By KATHLEEN SQUIRES

The 6th Annual International Gourmet Festival, a 10-day cooking event featuring 33 Michelin-starred chefs from a dozen countries, wrapped up late last month in Albufeira, Portugal. Here are some of the most celestial offerings we encountered.

Best Looking

Toro

Pink pieces of tuna belly lined the plate like petits fours, adorned with bright blue borage flowers and beaming yellow cucumber blossoms. Notes of ginger, lime, rice-wine vinegar and a crisp, compressed cucumber accompanied the fish, with a dollop of golden osetra as a rich, salty, grand finale.

The chef: Shaun Hergatt, SHO Shaun Hergatt, New York. “The flowers added a synergy between the fish and vegetables—borage, for example, tastes like oyster and cucumber.”

Best Reinvented Classic

Bouillabaisse en Sashimi

Uncooked fish and cold broth marked this bright reinterpretation of a classic, generously garnished with the bounty of the Algarve (oysters, clams, mussels, snapper, lobster, prawns, shrimp, sea urchin and caviar).

The chef: Laurent Gras, formerly of L2O, Chicago. “I replaced the traditional rouille with a wasabi emulsion. The bouillabaisse is clarified and turned into a consommé, with kombu adding a natural gelatin and shaved bonito bringing smokiness.”

Most Festive

Beef With Christmas Tree Scent and Barberry

Sweet berries brightened a supple beef loin, perfumed with pine. Crosnes, tiny winter tubers, added a nutty edge and snappy texture.

The chef: Normand Laprise, Toqué, Montreal. “We have a lot of forest in Quebec, and I like to use its essence in my meals. When I was a child we used pine as a medicine. Barberry is also traditionally a medicine berry, so this dish is meant to be very soothing.”

Most Ingenious

Compression of My Gastronomic Life

Layers of emulsions and foam had all the tricks of modern cuisine and all the taste of traditional Italy. Salty cheese, lush beans and rosemary essence translated to a wild take on pasta fagioli.

The chef: Massimo Bottura, Osteria Francescana, Modena, Italy. “The bottom layer is crème royale, a tribute to Joel Robuchon. The top is rosemary foam, which reminds me of Ferran Adrià. The middle is a crusty Parmigiano-Reggiano, sliced thin like pasta and cooked in a bean sauce, like my grandmother would make. She is the emotional part of the dish.”

Best Faux Caviar

Monkfish Drizzled With Geranium Oil

A painter’s palette of rosy roasted shallots; mossy green spinach in soy butter; and a sunburst of carrot-mustard purée surrounded the florally-scented fish. A bed of tart, caviar-like finger lime seeds gave a surprising pop.

The chef: Alain Passard, L’Arpège, Paris. “The geraniums and lime seed are from my garden. This dish says so much about my cooking because it is light and based on wellness. There is no cream, no sauce. Very surprising for a French chef, no?”

By EMILY VEACH

Starbucks Corp. posted faster revenue growth in Asia than anywhere else in the latest quarter. Even though the region only made up about 5% of global sales in the period ended Jan. 1, the Seattle, Wash.-based coffee company just announced a partnership in India, a difficult market for foreign businesses.

“We think in the long term it’s going to be another core engine for the enterprise, given India’s potential and growth. It’s like China,” said Jinlong Wang, president Asia Pacific, who is involved with the company’s India expansion and oversees 10 other markets: Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.

Mr. Wang first joined Starbucks in 1992 and worked in international business development as well as the law and corporate affairs department until 2000. He then held executive roles in two other companies before returning as Greater China president in 2005. His career also includes teaching and a stint as a government official at the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations and Trade in Beijing, before he left to study law at Columbia University.

China, where coffee shops have become a fixture on city street corners, is one of the company’s great success stories. Yet Starbucks suffered from its own success last week when Chinese consumers reacted angrily to news of rising drink prices at Starbucks.

Mr. Wang spoke with Emily Veach in Hong Kong about the challenges of winning brand loyalty in Asia’s varied markets as well as how he retains quality staff, no small task in the retail business.

WSJ: How do you keep good people?

Mr. Wang: We treat our partners with respect, creating an environment for them to excel. To really give the best of themselves, give the best to each other.

WSJ: Do you have management programs in place to groom rising leaders?

Mr. Wang: We want to promote our own people, to give them opportunities. We have store managers who stay on 10 to 15 years, which is very difficult, particularly in the retail business. But they love what they do. They want to see their people grow.

