WUHAN, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- More than 1,000 cooks will compete against each other in a cooking festival being held in central China's Hubei Province.

The 28th China Cooks Festival opened Friday in the city of Yichang, where cooks from around China have converged to share their experience and cooking skills during the three-day event.

During the festival, a food summit, a cooking conference and a series of competitions will be held, according to the China Cuisine Association (CCA).

"The festival aims to cultivate cooking talent for the catering industry," said CCA head Jiang Junxian.

China's catering industry is seeing rapid growth, with revenue up 9.8 percent year on year to 2.6 trillion yuan (375 billion U.S. dollars) in the first eight months of this year.