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(14 September 2025) In honour of World Alzheimer’s Month in September, The Hong Kong and China Gas Company Limited (Towngas) and Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui Welfare Council held the Chef Anchor 3.0: Recipes of Remembrance cooking competition at the Towngas Cooking Centre in Causeway Bay yesterday (13 September). The event enabled 20 elderly individuals with dementia to showcase their abilities and potential through flame cooking, working alongside their carers to present dishes rich with family stories whilst competing for eight awards.

Dementia training that can be taken home
Participating families employed DementiAbility Methods™ and procedural memory techniques to design and prepare home-cooked dishes that carry family stories, allowing patients to continue their training at home and maintain their cognitive abilities. One family upgraded their late father’s signature dish of stir-fried prawns with bell peppers and eggs by adding salmon to create a brain-healthy version. Through familiar cooking steps and ingredient combinations, they enabled their mother with dementia to cook the dish herself, helping her regain confidence during the process whilst sharing precious family memories.

The judging panel comprised Ms Catherine Wong Pui-yee, Head of Corporate Affairs and Government Relations and Head of Extended Business of Towngas; Mrs Patricia Lau, Chief Executive Officer of Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui Welfare Council Limited; Professor Chan Wai-chi, Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the School of Clinical Medicine, The University of Hong Kong; and an instructor from the Towngas Cooking Centre. They evaluated entries based on the selection of brain-healthy ingredients, taste and texture, and the family significance behind each dish.

Guest of honour Ms Jenny Yan Lai-ming, Assistant Director (Elderly) of Social Welfare, stated that the Government places great importance on supporting elderly individuals with dementia. As society ages, the Government continues to allocate additional resources to support elderly individuals and their carers, whilst requiring all sectors of society to work together to advance this important work. She noted that programmes like Chef Anchor 3.0 help elderly individuals realise their potential in later life and enhance their quality of living. She also expressed her pleasure at witnessing the warm interactions between elderly individuals and their carers during the competition.

Ms Catherine Wong Pui-yee shared: “Chef Anchor is amongst Towngas’s most popular volunteer activities. Our volunteers feel they gain much insight and experience whilst giving back to the community. We’re delighted that flame cooking can help people with dementia and their carers regain confidence and reduce stress. We shall continue to leverage our company’s strengths to spread love throughout the community.”

Mrs Patricia Lau stated that she was deeply moved by the family stories shared by elderly individuals and their carers during the competition, and was pleased to see elderly individuals excelling despite the limitations of dementia. She noted that Chef Anchor 3.0 demonstrates that elderly individuals with dementia can “live actively, act boldly, do what they want to do, and live well every day”, thereby enhancing their quality of life.

Professor Chan Wai-chi stated that the Chef Anchor 3.0 programme transforms the kitchen into a brain-training venue, using cooking to train sensory perception, concentration, executive function, procedural memory, and comprehension in elderly individuals with dementia. It also provides opportunities for elderly individuals to revisit memories with their carers and socialise with other elderly individuals. He quipped that food “nourishes not only the stomach, but also the mind”.

Chef Anchor programme benefits over 9,000 people
Since its launch in 2017, the Chef Anchor programme has benefitted over 100 families and served more than 9,000 individuals. The Chef Anchor 3.0 programme creates positive shared memories for elderly individuals and carers through pre-group gatherings, cooking training, and professional social work follow-up sessions. It cultivates wellbeing and strengthens family relationships whilst enhancing carers’ caregiving knowledge and elderly individuals’ sense of self-efficacy through a series of carer training sessions.

Beyond the cooking competition, the programme offers cognitive empowerment experience workshops to various elderly centres and will host the Chef Anchor 3.0 results presentation in early 2026, sharing research findings from The University of Hong Kong’s School of Nursing to continue promoting innovative dementia care approaches.

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Press photos:

Photo 1:

After the Chef Anchor 3.0 cooking competition, all participants, judges and Towngas volunteers gather for a group photo.

Photo 2:

The champions of Hong Kong's first cooking competition for elderly individuals with dementia and their carers (2nd and 3rd from left) receive their award from judges Ms Catherine Wong Pui-yee (2nd from right), Head of Corporate Affairs and Government Relations of Towngas, Mrs Patricia Lau (1st from right), Chief Executive Officer of Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui Welfare Council Limited, and Ms Jenny Yan Lai-ming (1st from left), Assistant Director (Elderly) of Social Welfare.

Photo 3:

Ms Catherine Wong Pui-yee (1st from right), Head of Corporate Affairs and Government Relations of Towngas, and Towngas volunteers enthusiastically share the joy of cooking with participants.

Photos 4 and 5:


Elderly individuals excel despite the limitations of dementia. Chef Anchor 3.0 demonstrates that they can live actively and maintain their quality of life.

Photos 6 and 7:


Hong Kong's first flame cooking competition for elderly individuals with dementia features a judging panel comprising Ms Catherine Wong Pui-yee (1st from left), Head of Corporate Affairs and Government Relations of Towngas; Mrs Patricia Lau (2nd from right), Chief Executive Officer of Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui Welfare Council Limited; Professor Chan Wai-chi (3rd from left), Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the School of Clinical Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, and a Towngas Cooking Centre instructor (1st from right). They evaluate entries based on the selection of brain-healthy ingredients, taste and texture, and the family significance behind each dish. Guest of honour Ms Jenny Yan Lai-ming (2nd from left), Assistant Director (Elderly) of Social Welfare, notes that the Chef Anchor 3.0 programme helps elderly individuals realise their potential in later life and enhance their quality of living.

Photo 8:

The Chef Anchor 3.0: Recipes of Remembrance cooking competition specially prints personalised recipes for each participating pair, demonstrating how to complete each step using procedural memory techniques.

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