Chef challenge kickstarts

BANGALORE: Metro Cash and Carry India, in partnership with the Food Lovers Club, kicked off the second edition of the Young Culinary Chefs’ Culinary Challenge in the city of Bangalore on December 7. Titled ‘Produce to Plate - Young Chefs’ Culinary Challenge 2011’, the challenge witnessed twenty-five (25) of the most talented and upcoming chefs from across hotels and restaurants in the city gather at a common platform and display their skills in producing some of the finest gourmet dishes for Bangalore’s connoisseurs. The 25 participants will undergo a series of challenges and eliminations before the seven best of the lot reach the final round.As part of the preliminary rounds, the participating chefs along with their executive chefs visited the metro store in Yeshwanthpur, to identify and shortlist their preferred choice of ingredients for their recipes. The participants were required to submit details of their preferred ingredients and culinary workstations by December 2. After the preliminary rounds on December 7 and 8, the challenge will host its final round on December 15 and results will be out by January 2012. winners will receive gold, silver and bronze medals, in addition to attractive cash awards of `61,000, `41,000 and `31,000 for the first, second and third prizes respectively. They will also have the privileged opportunity to be featured in Food Lovers’ magazine.The Young Chefs’ Culinary Challenge 2011 will have some of the most renowned chefs in India judging the event, including chef Abhijit Saha, founder director and executive Chef, Avant Garde Hospitality, Chef Madhu Krishnan-executive chef, ITC Gardenia, chef Nimish Bhatia-executive chef, The Lalit Ashok, chef Vijaya Bhaskaran-executive chef, Le Meridien, chef Rudolph Eichele-executive chef, The Leela Palace Kempisnki, chef Vijay Malhotra-executive chef, ITC Windsor, chef Ramasamy Selvaraju-executive chef, Vivanta by Taj, chef Naren Thimmaiah-executive chef , chef Naren Thimmaiah-executive chef, The Gateway Hotel.Ajay Sheodaan, Director, Customer Management, METRO Cash and Carry India said, “The Young Chefs’ Culinary Challenge 2011 is a wonderful opportunity to encourage these promising chefs to sample, experiment with and create culinary masterpieces from the vast range of high quality products we offer.”