Chopsticks & Beyond looks for love

Singles gather for a day of tasty tidbits and giddy games at the Chopsticks & Beyond Singles Day Event. Photo taken November 11, 2014. [Photo/CRIENGLISH.COM]

In China, November 11 is colloquially known as Singles Day, a day for single dudes and ladies to party with other single dudes and ladies so they can hopefully escape a potentially lonely and tragic fate of being alone forever.

In order to help Beijing's crowd of singles pair off, Chopsticks & Beyond hosted a day of cooking themed activities designed to yank singles out of their claustrophobic shells.

In the award winning Yunnan restaurant Lost Heaven, things started out properly with the professionals. Four of Beijing's high end chefs were invited out to put their own spin onto Yunnan rice noodles and wild vegetable pancakes. Aitor Olabegoya from Migas, Robert Cunningham from East Hotel, Massimo Masili from LMPlus and Esposito Massimiliano from Isola were coached by the Lost Heaven's head chef Li Zhirui on the quintessential dishes from the province of Yunnan showed off their creativity and slicing and dicing skills, whipping out some Yunnan food with influences from their home countries (Spain, Australia or Italy).

Judges Lee Williamson from Time Out and Luo Shao from the World Association of Chinese Cuisine chewed each dish thoughtfully before concluding that it was Olabegoya's dish that best incorporate a home country influence into each of the Yunnan style dishes.

But would the public echo Williamson's and Shao's decision? With watering mouths, young men and women lined up, eager to taste the dishes and vote for their favorites. For the first time in Chopsticks & Beyond, the judges' and the public's opinion strayed. The public vote pitted Cunningham against Masili, each of the pair receiving 19 votes. In a tie breaker, Cunningham came out glorious, grinning ear to ear.

Then it was time for the singles to get their game on.