication, hard work, practice and precision required to execute the very finest cuisine.

As one of the world's most prestigious cooking competitions, the contest selects 24 competitors from 24 countries to compete each year, and each country's team is comprised of one chef and one assistant.-VNA