The usually quiet and dusty yard of the Fatahillah Park in the Old Town area, West Jakarta, got a new spirit on Saturday.

The park turned into a big kitchen, with many tables, gas stoves, kitchen utensils and spices. Forty-five people, wearing aprons and chef hats, lined up behind a table, busily cooking spices into various traditional local dishes.

They were participating in the Old Recipe Cooking Festival at the 2008 Old Town Tourism Attraction, which kicked off Saturday and will end Sunday.

The amateur cooks and professional chefs cooked one out of the 10 local old recipes, such as besengek daging (meat dish), pindang ecot (fish soup), sate tulang (chicken satay) to international food like bestek (beef steak) and Japan's sukiyaki (soup).

Tatang Sumantri from the Jakarta Tourism Agency said aim of the event was to promote old recipes to Jakartans.

Youngsters also took part in the competition, which consisted of three categories: vocational school students, university students and junior chefs, and hotel, restaurant and catering chefs.

Henry and Jefanny, both students from hotel school STP Trisakti, said they were excited to take part in the event.

"We are not familiar with these old recipes. We only know about sate tulang, but we later decided to cook besengek daging because it is quite similar to rendang (spicy beef stew)," Henry, 20, said.

"This competition is a really good way to increase our knowledge about old recipes. I'm curious about cooking other old dishes," he said.

Prominent cook and head of the jury Rudy Choirudin said the main factor in the judging was taste, followed by presentation and creativity.

"The old recipes are legacy from our ancestors that's why it is important to preserve them and learn how to cook them," he said.

"Each participant should cook five portions because we give visitors a chance to taste the food.

"For visitors, you are also free to copy all recipes displayed in the area. We encourage you to cook these at home to preserve our old local dishes," he said.

The cooking competition is a part of a series of activities at the two-day event. It is the second time the annual event has been held.

There are some performances, like Kuda Ronggeng from West Java, Reog Ponorogo from East Java, Betawi dances, Portuguese keroncong tugu, Arabic zapin dance and Chinese barongsai.

Antique cars and bikes are also on display.

On Sunday afternoon there will be a ceremony to commemorate National Heroes Day, which falls on Nov. 10.

Jakarta Post