The thunderstorm on Saturday night did not dampen the spirit at the Indo-French Food Festival on its last day even as the organisers struggled for more than four hours on Sunday morning to restore the French streets and market places they created for the festival.
Visitors started entering the venue paying an entry fee of ₹100, which was reduced from ₹500 on the final day of the three-day festival.
A range of organic products from soaps to clothing were lined up before the food stalls. The visitors savoured an indelible mix of Vietnamese and French cuisine.
Nishantaini, after completing her graduation from Australia, dedicated herself in helping people adopt organic products. She joined her parents in their venture Bio Organic and Natural, and began exporting organic products.
“Our customers are present worldwide,” she says, leading a staff of women from rural areas of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. Their products ranged from oil, soaps, eye-liners and beauty products.
Next to this stall was another organic clothing store called Deivee founded by Milind Soman.
Viraja Achar, head of sales and marketing, Deivee – an organic yoga wear, showed the varied size sports wear, regular shirts, shorts, leggings made of organic cotton and recyclable yoga mat. Deepa of Moborr fashion from Bengaluru had eco-friendly bags which could be planted to grow herbs, and other organic products as well.
The most popular spot for the visitors obviously were the stalls set up by well known restaurants in Puducherry. “All our food products were sold out on Saturday and Sunday evening,” said Saravanan.S, senior Chef of Ananda Inn. Fish meuniere, fish creole, vol au vents and quiches were the favourite among the other dishes.
Jacob Mathew, Director, Tablo Noir, stated that they wanted to create something interesting in Puducherry and we did it. “The three-day food festival was loaded with music, beverages and food for people to enjoy,” he said.
