Indian Culinary Forum Organises a Day-Long Summit on the Future of Banqueting to Commemorate International Chefs Day

The Indian Culinary Forum as part of the 16^th Annual Chef Awards organised a day-long Chef Summit on the ‘Future of Banqueting – Food and Beverages, Economics and Sustainability’. It was the seventh edition of the summit, which witnessed the participation of the stalwarts of the Indian hospitality sector resulting in knowledge building and thought leadership.

New Delhi: The Indian Culinary Forum continuing with its tradition hosted the 7th Chef Summit as part of India’s biggest culinary awards, the 16th Annual Chef Awards in New Delhi today. The summit was inaugurated by Chef Davinder Kumar, President Indian Culinary Forum, Tarun Thakral (Ex. Director, Le Meridien), Rohit Bhatia (Chairman & CEO of RIG Group of Institutions) and Anil Bhandari, a hospitality industry veteran and Chairman of the Organising Committee. 

The theme of this year’s summit was ‘Future of Banqueting – Food and Beverages, Economics and Sustainability’. The summit witnessed participation of aspiring chefs, hotel-management students and hospitality professionals from all over India, who discussed, debated and deliberated upon a lot of burning issues relating to the hospitality industry. The industry experts shared insights on why banqueting is becoming the major revenue earner in the hospitality industry.  

The day-long summit was phased over four sessions. The first session was on the topic, Food and Beverage Opportunities and Challenges in Banqueting. The second session was on Innovation & Sustainability in Banquets, F&B – Technological Advances. The other two sessions of the day were Managing Economics of Banqueting and How are Professionals Embracing Sustainability in Business and Banqueting?

Commenting on the summit, Chef Davinder Kumar, President Indian Culinary Forum said, “The forum has been giving due recognition to the unknown faces, who bring smiles on the faces of diners for 16 years now. Along with rewarding the chefs, the forum also understands its responsibility of empowering them and with this agenda has been conducting the summit for the last seven years. Banqueting is the backbone of the hospitality sector and it is essential that the men & women behind the action, should be empowered to see what the future of banqueting holds, so that accordingly they can upgrade their skills, acumen and business.”

Adding his views, Anil Bhandari, a hospitality industry veteran and Chairman of the Organising Committee, said, “To make India a global culinary destination, it is important to prepare the young hospitality graduates as well as the practicing professionals to unlearn, learn and relearn to grow in the business against all tides and challenges. The agenda of organising the Chef Summit is to create a world-class symposium where the best of the minds in the hospitality sector will meet. It was a day full of sessions where a lot of important issues pertaining to banqueting were discussed and we hope that the key takeaways from the different sessions will help in policymaking in the hospitality sector.”

The first session, Food and Beverage Opportunities and Challenges in Banqueting, was moderated by Ashwani Nayar of Intercontinental Hotels Group. The speakers in the session were industry veterans such as Sandeep Arora, Sanjay Khullar, Neelam Bharadwaj and Yaduvansh Mathur. The session highlighted some of the prospective food and beverage trends, discussed on experiential cooking and food safety, among others.

The second session, Innovation & Sustainability in Banquets, F&B – Technological Advances, was moderated by Anil Malhotra. The speakers in the session were chef, equipment and appliance experts such as Nirmal Khandelwal, Ajay Khanna, Nitin Kumar, A. Prabhu and Sudhir Arora. Some of the key takeaways from the session were discussions on Indian made kitchen and banquet equipment, customisation of equipment and most importantly the need for environment-friendly kitchen equipment.

The third session, Managing Economics of Banqueting, was moderated by Naveen Jain. The speakers of the session were veterans of the hospitality industry such as Vineet Wadhwa, Chetan Vohra, Ramandeep Kapur and Sanjay Malkani. The session highlighted on issues such as is banqueting a commodity or a brand, what drives banquets reputation and profitability management.

The fourth session, how are Professionals Embracing Sustainability in Business and Banqueting, was moderated by Rifaquat Mirza. The speakers of the session were experienced chefs and professionals such as Nita Nagaraj, Gautam Chaudhry, Puneet Sikand and Rajeev Janveja. Some of the key takeaways from the session were reducing carbon footprint in restaurants, adopting ethical cooking, controlling food wastage, saving water and electricity and respecting society norms, among others.  

The Indian Culinary Forum keeping with its pursuit of excelling ended the seventh Chef Summit with the promise of coming back bigger and better next year.

The Indian Culinary Forum is India’s association of Professional chefs of India. It was formed in New Delhi in 1987 as an exclusive non-profit-making organization, dedicated solely to the advancement of the culinary art of India. The Forum’s objective is to act as a link, a platform and an instrument for the enhancement and overall development of the national community of chefs. The World Association of Cooks Societies is 110-nation fellowship comprising the world’s various professional chefs’ organization representing over 9 million professional chefs. The ICF has an international culinary focus in the staging of its various competitions, seminars, and events.

The aims of the ICF, broadly, are:

· To enhance international, the culinary prestige to India

· To encourage Indian nationals to consider a career within the hospitality industry

·  To promote Indian Cuisine globally

· To help young chefs to hone culinary skills through training, workshops, and competition

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