Everest Better Kitchen Culinary Challenge (EverestBKCC) is India’s largest and most thrilling culinary challenge for final year hospitality students. The Mumbai – MMR regional round was held at School of Hospitality and Tourism Studies, DY Patil University Navi Mumbai. Participants showcased their innovation and creativity in their culinary skill, which was very much appreciated by the jury which has comprised of Abhijeet Bagwe, Executive Chef – Novotel Mumbai International Airport, Juliano Rodrigues, Head Chef and General Manager – Out of the Blue, Rishi Kappor, Executive Chef – The Lalit, Shantanu Gupte, Founder & CEO – Chef Shan & Shiifu.
To create awareness and promote the use of millets in daily menus, Millets were given as a secret ingredient for participants to use them in one of the three course menus for competition.
EverestBKCC is a culinary challenge with a distinctive difference. It not only offers a unique platform for budding chefs to exhibit their talent but also provides an ideal springboard to launch their future a great opportunity. The theme of the challenge is ‘Flavours of India’. It aims to create awareness about regional cuisines and to popularize Indian food using Indian spices across the world and promote lost and forgotten regional recipes. EverestBKCC Season 4 is scheduled to be held in 15 cities across India namely Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Kolkata, Kottayam, Bengaluru, Dehradun, Chandigarh, NCR – Noida, Pune, Vadodara, Jaipur, Mumbai, Goa, Chennai and Nagpur. Winners from all cities will be invited for the Grand Finale in Mumbai on February 17-18, 2023.
The event is supported by Incredible India – Ministry of Tourism, Government of India; Madhya Pradesh Tourism, Hotels & Resorts; Worldchefs; Indian Culinary Forum; Western Chefs’ Association (WICA); Chefs Association of Five Rivers; Chef Association of Garhwal (CAG); Gujarat Culinary Association (GCA); Culinary Forum of Goa, and Hospitality Purchasing Managers’ Forum (HPMF).
Vandana Mishra Chaturvedi, Pro Vice Chancellor of DY Patil University addressing the participants says, “It gives us immense pleasure to announce the commencement of Everest Better Kitchen Culinary Challenge (EverestBKCC) – Season 4 on our campus today. Budding chefs came to us from across different s colleges to take part in this event. Hosting such a prestigious event was indeed a pleasure and a privilege for us. We are overwhelmed with the response we received in terms of participation from other colleges and the healthy competitive spirit displayed by the contestants. Culinary events are close to our hearts; this event proved to be a feather in our culinary cap. The college was choc-a-block with contestants (other students and our students alike) scurrying from one kitchen to another creating one culinary delight after another and thereby making the entire experience, a memorable one. We look forward to more such events and more participation from other schools and colleges, in the future”.
Pallavi Chaudhary, Director School of Hotel Management & Tourism Study said, It is such a lovely day here today at D Y Patil University, School of Hospitality & Tourism Studies. The campus is buzzing with young chefs from 45 different hotel schools competing here today in the ‘Better Kitchen’s Everest Culinary Challenge – Season 4’.
It is nice to see chefs of tomorrow bringing their creative best to the table as they cut, chop, scoop, and stir a medley of dishes to win the Culinary Cap. Apart from bringing to the fore their competitive spirit these events also provide a platform for students to interact with each other, with faculties from other colleges, and with the expert jurors too, and have a great cultural exchange of ideas and thoughts. It’s wonderful to see all the students working so passionately in teams to create innovative dishes and enjoying the journey along the way. Competitions like these are not just about winning but the enrichment that it offers just by participating.
We thank Ekkta Bhargeva, Publisher Better Kitchen magazine for allowing us to host this event at our institute. And we look forward to having many more such events in the coming years.
Our Honorable Chancellor Dr. Vijay D Patil & Vice President Mrs. Shivani Vijay Patil always motivate us and encourage us to host such events on campus. They feel that we should always provide wonderful opportunities to students for an overall holistic development that inspires them to excel in their chosen path. They provide us with wonderful infrastructure and technical support due to which it is possible for us to put our best foot forward for such events.
Ekkta Bhargeva, Publisher of Better Kitchen, shared that the objective of this event is to prepare students for the challenges of their future and to popularize Indian regional food using local ingredients in the form of global cuisine. This challenge provides students a platform to showcase their creative skills and utilize the ingredients in a proper way. The national winner of this competition will get a scholarship of USD 5750/- under USA J1 Chef Exchange Visitor Program while first and second runner-up will get the scholarship worth USD 1000/- and USD 750/- respectively along with a year intern placement in USA by EverestBKCC’s International Placement & Study Abroad Partner Wisdom Career Education, she added.
Participants showcased their culinary skills through the use of ingredients, presentation, taste and innovation in their dishes which was a tough for jury to decide the winners. They had decided for tie-up for first and second runner-ups. Winners of EverestBKCC – Best Team from Mumbai was team Everest Jiralu Powder (Students from IHM, Dadar). First Runner-up was a tie between team Everest Cumin Powder (Students from School of Hotel Management & Tourism Study – DY Patil, Nerul) and Everest Tandoori Chicken Masala (Students from Sheila Raheja Institute of Hotel Management). Second Runner-up was tie between team Everest Kitchen King Masala (Students from Patkar Varde College Center of Hospitality Studies) and Everest Kasuri Methi (Students from Atharva College of Hotel Management and Catering Technology).
The title sponsor of the multiple city challenge is Everest Spices. Other partners are Wisdom Career Education, Bajaj Electricals, Raj TV, Chefs Unlimited, Asahi Kasei, Cornado, and Chef’s Table Studio.
