Eating is necessity, but cooking is ART: Super Chef Junior at Jagran Lakecity University

Gone are the days when cooking was just limited to household kitchens in the hands of females of the family. In the world today, cooking has taken the form of an art, the art of expression through food.

Aimed at unleashing the hidden chefs among young individuals and providing new horizons to their careers, the Jagran Lakecity University School of Hospitality and Tourism organized a three day event, Super Chef Junior 2017.

The event was judged by Chef Rakshit Suman (Executive Chef, Noor-Us-Sabah) and Chef A. K. Singh (HOD, IHM Bhopal) in what proved to be a battle of flavors among young chefs participating in a total of 50 teams.

28^th November was day one of the competition where the participants had to carve out a three course meal (one Starter, two main courses with one accompaniment and one dessert) out of their chosen ingredient. Five teams were shortlisted for the finals based on the points scored by them namely Delhi Public School, Bhopal with 93 points, Eastern Public School with 88 points, team 10 from Delhi Public School, Bhopal with 88 points, Daffodils higher secondary school with 83 points and Kendriya Vidyalaya (2) with 83 points. Day two of the event held on 29^th November saw similar enthusiasm where 28 teams from different schools of Bhopal competed against each other to gain a spot amongst the top five teams.

The total of ten teams, shortlisted over two days were then subjected to the next level of the competition on day three, the finals. To increase the difficulty, this time the teams had to prepare a three course meal out of the ingredients available in the pantry provided to them. Planning out an impromptu meal out of unknown ingredients was the ultimate test for the participants. However, there were many delicious dishes presented by the teams including veg cutlet (with semolina), chilly paneer, pasta, chicken cheese balls, mushroom magic, sushi, lazeez-e-paneer, chicken popcorn & chocolate heaven to name a few.

There can only be one winner but in the spirit of competition, a series of dishes came out that displayed exceptional passion and unbounded imagination of the young participants. DPS, Bhopal took the winning spot whereas DPS, Kolar and Eastern Public School, Bhopal stood at the 1^st and 2^nd runner up positions respectively. The Valedictory Ceremony was graced by Prof. (Dr.) Anoop Swarup, Vice Chancellor, JLU Bhopal, Dr. C. A. Gurudath, Dean JLU, Bhopal, Dr. Vivek Khare, Dean, JLU Bhopal, Dr.  T S Bisnoyia, Director, School of Engineering and Technology, JLU Bhopal, and Dr. Rajesh Yadav, Director, School of Management, JLU Bhopal.