Championing Healthy Food at Culinary Contest Organised by VMSIIHE

PANAJI:
In honour of International Chefs Day celebrated each year, V. M. Salgaocar Institute of International Hospitality Education (VMSIIHE) held a culinary contest for aspiring chefs. Students of the institute as well as those of class XII Higher Secondary schools in Goa and other states across India could participate in the contest, showcasing their creativity and cooking ability.

Prominently making use of carrots and flax seeds in their culinary creations, students across the country participated in the cook-off and brought their creativity and talent to the kitchen table.

The winners were evaluated based on their innovativeness, food cost while focusing on making the dish rich in healthy nutrients.

In the VMSIIHE student category, the first prize was bagged by Nevan Fernandes, for his eye-catching dish ‘La Carotte’. “The competition really helped me in tapping into my creativity and finding an innovative and fresh idea to bring two great and healthy ingredients together and form a gourmet dish. I learnt about the health benefits of the key ingredients as well as how we can focus on making our gourmet food healthier while matching the trends of modern society,” Nevan said.

Neston Fernandes bagged the second place for his visual plating and innovative recipe, ‘Wrap de Vegetal’. He said, “Preparing something healthy with two key ingredients which was carrots and flaxseed was challenging. I tried out my recipe two times before my final video was shot so that I could provide the best version of the dish on the plate. The process of shooting a video and compiling it was something I enjoyed a lot. I’m looking forward to more such competitions ahead”.

The third-place winner Anirudha Sardesai created ‘Carrot Fries with Flax Seed Sauce’. In the class XII category, a student of V. V. M. Vidya Vikas Academy, Margao, Shreeja Gudi displayed her love for the culinary art by creating flaxseed tortillas and carrot falafels.

The participants portrayed a great amount of talent and effort to come up with their own health-oriented recipes, creating a preparation video and taking aesthetic photographs. It was a hard decision to select the winners as all the students had put a lot of hard work into the contest and the results have been very inspiring. I was very satisfied with the entries that came in along the learning outcome that was felt from this initiative,” said Chef Sebastian Breitinger, Professor- Culinary Arts at VMSIIHE.