Young Chef India Schools 2015 - India's Biggest Culinary Competition for Class XI and Class XII School Students

DELHI, July 31, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

It's time for all the talented young chefs in the city to put their best foot forward. Or their best dishes, as the case may be.

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The IIHM Young Chef India Schools 2015 invites students from class XI and XII to whip up their specialties. This year there are 25,000 participants. Some of the schools taking part are The Frank Anthony Public School, Delhi Public School, Ryan International School, Welham Girls - Dehradun, Bishop Cotton - Bangalore, St Patricks School - Pune, Hyderabad Public School - Hyderabad, Mount Carmel - Gandhinagar, St Xavier's - Jaipur, among others.

The curtain raiser across India was held in the first week of May, at IIHM's Campus cities of Kolkata, Delhi, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Jaipur with popular faces from the hospitality scene present. And the first prelims kicked off from the second week of May, with the regional semi finals scheduled from 7th August in different campus cities.

Young Chef India Schools 2015 competition (http://www.iihmyoungchef.com) was initiated in year 2011 to provide a platform to those young class XI and XII students who care to experiment with flavors. It is a platform for those who are interested in the culinary field and love cooking. Students have to cook a dish and bring it to be tasted by the judges. Based on the judging the students will then be shortlisted for the next round where the real test will start.

This love affair with food will be spread over three months, culminating in London. The regional finalists from the IIHM campus cities will compete for the coveted title of the Young Chef India, in the presence of renowned chefs in London. https://www.facebook.com/IIHM.YoungChef

The winner will be awarded Rs. 5 Lakh, along with other accolades.

WHAT THEY HAD TO SAY 

"This is a great initiative. It's good to see these youngsters take such interest in cooking. Cooking can be very therapeutic; it is for me. I specially love cooking Bengali food," said Bengali Actress Rii.

"The prelims are hard to judge. A lot of people actually are cooking for the first time. We keep the theme Indian-based for semblance of uniformity. At the regional level, we see a lot of Butter Chicken and Biryani," said Young Chef India Schools 2015 judge and mentor Shaun Kenworthy.

"Children today are extremely passionate about cooking and for the last three years that I have attended the event, it keeps getting bigger and better," said Marco Saxer, GM, Swissotel, Kolkata.

"Cooking is all about a balance of flavors. A great chef finds the food he loves and puts the flavors together," said sommelier Keith W. Edgar, who believes that "food gives life but wine and food together gives living."

"The point of this competition is more than just to find the next young chef champion. This is also about promoting cooking as a life skill," said Dr. Suborno Bose, Chairman, IIHM. "Indian Children are intelligent but they lack life skills. Cooking is one of the basic life skills and yet they would rather live on fast food than learn how to cook. It is important to know how to survive and be healthy!" he explained.

Students Speak 

Arya Nanderbadwala and Rosanne Cynthia Miles are Class XII students of Loreto House. They both like desserts but they haven't decided what their dish for the prelims is likely to be.

Sanskrita Agarwal a class XI student of Sushila Birla Girls' School, would like to try her hand at Lebanese food and dips, even though her favorite cuisines are Italian and Chinese. "I like looking through recipes and replicating them," she said.

Last year's Young Chef Garima Poddar, a student of Calcutta Girls' High School, says:

• Seasoning can make or break a dish. Be careful with the salt.
• Presentation is just as important as taste - something you might forget when you're nervously rushing things.
• Don't learn recipes and try to recreate them. Look at the ingredients and try to come up with your own dish.
• Take risks and be innovative. I did!

In a year, she has turned co-proprietor of The Pirates Deck, a café on Sarat Bose Road.

Interested to participate, nominate at [email protected]

About International Institute of Hotel Management (IIHM)

International Institute of Hotel Management (IIHM) is the largest hotel school chain in Asia that comes under Indismart group formed in 1989 offering a wide range of services in the field of hospitality education. It has 11 colleges across South East Asia, has two running business hotels of 4 Star category in Kolkata and Goa and two international training firms with its offices in UK and Thailand.

IIHM Hotel School is already in the cities of Kolkata, Delhi, Bangalore, Pune, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Hyderabad and Bangkok. It has been providing top class global hospitality education that has been audited by QAA, UK which is the worlds most reputed accredited body. For more information http://www.iihm.ac.in

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Media Contact:
Abdullah Ahmed
[email protected]
+91-11-43204700/01
Director
International Institute of Hotel Management