Culinary knowledge exchange at the 5th Chef Summit

Indian Culinary Forum recently hosted the 5th Chef Summit at Hotel Ashok in New Delhi. The event was inaugurated by Rashmi Verma, secretary, ministry of tourism. Addressing the audience, she said, “Travellers today are looking for ‘experiential tourism’ and cuisines play a key role in it. Intangible heritage of the country like food, art, culture, etc are as important as tangible heritage. The government will certainly think of having food festivals as part of overseas road shows. He asked the chef community to come out with a road map on how the government and chefs can work together to promote the culinary aspect of India in the overall promotional strategy.”

Some important topics like way forward for Indian cuisine through new technologies, making India a global culinary destination and skilling up raw talent were discussed at the panels. Chef Davinder Kumar, president, Indian Culinary Forum, said, “We have tried to create a platform that helps the young professionals learn more about the trends and world cuisines. Through these discussions, they’ll be able to learn from the best in the industry and also gain more knowledge on how to improve their skills. It is platforms like these that unable us to unveil what goes behind the kitchens and how we are changing with the trends to create new pathways of learning.”

Commenting the way forward for Indian cuisine, Chef Manjit Gill, corporate chef, ITC Hotels stated, “If India has to reach the international markets, the only route to reach there is by ‘traditional’. In all aspects whether it is presentation, service, we have to rediscover our own cuisine and present it to the world in a traditional way but we also have to be modern without changing the taste of food.”