Culinary Achievers

Food network – Social networking has made the world a smaller and better place. With Multiply, Friendster, My Space and with the explosion of Face book, more and more people are reconnecting. Eventually a lot of chefs, cooks and foodies signed up and started exchanging recipes. It is possible now to share recipes, techniques and information with people around the world. It then follows that Food Social Networking will be the next best thing. Grocery shoppers will be dependent on social networking more than advertising to help them to decide on where to buy and where to eat. A kind of social currency, as the blogosphere has anchored itself as a major word-of-mouth avenue. Gourmet and gastronomy will no longer be an exclusive club for foodies. Franken food – With the latest technologies in bioengineering, it is now possible to come closer to that utopia of the perfect food supply. We should be expecting more consistent food crops, and therefore better quality ingredients. But this has...

Cuisine and Culture One of the oldest civilizations known to man, India , is many worlds within one. From the alpine mountains up North, to the sultry, spicy lands down South, each region is as diverse as it gets. India has been visited by many races in the past – each bringing with it, its unique culture, tradition, sometimes religion, and without a doubt – its food! One of the first races recorded to have invaded India was of the Aryans. They brought with them sugar, turmeric and black pepper and introduced domestication of cattle to obtain milk. They classified all foods into Satvik (easily digestible), Rajasik (heavy to digest) and Tamasik (dark foods leading to an unhealthy life), thereby teaching the native Indian to emphasize on the development of mind, body and soul through food. The northern region of the country was highly influenced by Mughal or Persian cooking style. The Persians introduced the Indians to rich relishes, meats with cream and butter sauces, date...

How women should groom themselves to enter the professional kitchen: Women are, by nature, homemakers. They are the ones who take care of the family, who cook and clean and maintain the home. This being said, it is surprising that few women choose to make a career in food production. Though many women work in hotels, they are usually in housekeeping, front office, or in administration. Few women chefs have ventured out to start a career in the professional kitchen. This domain was, and is, a male dominated one, and the best chefs today are men. This could be, perhaps, due to the high physical strain required, the long and odd working hours, and the often extreme working conditions. Many women can have a difficult time balancing the workplace and the home. A straightforward solution for the eccentric timings in the hotel industry is for women to adopt fields where they can work in straight shifts, i.e. from 9 to 5, such as pastry, garde manger etc. Women are getting ready to accept way...

SPICES A NEW avatar Updating oneself on different forms of spices in modern uses Spices are the building blocks of flavor in food applications. Food developers who wish to use these building blocks effectively to create successful products must understand spices completely The word "spice came from the Latin word "species” meaning specific kind. The name reflects the fact that all plant pans have been cultivated for their aromatic fragrant, pungent, or any other desirable properties including the seed (e.g., aniseed, caraway, and coriander), leaf (cilantro. Kari. bay. and mint), berry (allspice, juniper, and black pepper), bark (cinnamon), kernel (nutmeg), aril (mace), stem (chives), stalk (lemongrass), rhizome (ginger, turmeric, and galangal). root (lavage and horseradish), flower (saffron), bulb (garlic and onion), fruit (star anise, cardamom, and chile pepper), and flower bud (clove). This article describes the different forms in which Indian spices are available for the...

Winning the student chef of the year award It isn't where you come from, it's where you're going that counts………….. Winning the student Chef of the year award is a great milestone that I’ve passed in my journey to become a renowned Chef one day. Achieving this title is not something that I would have never thought of five years back but it was made possible with the guidance and support of my mentors and chefs at the Culinary Academy of India. Being part of such a prestigious academy gave me the confidence and instilled the skills in me that I required to be part of such a competition. The training for the competition began with a intra college competition in which all the students of the final year participated. Once I was selected to represent the Academy, I was asked to plan a menu which was scrutinized and adjusted to meet the current trends and international standards. I had wonderful training sessions with Chef Sudhakar N. Rao, Chef Akshay, Chef Khajaram, Chef Sanjay, ...

IS KITCHEN STILL A MAN’S WORLD? For too many years a woman’s place was in the Kitchen – except when that kitchen happened to have a restaurant attached to it. Though every woman was expected to be a good cook, conventional wisdom declared that men would be great Chefs. It is a known fact that women have to make life decisions that men are not asked to make. Rather, they are being forced to make the decision. Will I have a family or a job? And that…. is the base line. The present ambitious generation of women has undoubtedly opted for the later. Then… why is it that we still do not see more women chefs than men? It has always been a misconception that “It’s harder in the culinary profession than in others because our hours are strange”. The challenge of balancing career and family life is especially difficult in the restaurant industry. Well, I do not buy this argument at all? What about the timings & work in call centers, MNC’S, IT Companies and Banks? The pressures are mind boggli...