HYDERABAD: Telangana Chefs Association was formed in 2019 by some of the most experienced and best culinary professionals in the state. Since its inception, TCA has been fostering culinary excellence, promoting gastronomy, and recognising outstanding talents within the hospitality industry. At their 4th-anniversary gala event, there was an exciting line-up of talks by the top leaders of the association like chef Shankar Krishnamurthy, Jerson Fernandes, Anil Grover, Vishala Reddy and more.
Grabbing the opportunity, we caught up with a few of these culinary masters and asked them about their experiences in the industry and what new trends are emerging in 2023.
Amey Marathe
Chief Consultant, Amey Marathe Consulting
Having a father who supported him to become a chef has played a significant role in Chef Marathe’s journey. Having lived in the industry for 18 years, he now heads his own consultancy to help other people live their dreams. “The only message I would give out to youngsters out there is never to give up on their dreams. One thing very important is to never let hunger grow. Second is, a lot of us stop putting time for self-improvement after a certain period of time in life, and that is where the growth stops,” he said.
Highlighting some major issues that need to be looked at, the chef said that when it comes to sourcing and food processing, the country is in very good shape. However, “I think the one area which is still lacking big time is specifically the butchery industry. Poultry and seafood.
Fisheries are a pretty well-organised market, but when it comes to red meat like lamb, beef, and pork, that’s a highly unorganised market and you don’t know from where your meat is coming. There is no source tracking for it,” the chef said. He also added that another challenge that the industry has been facing post-COVID is a lack of manpower.
“Last two years, we’ve been seeing across the country all hotel management colleges just running with 50% admissions. Now if we notice, we see a new restaurant or a hotel opening every single day. But the one challenge which every hotelier faces is a huge shortage of skilled manpower. That is the reason why TCA is so involved with all the colleges because the students who are currently studying in colleges, if they don’t join the trade, the industry cannot function and we are looking at a major deficit of manpower in the industry in the next two years.
Chef Mandaar Sukhtankar
Corporate Chef at Windmills Craftworks
With a career spanning over three decades, Chef Mandaar started his journey with Park Hotel in Delhi. Talking about the beginning struggles, he said that he started at a time when not much information was available. “My journey has been an interesting one. Tough at the beginning. Now we are in the age of information and at the time when we were fledgling, there wasn’t so much information available like the way it is now," he said.
There’s a plus and a minus to it. I think the over-availability of information can cause a lot of confusion. At the same time when we started off, just the non-availability of information caused a lot of confusion. So it’s interesting to have travelled that path starting with no information to coming to a point where there is just an overload of information. That’s where the new generation needs to be a little watchful, to understand what they’re going to pick from where and be very picky and juicy about how they’re going to shape their career,” he added.
He also mentioned that while experimentation has been a pan-Indian scenario, it is important to preserve the cultural essences of food in places like Hyderabad, which has about 400-year-old history of Nizam’s cuisine. The trends of fusion food started back in the 1960s when people started fusing ingredients first, then techniques and then presenting international cuisines in regional formats.
However, what matters is how food evolves over time. “Despite interrelatedness, there are chances that a fusion might completely fail. But the effort needs to continue and a lot of thought needs to be put behind that effort, to make sure that whatever is coming out as fusion has some kind of a sustainability value in terms of developing the cuisine or there is some form of evolution that is taking place. It can be culinary evolution. That could be just an evolution in thinking the way you think about your industry, the way you express yourself,” the chef added. He advised the younger generations entering the culinary and hospitality industry to never skip the hours required in honing their basic skills, whether it’s knife skills, choosing the ingredients, etc.
Chef Vishala Reddy
Founder, Millet Bank
“I’m a farmer’s daughter. We are from a dryland agricultural region,” that is how Vishala Reddy introduced herself to us. Taking inspiration from the challenges her family faced as millet cultivators, she started Millet Bank. “My sister was growing millets and she was not getting paid well, so I thought to use my knowledge and skills in marketing. My original intention was to help our family and village farmers by building market connectivity. But now, we are actually building a value chain. Our vision, our team and areas of work have grown much bigger since then,” she said.
Adding that millets have always been part of our culture and for the past few decades have entered the food industry in different formats, she said that 2023 being recognised as “The Year of Millets” has given a great impetus to incorporate these small grains into our food industry.
“There is a huge focus on R&D now, several institutes and centres are actually discovering how to make value addition products. They’re also transferring this technology to potential startups to take it to the market. Definitely hospitality industry will play a major role in adopting and changing the perception that millets are only traditional,” she added. She also encouraged women aspiring to join the food and hospitality industry to have clarity in where they want to go and never give up.
Telangana Chefs Association (TCA) celebrated its 4th anniversary recently. To mark the occasion, a gala event was organised at Trident Hotel, Hyderabad. The event was attended by students from hotel management institutes, culinary professionals, homemakers and renowned chefs from Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad