Second National Culinary Congress Set To Take Off

S Nithya Kamakshi - Chennai

The Second National Culinary Congress, 2005, scheduled from 1-3rd October at The Le Meridien, Chennai is all geared up for the event. Indian Federation of Culinary Associations (IFCA), the organisers of the event are enthusiastic about the tremendous response both from the industry and the general public.

Chef Soundararajan P, General Secretary of IFCA said, “The Congress has contacted all the speakers participating in the event. There are more than 350 people registered for the event out of which nearly 50 per cent account to HODs of institutes and students from various colleges. Apart from this, nearly 100 executive chefs from the industry are actively participating in the event. We are expecting a huge turn over of people related in any way to the industry to participate in the event as the Congress offers a golden opportunity for the hospitality fraternity to interact with the professionals from across the country."

An international panel of speakers have been scheduled to address the delegates, with topics ranging from culinary tourism to food photography, restaurant interiors to food retailing, in a topical palette that has an equal mix of pure-disciplinary and cross-disciplinary issues. The three-day long congress is expected to be eventful with speakers like Anand Ahankar, regional head, Hewitt Associates, Singapore; Chef Satish Arora, director culinaire, Taj Hotels, SATS, Chef Oliver E Soe Thet, president, Chefs' Association of Myanmar and GM of Bagan Hotel; Al Mazumdar, corporate manager, Club Mahindra; Cornelia Volino, chairman, Canadian Culinary Federation; Sanjeev Kapoor, celebrity chef, television personality and cook book writer; Chef Gerard Mendis, president, Chefs Guild of Sri Lanka, executive pastry chef, Hilton, Colombo; Prahlad Kakkar, film-maker and gourmet chef; S.Muthiah, historian; Paul Andre Guidat, general manager, Le Royal Meridien; Ramesh 'Ned' Nedungadi, restauranteur and wine expert, Norway; Shyam Mohan, managing director India & Middle East; Griffith Laboratories & T.C Chatterjee, CEO, Custom Culinary Inc. USA and S Chander, senior consultant, Acme India Quality Management Services.

Apart from this, the congress will also host entertainment events and aspire to make it a meeting point for all people involved with the hospitality industry. The main objective of the event is to provide an opportunity for the Industry to interface and to take Indian food to the fore. It also aims at the fulfillment of social obligations and collaboration with educational institutions - student bodies & faculty.