World’s Biggest Young Chef Olympiad For Culinary Students

When I was invited for an exclusive food bloggers meet with Mr.Suborno Bose, the director of IIHM and Celebrity Chef Shaun Kenworthy at IBIS in Mumbai, I had no clue that there was an important event brewing up and the young chefs from 67 countries were to come together for an event called ‘Young Chef Olympiad’ This is an event that will bring the whole culinary world under one umbrella. Some of the well known chefs, and the important people from food industry from all over world have been roped in as consultants and judges.

Over a cup of Cappuccino, I learnt about this biggest ever event that is to take place on our 67^th Republic day in Delhi that will bring culinary world together.  The students who will participate in this event are the best young student chefs that will represent their country; these are the students who are undergoing graduation in food and hospitality in their part of the world.

The format is that the event will be held in four cities over the period of six days. Starting with Grand opening ceremony on 27^th Jan 2016 at Talkatora Indoor stadium, New Delhi;

In the round one in Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai, the students from 67 countries will participate in the competition, Round two will be narrowed down to seven participants in Kolkata, who will then compete in finals at Kolkata on 1^st February 2016

The competition will be on their creativity and the techniques they use while churning out a dish. There will be marks on cleanliness and hygiene and how effectively they use their ingredients. For example: if they are given 600 grams of fish with its skin on, and 500 grams of potatoes, they are asked to cook for four people, then they are judged on how they utilize the ingredients proportionately. Another example, if they are asked to cook three course meal and not allowed to same ingredient twice, then how they used their creativity. Thus they will be judged on their skills.

This event will be important because it will connect different chefs, mentors and well known personals from food industry around the world, and the students will be able to learn new techniques through interaction with other students from different parts of the world.

Looking forward to this events, I am sure it will be the most interesting and a good learning experience for young chefs.

Dessert Plating On The Table Top

At the party that I attended at Krabi, (in Thailand),the highlight of the evening was the dessert on a cold plate. Now this was the first time I was to witness the art with food on the table, a kind of Rangoli with different kinds of dessert plated on the table to be scooped off directly with a spoon.

The chef and his assistants started decorating the cold-plated table with desserts of different shapes and sizes making spectacular designs that didn’t bleed but remained fixed to that spot forming the most spectacular design on the table.

From a distance we could only see the black plate, but there has to be some kind of grid pattern on the plate for them to do so symmetrically.

 The chef came with a tray of different desserts in small bowls and started to drizzle the blobs on the cold plate 

He worked with much concentration, spooning the blobs forming the symmetrical design on the board.

 Everybody stood there transfixed, admiring his art

 there were nuts and pretzels, liquid nitrogen frozen mousse

It reminded me of the Rangoli, the only difference that this was the food and we could actually eat it…..

small glasses containing flavored desserts were placed in symmetrical pattern around the flat designs and that gave it 3d effect

Would I be able to make such dessert at home? I was not sure, because first, I should have a cold plate or a silicon mat and secondly, I need to learn the science behind molecular gastronomy.

 But the final effect was wonderful. Everybody rushed to table, especially children who were anxiously waiting for the chef to finish his art so that they could just try different combinations of such great variety of desserts.

Later, I learnt that the sauces are actually a gel of different agar concentrations that has been set into solids and then blended to form viscous fluid to form the required shapes.

 This dessert is never boring because everybody takes the spoonful with different combination and every bite has a different experience.

Women’s Day Celebration at MiaCucina At 'A Perfect ParTea'

  When I self-invited myself to my cousin’s home for lunch last Saturday, I was not in the know that his wife was not in the town. He answered the doorbell, gave me a quick hug and rushed to the kitchen to complete the task. He had prepared Italian Cannoli for lunch. Not an easy recipe, mind you. He had cooked soya-beans filling, rolled it in garlic flavored tomato paste and layered with cheese. It was a delicious dish.

So who says Kitchen is women’s domain?

No, my cousin is not a chef, and not even a house-husband, its just that when is wife is away, he can cook a decent meal for himself and his guests.

But yes, food is the favorite topic of conversation amongst women. So that afternoon, he drove me to my venue at 'Mia Cucina' (Powai) for the celebration of women’s day hosted by Rushina of APBCook Studio fame.

The room was vibrant with excited murmurs of women from different walks of life, Chefs, entrepreneurs, house-wives, all with a common interest- Food!

