Twenty seven-year old Abinas Nayak’s Instagram page is full of tempting photographs of food. Sometimes he is showing off chocolate rasagulla, sometimes chicken drumstick and sometimes the most favourite pakhala bhaat . When he shot a creamy chicken kebab placed on a betel leaf his followers invited themselves. A food stylist and a techie who works with Infosys, Abinas is the recipient of the Lokicooks Fellowship 2019.
Lokicooks Fellowship was started by Masterchef contestant Loki, an entrepreneur, cook, food retreat from Australia.
The intent of this intiative comes from Loki’s own food journey which is a testament to the fact that support, mentorship and encouragement at the right time plays a big role in one’s life.
Loki’s home page states: “Loki hopes to use this fellowship to back someone with a food dream so they can kick start or fast track their food journey.”
He is a believer in collaborative creation and this is a step towards connecting with an outstanding individual and supporting them through funds and mentorship. The Fellowship is meant for those residing in Australia, India and Indonesia. the recipient will get a scholarship of up to Aud 5,000 (five thousand Australian dollars or equivalent) over 12 months.
“The funds will not be provided in cash, but will instead be used to pay for things that further my dream project. The Fellowship will also provide up to 50 hours of 1:1 sessions with Loki via phone/skype or where possible in person over the 12 months to help fine tune the project,” says Abinas who is very happy on winning the Fellowship from an entry of 390 contestants. Of these 89 were selected through a skype interview. Abinas says Loki was interested to understand the commitment of the contestants towards their craft. “He checked our work on Instagram as well,” adds Abinas.
The young techie who also loves to travel utilises all his free time to whip up something in his kitchen. “I started cooking three years back when I was in Trivandrum. I picked up cooking out of curiosity. I was not bad at my first attempt. That was a boost. Then in 2018 I entered a cooking contest, where one is required to post the recipe of a dish based on which 12 contestants were selected for a final round where we were required to create the recipe. I won,” says an excited Abinas.
With a boost to his confidence, Abinas soon held a pop up in Bhubaneshwar, his home town. That went well, he says and since then he began experimenting more keeping in mind the need to promote regional cuisine through use of regional ingredients. “That is the reason I follow Loki. I like his stress on regional cuisines and admire the kind of work he does to popularise it. He also organises food-driven tours for travellers to India where he selects unique cuisines to be sampled,” says Abinas.
Will Abinas ever open a restaurant? “Haven’t really thought about it. I will definitely continue my food journey and would love to experiment with a lot of primitive methods of cooking,” he smiles.
