Young and aspiring chefs are the future of the food industry, and they were rightly the focus of the 6th International Chefs Conference organised by the Indian Federation of Culinary Associations in Chennai over the weekend.
While the first two days covered a wide range of topics, the final day had a lot of cooking techniques and cuisines being explained and for the large number of student delegates present, these presented a learning opportunity.
Chef Charles Carroll, who is currently nominated as the president of World Association of Chefs’ Societies (WACS) and executive chef of River Oaks Country Club in Houston, Texas, spoke about how young chefs should relish their profession.
He urged them to invest their energies in improving their skills to make sure that they are going in the right direction for their careers. Chef Ajit Bangera of ITC Grand Chola spoke about how to better understand cuisines while learning about them.
Inderjit Bajaj, managing director of Global Environmental Services, training and consulting company for food hygiene, health and safety, explained the sous-vide technique that helps to cook meat evenly while locking in the flavours. Chef Tarek Ibrahim demonstrated the right way to make Australian lamb cuts at a well-appreciated workshop.
Vir Sanghvi, Devanand and Saagarika Ghoshal discussed current food trends and patterns of change seen in the food industry and how to better understand them and work accordingly. Chef Thomas A. Gugler traced the history of Arabic cuisine and how it underwent many mutations before it came to be relished globally.
Cookbook author Jody Eddy spoke about the New Nordic cuisine and how it has saved ancient culinary traditions through contemporary recipes and techniques.
The importance of having an online presence was once again highlighted in the conference, this time by Sorav Jain of digital marketing company, echoVME, who gave the recipe for making a perfect LinkedIn and Twitter profile. “Chefs need to pick a niche that they want to become an expert in and they must establish their presence on YouTube and blogs to create content. Most of the chefs are active Facebook users but whatever is posted there remains with friends and family. Blogging on the right topics can drive amazing traffic and help boost a chef’s identity,” he said.
EchoVME had also organised a blogging contest for IFCA India, and the winners, Amit Patnaik and Sankara Narayanan, attended the three-day conference as part of their prize.
The celebration of all things culinary ended with a grand awards ceremony to honour chefs from all over the country. The Hindu was the media partner for the three-day conference.