I’m working with two people in the mentoring program, a manager and an operational director. Mentoring is not how to teach, it’s now how to shape, it’s really how to facilitate and allow people to have someone they can talk to, someone they can rely on. You have to have their best interests in mind but nothing else.

WSJ: Where do you see the most potential in this region?

Mr. Wang: Korea. Our partner has done a tremendous job building the brand.

Otherwise, growth is a lot higher in emerging markets. China is growing at about 8% to 9%, the rest of the region maybe 4% to 6%. The coffee industry is double-digits. You’re talking 10%, 20%, 25%, in certain places even 30% growth in this segment. There’s tremendous potential.

WSJ: What do you make of the growth trajectory of China’s middle class?

Mr. Wang: Our brand really resonates with the young people there. Among our core customers in China the average age is much younger than in the U.S.—10-15 years younger. As we continue to grow there, Chinese don’t want to be Westernized. They want to be modernized.

Starbucks will play a leading role in elevating the whole coffee industry, environmental responsibility and enhancing coffee farmers’ lives. We set up a coffee farmer support center, imported some of the best coffee seeds and set up demo farms. We’ve never done it before. Asian Pacific coffee provides a very unique taste and profile. One of best selling coffees is Sumatra, from Indonesia.

WSJ: What are the biggest challenges the markets you oversee?

Mr. Wang: For Starbucks, it’s never been about what we sell. It’s really about what we stand for.…We also have to see how to strike a delicate balance: How to balance the profitability and the social conscience. As we grow we have to keep doing that and not lose the sight for growth and making money. That’s one piece.

The other piece is the people. We are going to hire tens of thousands of people. How do we continually attract and retain the people who have the same passion to serve?

WSJ: You have many competitors spread over a huge region. How do you cope?

Mr. Wang: Starbucks welcomes all the competition. They bring a lot to customers. They keep everyone on alert and see how to continue to stand out. We’ve already established ourselves as a market leader.

I’m also a lawyer; I break the company into three categories: rule makers, rule followers, and rule breakers. Starbucks operates as both a rule maker and a rule breaker.

Rule breakers work for the sake of innovation, new way of serving the market, new way of engaging customers. The other thing is, more importantly, a good company will satisfy consumer needs. A great company helps to lead and create. I think that’s where we stand above the competitors in the industry.

We do (pay attention to competitors). We have a lot of copiers, or rule followers. I always treat it as a compliment. We also want to learn. Each company finds its own place and brings something unique to the market.

Overall I think we can elevate the industry, creating more jobs, creating more opportunities. One of the things I can see from the local competitors, we don’t have a global or even regional competitor.

In every market they have the advantage of understanding the local culture. Sometimes they’re nimble and fast as well.

WSJ: What lessons have you learned from those local companies?

Mr. Wang: We look for ways they connect with customers and how we can learn.

I think our competitors certainly pay a lot more closer attention to what Starbucks is doing and try to copy it. Whatever you call that, they have their place in the market.

The biggest competition is about the people, the talent. Our biggest competitor is ourselves. In our business we don’t need rocket science, you need a passionate community partner, you need the people who take pride and pleasure and happiness in serving other people and making a difference.

WSJ: You’ve had an interesting career path. Why did you choose to leave the civil service in China, which is seen as a very stable career?

Mr. Wang: I always want to learn. I had opportunities to work in other international organizations, then this opportunity to study (law) and learn more.

My major was economics and trade in China, it had nothing to do with law. I always want to learn. It’s the thing that keeps the fire under my belt every day, to learn something new.

But going to law school was a whole different story. They waived all the examinations, but I didn’t understand a word in class when I got there. When you’re young, you can do anything you want.

WSJ: Do you find there is a lot of environmental education involved with farmers in Asia?

Mr. Wang: Huge. Our goal is sustainable growth, through our cafe practice, farmer equity and environmental awareness, economic accountability and better bean count. We help them increase the yield by almost 20%. We also reduce chemical use.

WSJ: People in Asia are more aware of what’s going into their food and water. How does that affect the way you educate these farmers?

Mr. Wang: It varies, but people are more and more conscious about that and becoming more environmentally friendly. Particularly for Asia, more than half the population is here while the resources are limited. We all have the same goal—how to be sustainable and promote growth.

We want to lead awareness and work with communities for the long term. That’s where you can build a sustainable business. That’s where you can really make a big difference. That’s where Starbucks says, “how do we balance the profitability and social conscience?”

Write to Emily Veach at Emily.Veach@wsj.com

By MELISSA KORN

(Please see Corrections & Amplifications item below.)

