Eric-Jan van Haastrecht works on his jianbing, at the Chopsticks & Beyond Snack Attack event in Tianjin.[Photo/Crienglish.com]

The jianbing was tricky too. Batter was poured onto a spinning circular hotplate, carefully spread out with a spatula tool; an egg was cracked on top, a crispy cracker snapped into pieces and placed atop with a sprinkling of green onions or whatever each contestant had in mind; all folded up into a (hopefully, but not always) tidy pocket.

Sometimes, the master chefs (who also served as judges) were so displeased with what contestants were doing that they seized the tools from their hands in order to prevent them from committing culinary blasphemy.

Impressively (and surprisingly), by the time the 45 minute timer had sounded, all contestants had three dishes waiting to be sampled. Admittedly though, a few were a tad undercooked.