WICA Organises Sixth Edition of Chef’s Connect Conference to Celebrate International Chefs Day

TO SOLEMNISE International Chef’s Day which is celebrated globally on October 20 of every year, the Western India Culinary Association (WICA) organised their sixth edition of annual Chef’s Connect event ahead of the auspicious day on October 17 in Mumbai. The day-long event turned into being a platform for networking and various knowledge sessions among the culinary fraternity.

The Chef’s Connect 2018 themed ‘Celebrate the Chef’ was inaugurated by food critic and historian Dr. Pushpesh Pant flanked by Chef Manjeet Singh Gill, President, IFCA, and WICA members including President of the association Chef Vernon Coelho, Secretary – Chef Salil Phadnis and Treasurer – Chef Sudhir Pai. K S Narayanan, Senior Industry Expert and Dr. Chef Iulia Drăguţ, President of AEECA were also present at the one-day event.

Dr. Pant in his keynote speech addressed about Indian cuisine and its diversity across the length and breadth of the country. He further added about how the Indian cuisine though being globally recognised and celebrated, still within the country, a majority of chefs are more concerned about fusion foods and molecular gastronomy and shy away from enthralling the rich authenticity of cuisines that are homegrown.

Two panel discussions on topics – ‘Celebrity Chef V/s Celebrated Chef’ and ‘Role of Pastry Schools in India’ were earmarked as the subjects of key importance for this year’s Chef Connect. Mini Ribeiro, Food Writer, Critic and Columnist moderated the former panel discussion while Chef Sabyasachi Gorai took charge of shooting the questions in the ‘Role of Pastry Schools in India’ gathering.

A majority of the panellists in the first panel discussion comprising of Chef Manjeet Singh Gill; Chef Vicky Ratnani, Celebrity Chef, Author and Consultant; Chef Mayank Kulshreshtha, Executive Chef, ITC Maratha; Chef Ajay Chopra, Acclaimed Culinarian & Celebrity Chef; Chef Varun Inamdar, Culinarian and Entrepreneur; and Chef Saby Gorai, Celebrity Chef & Consultant, conveyed that a Chef is celebrated among the patrons and their fellow members for their creations and art which then gradually paves their way to being recognised as a ‘Celebrity Chef’ and it is not the other way around. Chef Kulshreshtha also said that the job of a celebrity chef is cumbersome, where, a celebrity chef has to face a lot of retakes, hours of practice and also a long time for execution of recipes as the recording of shows is not a single-shot one-take thing. Chef Inamdar brought to light that both the terms – Celebrated and Celebrity should be dropped from focus for some time and more importance must be given to the word ‘Chef’ as this designation is not easy to earn and holds a lot of value in itself.

The second panel discussion saw a diverse participation of individuals from the culinary fraternity and hence the key points of discussions varied from each other. On the dais – Chef Anil Rohira, Corporate Pastry Chef & Director, School for European Pastry; Deepa D'souza, Director - Gourmet Sales, India & Subcontinents, Barry Callebaut Group; Major Dinesh Sharma, Founder-Director, Academy of Pastry Arts, India; Chef Kunal Arolkar, Chef & Director, Foody Breaks; Dr. Chef Avin Thaliath, Co-founder and Director of Academics, Lavonne Academy of Baking science and Pastry Arts, were asked about dessert as a concept in India and the skills honed by the Indian chefs to meet the international standards. Chef Rohira believes that 25 years ago, the education and skill set about pastry and desserts were very scattered and these items used to only be outsourced then. However, with passing time, they are well received by the Indian consumer base and also Indian Chefs are now are increasingly learning about desserts both in foreign and pastry schools in India. Major Dinesh says that infrastructure has an important role to play in the development of skills of a chef, where

India is still in its nascent stage for skill development of chefs specialising in desserts. Chef Arolkar also spoke on similar lines and said that when he had entered the culinary industry and was competing at an event in foreign soils, he then learned about how the Indian infrastructure is still lacking in terms of imparting knowledge and skills to the budding pastry chefs. Chef Thaliath spoke about the institute and their pocket-friendly course fees ideated to offer the competitive courses in a price-sensitive market like in India. Lastly, D’Souza from Barry Callebaut Group felt that world over, several countries have their ‘star dessert’ which is widely received globally. She mentions China’s mooncake is one such dessert to talk about its popularity across the world. With a wide range of desserts, India needs to integrally find the “Hero Dessert” to be promoted and relished globally, she added.

The evening concluded with a tailor-made awards night to recognise chefs from across the country under various categories of excellence.