A show kitchen at next week's Beijing International Book Fair will be a first for the event, featuring hourly cooking demonstrations by eight chefs with international reputations.

Featured chefs include Britain's James McIntosh and Germany's Chakall, who have appeared on CCTV; Malaysian TV celebrity Chef Wan; France's Cyril Rouquet and Guillaume Siegler; Romania's Laura Cosoi; Russia's Stalic Khankishiev, and China's Xu Long, the Western chef at the Great Hall of the People.

In addition, a series of conferences will run concurrently with the cooking demos. Presenters include Xu Long on Yunnan herbs, Edouard Cointreau on world trends in food and wine book publishing, Shandong winemaker Gerard Colin on the future of wine in China, Guillermo Gonzales Arica on gastro-diplomacy, and Mmammidi Clementine George on the African Delicacies cookbook. A trio of chefs will discuss food on the Silk Road on Aug 28, the final day of the book festival.