The session started with Ashwin Rodrigues talking about ‘CasablancaWines’. It was an interactive session, wine-tasting event of white sparking wine and rose colored fruity wine.

This was then paired with different flavored cheese. Mansi Jasani introduced cheese as ‘just a controlled spoilage of milk’. There were different flavored cheese, some melt-in-the-mouth feta cheese and some aged and smoked cheese. A special mention can be made for the curry leaves flavored ‘Le Pondicheri’ cheese that won the brownie points.

Chef Sunjay Kotian rocked the stage with his delish fig salad, introducing the use of Olive oil in his specialty dishes pointing to the fact that virgin oil be used solely for salads and other olive oil to be used for normal cooking. Four different types of Salad leaves were tossed with dressing of fig sauce, topped with feta cheese, garlic flavored croutons and grated beetroot. He also cooked Spanish Chicken Paella.

Time tickled quickly, but Chef Kainez of TheobromaIndia was quite efficient. She prepared soft, vegetarian green mango and ginger tea cakes in jiffy, each bite so delicious that just one cake was not enough.

While we feasted on Teacakes, we watched short clips from the latest documentary film  ‘India’s Daughter’ Highlight of this event was the beautiful poem on ‘being a woman’ recited by Tess Joseph who had worked on this project along with Leslee Udwin.

This was a fun event; the room was packed with more than 50women. There is always something new to learn from such kind of events. My sincere thanks to Rushina, who takes so much effort to bring women together from all walks of life

Like all food events, the take-away food-gifts are always trendy. The loot that I brought back home

‘Old monk salted caramel sauce’ and ‘Arugul almonds pesto’ by Amrita’s Life ki recipe

‘Madelienes’ by Anurita’s Eighth

‘Cinnamon cookie’ and ‘Nutella sea salt cookie’

by Ruchika’s House of Cookies

‘Organic chai masala’ by Roweena’s Fatfree Almost

‘Tropical nut mix’ from APB Cook Studio’s lust Pantry

‘Classico olive oil’ from Bertolli

‘Feta’ from The Cheese Collective

‘Cooking sheets and frying pan foil’ from Asahi Kasei

Okay, I am thinking of feasting on those Cinnamon cookies and make some fresh salad with tropical nut mix and Feta cheese…and maybe later, try that Chai masala too…..

Pre-Valentine Celebration at Le Mangii at Parel

The invitation was to spend a pre-valentine evening at ‘Le Mangii’. An evening of entertainment and fine dining was promised. 

Who could refuse? I am glad I went. 

Tucked away in the ‘C’ block of Kamala Mills compound at Parel, the restaurant has an imposing front. It is the fourth of its’ kind, having already made its presence in the neighborhood of Bandra, Juhu and Andheri.

I was guided to the upper level into a large dinning room with impressive ambience. There is high ceiling with variable lighting fixtures at different sections of the restaurant. A big open island bar cuts through the center of the room dividing the room with cozy seating arrangement on the left and wooden formal setting on the right. There are high-table-chair arrangements for more casual diners. Far back of the room is the open fireplace where one can see the signature handcrafted Napolitana wood-fired oven pizzas being churned out every minute.

Exotic paper-thin crusted pizzas are amazing.

The starters arrived as soon as I was seated. In the most innovative presentation, the finger foods were presented that included the delicious plateful of assorted bruschetta’s, spoonful of baked mushrooms soaked in sauces, basket of deep fried squids, cupful of grilled chicken and many more.  

The meat was succulent and perfectly cooked; the sauces that complimented the snacks were delicious although I had to add tobacco and red chili flakes to suit my taste. I would strongly advise that in-house  prepared chili sauce be included, because Indian palate is used to spicy cuisine and many of my friends found the food bland.

I need to make a special mention to this deep fried chicken on sticks that had me asking for more.

There was a loud music in the room that made conversation impossible. In my opinion, loud music is acceptable if there is a dance floor, but if one has to enjoy a meal, soft music in the background will be more suitable.

Le Mangii draws its inspiration from the popular Italian diner, “Café Mangii.” I had a glance at menu card and it boasted of reasonably priced selection of exotic pastas and risottos, aromatic soups, delectable grills and sinful desserts.

For main course, I ordered Chicken Roulade with salad and rice. I drooled the minute it appeared and the taste did the justice to its presentation. The grilled chicken was tender and perfectly cooked.  

A business meeting during daytime, or an entertaining night out, if you like Italian cuisine, ‘Le Mangii’ is the place to be.

Phone : 02266375050