The new tourism policy 2015, expected to be announced in May, will have several measures to develop the market for culinary tourism to India.
“We have made our recommendations to the Union Ministry of Tourism to popularise our cuisine across the world. We have told the Ministry that food must be an important part of our tourism promotion campaigns,” Indian Federation of Culinary Associations (IFCA) president Manjit Singh Gill said while discussing the 6th International Chefs Conference, to be held here.
“While many countries across the world are still in the process of developing their cuisines, India, a home to heritage cuisine that also has a lot of science in it, has not told its cuisine story strong enough. We have to tell the world that our food is safe and healthy,” he added.
With good health gaining prominence and healthy living being seen as the order of the day, Mr. Gill felt the time was ripe now to popularise Indian cuisine as “ours is a scientifically-designed one’.
The IFCA members pointed out that the Tourism Ministry was also in favour of promoting Indian cuisine to the international community in a big way. While the Ministry has incorporated some measures to promote Indian cuisine in the new tourism policy, it is also establishing two management institutes — Indian Culinary Institute (ICI) in Noida and Tirupati. These are expected to be ready by 2017. “This is first-of-its-kind initiative in the country. They are the need of the hour. The U.S. has about 800 culinary institutes, while we are just establishing such institutes,” said Mr. Gill. “The IFCA has been entrusted with the task of recording Indian cuisine,” he added.
ICIs are expected to help address the concerns relating to preservation of heritage Indian cuisine and research and training in culinary.
