{"id":2139,"date":"2020-05-16T10:56:46","date_gmt":"2020-05-16T05:26:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.feamag.com\/2021\/?p=2139"},"modified":"2020-05-16T11:42:26","modified_gmt":"2020-05-16T06:12:26","slug":"food-festival-of-women-chefs-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.feamag.com\/2021\/food-festival-of-women-chefs-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Food Festival of Women Chefs 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

Women<\/span>\u00a0are highly underrepresented in the food and hospitality
\nindustry.\u00a0 In India there are few\u00a0women<\/span>\u00a0chefs at the top of the
\nhospitality industry ladder. This stems not just from lack of
\nopportunity but also social factors \u2013 families do not encourage girls
\nto take up a career in food and hospitality. Many home chefs also
\ncomplain of not getting encouragement from their spouse or family.<\/p>\n

In order to offer\u00a0women<\/span>\u00a0an opportunity to showcase their cooking
\nskills and start their own food business, we came up with the idea of
\nthe Food Festival of\u00a0Women<\/span>\u00a0Chefs. The idea of the festival is to offer
\na platform for\u00a0women<\/span>\u00a0who cook at home and want to start their own food
\nbusiness as well as\u00a0women<\/span>\u00a0who are already professional chefs or in the
\nfood business.\u00a0 We discussed this concept with Asif Kadri of Active
\nMedia during the Ahmedabad Food Festival that he organizes, which has
\na section dedicated to\u00a0women<\/span>\u00a0chefs. He had an idea of doing an event
\nfeaturing mompreneurs. Thus, we decided to plan the event for 7th and
\n8th March 2020,\u00a0Woman<\/span>\u2019s\u00a0Day<\/span>.\u00a0 Sports Club of Gujarat\u00a0 agreed to be the
\nvenue partner. State Bank of India was willing to sponsor the event.
\nThe announcement of the event on social media got a heart-warming
\nresponse. Many\u00a0women<\/span>\u00a0food entrepreneurs, including home chefs and home
\nbakers, came forward to book booths for the festival. Some\u00a0women<\/span>\u00a0who
\nwere not yet food entrepreneurs too decided to showcase their skills
\nand explore the possibility of turning their passion into a
\nprofession. Each one was asked to list their specialties, based on
\nwhich the menu for each booth was decided \u2013 to the extent possible, we
\nwanted to ensure minimum or even no repeat of items.\u00a0\u00a0Women<\/span>\u00a0were also
\nencouraged to specialize in a cuisine that was their forte \u2013 this
\nhelped in two ways \u2013 reducing rivalry between booths and, at the same
\ntime, offering a vast variety of cuisine to those who attended the
\nfestival.<\/p>\n

Together with the food exhibition, we also organized talks and
\nworkshops. At the beginning of the event, Dipika Chauhan (Dy
\nCommissioner, Food and Drug Control Authority, Gujarat) addressed the
\nwomen<\/span>\u00a0entrepreneurs, informing them about food safety and licensing
\nrequirements for those entering the food business.\u00a0 Yashodhara Pande,
\nLecturer, Institute of Hotel Management, Aditi Chand, Academic
\nCounselor, International Institute of Hotel Management, Chef Vrinda
\nMenon, Sous Chef, The Fern – An Ecotel Hotel, Ahmedabad, and Smruti
\nPurohit, Store Manager with an international chain, spoke on stage
\nabout careers in food and hospitality. Jaya Sharma, Senior Lecturer,
\nInstitute of Hotel Management, Bhagyashree Dabi, Research Scholar –
\nTourism and Hospitality and Shikha Patel, owner of Luxury Mithai,
\ntalked about food entrepreneurship for\u00a0women<\/span>. Pranav Joshi, owner of
\nFood Designer, spoke about the key points that\u00a0women<\/span>\u00a0should keep in
\nmind before opening a caf\u00e9 or restaurant.<\/p>\n

The festival also featured workshops by professionals like
\n\u2022\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Microgreens Masterclass by Preeti Kapassi\\
\n\u2022\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Party Food Without Cooking\u00a0 by\u00a0 Riddhi Patel, Corden Bleu trained
\nchef and owner of Le Artisan Boulangerie with
\nKamini Patel, Founder of Kitchen Therapy and host of her own show on
\nIndia Food Network (IFN Veg)
\n\u2022\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Cold Desserts Masterclass by\u00a0 Alka Khanna Bhandari and Kaninika
\nMehta, baking professionals<\/p>\n

The exhibitors – add profiles to each one.<\/p>\n

Anita Joshi
\nJayanthi Santosh Kumar
\nDr Vidhi Patel
\nPinky and Rupal Soni
\nShaily Ashish Gupta
\nDeepa Jha
\nSargam Thakkar
\nPushti Sujit Kumar Chokshi
\nDhara Mehta
\nPurvanjali Agarwal
\nKavita Purohit
\nRiddhi\u00a0 Patel
\nPurvi Jhaveri
\nRaveena Gohil
\nJyoti Kadecha
\nSonal Mahurkar
\nAntara Baroah
\nSujata Dehury
\nMridu Parikh
\nDolly Smita
\nSonal Kellogg
\nPratiksha Upadhyay
\nVishakha Dave
\nUrvi Gajjar
\nBhavana Srivastava
\nMoumita Bannerjee
\nPreeti Kapasi
\nKinjal\u00a0 Gohil
\nHarshu Lalwani
\nAlka Bhandari
\nHiral Kayasth
\nPratiksha Shah
\nNiriha Bhuta
\nFarzana Kadri
\nSantosh Vyas<\/p>\n

The Culinary Heritage Awards were given to\u00a0women<\/span>\u00a0who have contributed to:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Empowerment of\u00a0women<\/span>\u00a0farmers,\u00a0women<\/span>\u00a0food entrepreneurs and cooks,
\n2.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Culinary Heritage Tourism in Gujarat.
\n3.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Recipe expertise and quality control in the food industry.
\n4.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Promotion of traditional cuisine through literature,
\njournalism or social media.
\n5.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Taking Gujarat\u2019s cuisines to different states or shores.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Women\u00a0are highly underrepresented in the food and hospitality industry.\u00a0 In India there are few\u00a0women\u00a0chefs at the top of the hospitality industry ladder. This stems not just from lack of opportunity but also social factors \u2013 families do not encourage girls to take up a career in food and hospitality. Many home chefs also complain of … <\/p>\n

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