As the economy eases into recovery mode, more companies are temporarily filling holes in their work forces before making permanent hiring decisions these days. But with the right moves, a temporary employee can make that job permanent.

Jody Miller, chief executive of Business Talent Group, a Los Angeles interim-executive placement firm, says she saw a 50% increase in requests for temporary talent in 2009 over 2008, with a significant bump in the second half of 2009. At least 19 publicly traded companies have appointed interim CEOs or CFOs since Jan. 1, more than half from within, according to recent news reports.

Interim executives are sometimes brought in from outside a company to help it through a restructuring or a scandal. But companies are also filling empty posts with internal candidates—many of whom were hoping for an actual promotion to the position—while weighing candidates. That leaves ample room for a well-positioned interim manager to impress, and potentially become a permanent fixture.

Proving Yourself

But successfully removing interim from your title isn’t always easy. “If you were the primary candidate, they would have just named you to that position,” says Joni Lindquist, president of KHC Executive Coaching in Overland Park, Kan. Assertive action, she says, can help move you to the top of the list.

You need to prove that the company shouldn’t risk replacing you, career experts say. Companies are interested in finding a candidate to fill the spot and will usually be open to someone with new ideas who can help implement them while they’re in the job, says John Beeson, a principal at Beeson Consulting Inc. in New York.

That was the case for Mark Moran, now chief executive officer and president of the MetroHealth System in Cleveland. When the contract of the company’s CEO wasn’t renewed in early 2008, Mr. Moran took over as interim head of the 500-physician medical center. He had helped the hospital create a strategic plan in 2007, when he worked as a consultant. As interim CEO, Mr. Moran overhauled the reimbursement system and helped launch a new center for uninsured patients, all with the board’s support.

William S. Gaskill, chairman of MetroHealth, says he was impressed with Mr. Moran’s focus on improving the revenue stream, something that would be positive for the hospital beyond any interim stint. The hospital, which had reported deep losses in the first quarter of 2008, ended the year in the black. Mr. Moran moved from interim to permanent CEO in March 2009.

That idea extends to nonmanagerial positions, too. Diana Galvin moved into a full-time staff accountant position in October at Conrad & Co. in Spartanburg, S.C., by learning not just how she could do her assignments well, but also how the company wanted to improve. She joined the firm on a part-time, interim basis in August and made sure to tell a senior accountant she could do more than key in data—she could crunch the numbers. “As we talked, they learned I had more skills than what they contracted for,” says Ms. Galvin, who showed she could help the company grow by supporting a high volume of clients.

The Talk

Career experts also say you should quickly express your interest in staying past the initial contract term. Have a formal conversation with supervisors within a few weeks of starting the temporary job, says Ms. Miller, whose firm places professionals at the vice president level and above. That is long enough to learn the ropes, but not so long that the search for a permanent replacement starts without you, she says.

Ms. Miller says more than a quarter of executives she places move into permanent jobs.

Even if you have got a good shot at the permanent position, Ms. Lindquist of KHC recommends asking your supervisor for specific steps to take to become the top candidate. Do your time-management skills need improvement, for example.

No matter how well you understand your job function, you can boost your odds of landing the job if you adopt the new group’s practices quickly—down to learning appropriate jargon—to show the hiring committee you’ve easily settled in, says Brett Good, a district president at Robert Half International Inc., a temporary staffing firm in Menlo Park, Calif.

Inside Job

That can be easier if you have landed an interim role internally. Employees promoted from within can provide managers with concrete examples of attempts to grow into the role, such as offering up the results of discussions with other division heads about managing budgets or meetings with subordinates regarding your leadership style.

Margaret Dahlberg says her 13 years of institutional knowledge at Valley City State University in Valley City, N.D., helped her get promoted from interim to permanent vice president of academic affairs this winter.

Dr. Dahlberg took the interim post in April as the school recovered from massive flooding that forced students to finish the semester remotely. The former English professor and department chair wasn’t initially in the running for the permanent job, and even helped interview external candidates. As interim, Dr. Dahlberg helped the school prepare its new academic catalogue and gear up for re-accreditation.

But Dr. Dahlberg impressed university President Steven Shirley enough that she was asked to stay on for the fall semester, and then for good. “There was nothing that any of these folks were bringing that she wasn’t already doing,” Dr. Shirley says.

Corrections & Amplifications:

The MetroHealth System is based in Cleveland. A previous version of this Careers article about turning temporary jobs into permanent ones incorrectly said the hospital system was based in Cincinnati.

Write to Melissa Korn at melissa.korn@dowjones.com