Culinary Art India: Budding chefs take the spotlight

One of the most loved food-related festivals, Culinary Art India, is known for its thrilling competitions among the chefs. The four-day event saw over 500 chefs from across the country participating in various activities and competitions. It not only welcomed the professional chefs to showcase their creative culinary skills, but also gave a platform to housewives as well as students to put their best foot forward.

First day of event saw 45 chefs demonstrating their culinary expertise and competing in Authentic Indian Regional Cuisine, Fruit and Vegetable Carving and Live Cooking category. Second day saw Petit Fours and Pralines, Artistic Bakery Showpiece along with Three Tier Wedding Cake prepration. On the third day, 57 chefs exhibited their artistic side in the categories of Artistic Pastry Showpiece, Plated Appetizers, Live cooking and Contemporary Sushi Platter. On the fourth and last day of culinary challenge, 82 chefs competed in three competetd in Three course set dinner, Plated Desserts, Mocktails and Live cooking.

"The culinary art India has been in existence for 14 years and the objective of this event was to create a platform where students, fellow chefs, professionals, can display their culinary skills, and get rewarded. The festival give them the necessary exposure and groom them to compete at the global level," said Davinder Kumar, President of Indian Culinary Forum, adding, "The response from the audience as well as participants has been phenomenal this year. We have witnessed a large number of entries by college students, who were confident about their work at such a young age."

A visual treat for foodies, culinary artistry attracted a lot of crowd across all ages, however, youngsters – with high ambitions of making big in the culinary and hotel industry – were seen at large throughout the festival. One such student of hotel management, who also won the first prize for 'plated dessert competition', finds solace in baking. Speaking about his love for cooking, he said, "I am a first year student of International Institute of Culinary art. Though I enjoy every aspect of cooking, baking is something that fills me with happiness and joy. I want to get specialised in the art of baking and learn as much as I can. For this competition, I tried to give my 100 percent and bring up something new for the jury. I got four ingredients with which I prepared four different recipes in the 'Plated dessert competition', and won gold for the same," said 19-year-old student, Nikhil Bhatia.