It was a battle between ladels, knives, spoons and a bunch of ingredients; and only one woman was crowned as kitchen queen. Samta Singhee was crowned as ‘The Freedom The Hindu MetroPlus Cookery Queen’ on Friday at the Institute of Hotel Management in the city. Fouzid Nahid was first runner-up and K. Shoba was the second runner-up.
Unlike the qualifying rounds where participants brought cooked food, at the finale, participants were given a workstation and 3 hours to prepare a main course and a dessert from scratch.
Ingredients were provided by the Institute of Hotel Management.
Winners were chosen after weeks of intense competition from the earlier rounds of Freedom The Hindu MetroPlus Cookery Contest held at various venues in the city.
P. Chandrashekhar Reddy, vice-president of Freedom Oil said, “Food preparation is an art and science. The skills they have demonstrated are fabulous.” Sudha Kumar, principal of Institute of Hotel Management and judge at the event said that he was surprised to see the number of innovative dishes. “We looked at quality, presentation and taste and chose the winner,” he added.
Actor Nikhil of Swamy Ra Ra and Happy Days fame and Hasika of Bus Stop fame also graced the occasion. Overwhelmed with the myriad preparations, Nikhil said, “I tasted a few dishes and I liked them all, I want to take the winning dish back home with me.” The contest was sponsored by Freedom Oil. Akanksha was the refreshment sponsor.
Master Weaver was the gift sponsor, and media sponsors were Hindi Milap, the Siasat daily, and Red FM. Anuradha Rao of Citizen Ads managed the event.
