For the chefs, by the chefs

Too many cooks spoil the broth. On Tuesday evening, when executive chefs from various hotels and standalone restaurants gathered at ITC Kakatiya, there was a lot of noise. The commotion wasn’t from pots and pans being thrown at each other. It was the joy of meeting several chefs, best in their own right, under the same roof.

The event: ITC Master Chef (a brand of packaged Indian spices, ready-to-eat packaged food and frozen food) hosted The Masters Chef meet. At the meet, the brand’s new offerings — frozen prawns and dehydrated onions — were unveiled.

These are the latest to join the brand’s long list of products. Sourced from Kakinada, these harvested prawns go through a process before being glazed and frozen to be sold in the market. To make it easy for buyers to use them, they are deveined, shelled and cleaned using hygienic processes, said the spokesperson at the gathering.

When asked about the need to buy frozen to fresh, the spokesperson said, “The prawns frozen in our facilities spend the least amount of time in unhygienic conditions.”

To make the gathering taste the freshness of the product, a quick demo by in-house chefs was followed by a tasting session. The intention was to display the superior quality of the product. When asked if the prawns need to be washed again, chef Aamer Jamal said, “After they thaw, a quick rinse is ideal.”

Coming to the use of dehydrated onions, the brand’s key points are ‘to reduce wastage, to be able to use good quality onions and to not cry again’. The dehydrated onions are made from red onions to ensure taste, said the spokesperson as she discussed the processes these onions go through before being dehydrated and packed to be sold. Did the chefs enjoy the session? They seemed happy that one portion of dehydrated onions is equal to seven portions of fresh onions.