Members of the Chefs Association of Ghana (CAG) are feverishly preparing for a regional cooking competition dubbed “Jollof Rice Festival.”

The contest which is under the aegis of the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) with collaboration from the CAG comes off on August 26, 2017 at the Legon Botanical Gardens.

The main objective of the festival is to promote Ghanaian cuisine and create more awareness of and patronise 'made in Ghana products’. Under the campaign' "see Ghana, eat Ghana, feel Ghana, wear Ghana."

The Jollof Rice festival is set to pool chefs and several local caterers from all the 10 regions of Ghana to prepare their special Jolloff showcasing the variations that exist for Jolloff preparation from their regions.

Jollof, one of West Africa’s beloved staple dishes is a single pot dish prepared with rice and tomato gravy with meat, fish, or poultry.

The festival is set to find out who has the best ‘jollof,’ and forms a part of GTA’s activities to make people patronise made-in-Ghana products.

Also participating are chefs from Nigeria, Gambia and Senegal. Alongside will be corporate CEO's Jollof rice competition, other food vendors providing typical Ghanaian cuisine for sale.

President of CAG, Chef Isaac Sackey told this paper “there will be suppliers in the food value chain itching for business and activations among music, children play ground and other programmes.

He described as unfortunate and sad Ghana’s inability to win a similar competition in Washington DC held in July this year. Nigeria won that contest

The question of who best prepares the meal has been the subject of fierce dispute over the years, particularly between the two countries.

“We the Chefs Association of Ghana are fully prepared and ready awaiting our counterparts from the above-mentioned countries,” he maintained.

Even though Ghana Jollof Festival is for sampling we will nonetheless use the opportunity to prepare fully us to win the title in our own country.

Chief Executive Officer of the Authority, Mr Akwasi Agyeman said the festival will also serve as a platform to showcase other staple foods Ghana has.

“Even though this is a ‘jollof’ competition, it will also help us showcase all the other food we have. Under the big umbrella it is a food festival but we want ‘jollof’ to feature prominently,” he intimated.

He added that the authority will encourage corporate institutions, the media, among others to be part of the food competition.

“We are going to also leverage on some of the festivals that will be held in August. August is our eat Ghana month so Homowo is also ongoing. We will use that platform to project Ghanaian foods,” he said.

The Authority, he disclosed will be engaged in activities of the “Chale Wote” street festival.