6th Chef Summit by Indian Culinary Forum Concluded With Insights on f&b Industry

THE SIXTH Chef Summit was organised on the occasion of the 15th Annual Chef Awards by the Indian Culinary Forum (ICF) on 4th October 2018 at Hotel Leela Ambience Gurugram. This year the 6th Chef Summit was formulated with topics like ‘F&B Entrepreneurs: Path to Success’, ‘Building Capabilities & Career Progression’ and ‘India: Multiple cuisines, is convergence possible?’.  Various f&b veterans from PAN India gave their insights on these topics.

Organised under the leadership of Anil Bhandari, Chairman, Organising Committee ICF, and Chef Davinder Kumar, President ICF, present at the occasion were Celebrity Chef Sabyasachi Gorai, Chef M.S. Gill, President IFCA, Celebrity Chef Rakesh Sethi and Chef Sudhir Sibal, former Vice-president ITDC, Chef Gautam Chaudhry, Chef Ashish Bhasin, Chef Arun Chopra. Rajeev Kaul, President, The Leela Palaces, Hotels & Resorts, was the Chief Guest of the summit.

Bhandari in his inaugural address spoke about the importance of these summits. He stated, “To learn more from all the specialists of culinary art, these summits play a great role. Chefs are not only kitchen masters but are artist, scientist, and financial analyst. The growth of the Food & Beverage Industry and its contribution to the revenue in the organized sector was valued at over Rs 309,110 crore in 2016, a growth of 7.7 percent since 2013, and is likely to be Rs 500,000 crore by 2020. The current employment is around 5.8 million and is expected to be close to 28.7 million by 2020.”

Chef Saby in one of the panel discussion spoke about the importance of technology in the kitchen and how it is the game changer. He also gave an important insight about uni-format brands which is a huge success and attracting more funds in India.

Chef Davinder Kumar, President, Indian Culinary Forum, in an interaction with BW Hotelier spoke about the initiatives that ICF is taking for the chef’s fraternity. “We have signed MoU with WorldSkills to help the small restaurants staffs who are unorganised by upgrading their culinary skills. All the workshop and seminars that we conduct are for these people to come and learn. We are also launching culinary library very soon and will be conducting more culinary education trips for the chefs taking them to various parts of the world,” he told us.

About the Chef Summit, Chef Kumar feels that it helps in creating a platform that helps to make a connection between the budding chefs and industry leaders. “These platforms were never available two-three decades back. The aim and objective are that people come under one roof and listen to those iconic personalities including senior chefs, entrepreneurs and industry leaders,” he adds.

The Summit ended with Dalip Puri’s, Founder-CEO, Indian School of Hospitality speech. He said, “Indian Culinary Forum is a wonderful platform to expand the world of cuisine beyond just hotels and restaurants and to encourage bright young talents into the industry”.

Later in the evening, the award night held at a grand scale with more than 500 professionals from the hospitality industry and students attending the ceremony.

While addressing the attendees and media at the event, Sh. Amitabh Kant, CEO, Niti Aayog said, “A hotel can run without a manager but it cannot run without a great Chef. Indian Cuisine is the beginning of its discovery. The Indian Chefs are the true ambassadors and they need to be awarded not just Padamshree but 100’s of Padambhushans. We should consider chefs as the brand ambassadors of our India. These are the great future of India. An economic growth will see a 9-10 percent growth rate in the coming years and will cross 700 billion. India must learn to honours their chefs.”

Kitchen Masters were awarded in following categories including Golden Chef Hat, Silver Chef Hat, Women Chef of the Year, MasterChef Kebabs, Masterchef International Cuisine, MasterChef Regional Cuisine (East, West, South), Masterchef Oriental Cuisine, MasterChef Indian Sweets, Student Chef of the Year, Master Chef Baker, Master Chef International Confectionary, Chef of the year, MasterChef North Indian Cuisine. Celebrity Chef Sabyasachi Gorai bagged the award of Golden Chef Hat, Chef Ashish Bhasin was awarded Silver Chef Hat and Chef Sangeeta Dhar won the Lady Chef Of The Year.