The third edition of the International Young Chef Olympiad, the World’s biggest culinary competition for student chefs, has kicked-off in the Capital recently with a grand opening ceremony. The first round of the competition will be held in Delhi over the next couple of days. The competition will be held over five days across four cities — Delhi, Bangalore, Pune and Kolkata. The grand finale will be held in Kolkata on February 2, 2017.
International Young Chef Olympiad is an initiative of the International Institute of Hotel Management (IIHM) and is supported by Incredible India, Government of India. The Olympiad will witness teams from 45 countries competing in three rounds of culinary challenges of varying difficulty levels. Thereafter, top ten contestants from the three rounds will showcase their gastronomic talent in the final battle for the winner’s trophy and a cash prize of $10,000.
Judges for this competition are Prof David Foskett (OBE), Chef Sanjeev Kapoor, Chef Ranveer Brar, Chef Andreas Muller from Hong Kong, Chef Udo leick from Dubai, Chef Abhijit Saha, Chef Andy Varma from the UK, Chef Parvinder Bali, Chef Ajay Chopra and Chef Shaun Kenworthy among others. A special guest on this occasion was the 14-year old MasterChef Junior US 2014 Winner logan Guleff, who has come to India as the Young Chef Olympiad 2017 Mascot so as to boost the morale of the participants.
The contestants will be judged on the basis of their culinary skills and techniques, adherence to good health, safety and hygiene practice, working methods, minimal waste, best use of ingredients, professional appearance, attitude, dish presentation, taste and flavour. Pooja Mishra, who is a third-year student at the IIHM Kolkata campus, will be representing India at International Young Chef Olympiad 2017. The other countries that will be represented in this competition include England, Italy, New Zealand, Thailand, Egypt, Bangladesh, UAE, Sweden, Sri lanka, Australia, Myanmar and Kenya, among others.