The preliminary round of The Hindu ‘Our State Our Taste’ cooking competition event held at Kohinoor Hotels here on Sunday evoked good response with 150 home makers and college students displaying mouth watering dishes, both vegetarian and non-vegetarian, prepared at their homes.
The culinary contest to battle for the title “Master Chef of Tamil Nadu” was held for the first time in the city.
Chief guest K. Sudhakar, founder and convener of Erodai, a social organisation, and managing director of Sudha Hospitals, described the contest as a unique initiative and said that the skills of individuals would be recognised through the contest. “On the health aspect, we have to think beyond taste and flavour in cuisines,” he said and asked the people to reduce usage of cooking oil.
Judge for the contest chef K. Damodaran said that the judging criteria for the dishes would be taste, texture, flavour and the method of presentation.
He along with chefs S. Ashok and S. Raja tasted the recipes and came out with the list of winners.
K. Chandhara Prabha from K.A.S. Nagar in Thindal, who displayed 30 varieties of halwa, including halwa made from carrot, tomato, groundnut and aloe vera, said that nature had given us many colours and questioned “why should we go for artificial colours?”.
Catering students S. Vinod, M. Hariharan and R. Ajith prepared ‘ragi chicken pakoda’.
Ms. Chandhara Prabha was selected as the winner of the preliminary round while V. Murugesan of Periyanna Street and S. Kalpana from Thindal were chosen as the first and second runners-up respectively. The three winners will go to the final round to be held in Chennai on August 31.
Corporation Commissioner M. Elangovan distributed prizes to the winners.
The title sponsor of the event was Vidiem Kitchen Appliances. The event was powered by Savorit and RKG Ghee and co-powered by Fortune Sunflower Oil. Naga Foods were the Associate Sponsor, L.G. Asafoetida the Asafoetida Partner, Everest Masala the Taste Partner, Organa the Beverage Partner, and Adayar Ananda Bhavan was the Refreshment Partner. Milka Wonder Cake and Juice distributed snacks to the participants.
This was an initiative by THEME – The Hindu Group Events, Meets and Experiences.
