Dishing out the best

CULINARY SKILLS

This unique competition aimed at showcasing the talent of young professional chefs, employed at leading hotels and free standing restaurants. The competition had 22 chefs, all under the age of 26 years representing 17 hotels and restaurants.

They battled it out in the preliminary rounds conducted on December 1 and 2 at Metro Cash and Carry. The participants dished out a three course meal for two, and were judged by a panel, comprising top chefs and gourmets of the City. The participants had access to 3,000 items ranging fresh produce to gourmet ingredients, culinary equipment, professional cookware and serve ware.

Seven of the 22 chefs made it to the finals which was held on December 15 at ITC Royal Gardenia where the participants recreated the same three course meal for two. As part of a surprise element, they were also given a variety of seasonal vegetables and fruits and were asked to present an amuse bouche. The participants were not only judged on taste, appearance and complexity of the meal but were also judged on their ability to communicate the culinary experience they had created for the judges.

Three of the best chefs at the competition were honoured at the Gardenia recently.

The gold medal was bagged by Binit Kumar Pandey of Vivanta by Taj. He said, “It was an amazing experience. I got to learn a lot as I was two hours before the deadline and had the opportunity to observe other chefs get on with their craft.

Another thing about the competition was that I was judged by some of the best in the industry.”

The silver medal and bronze medal went to Sajosh Peetayal from Caperberry and Siva Kumar from The Oberoi respectively.