Chefs awarded for their skills and efforts

New Delhi, Nov 9 : Chefs in huge numbers from around the country battled it out in a culinary competition and the best among them were the winners of 13th Annual Chef Awards.

Organised by Indian Culinary Forum (ICF), the awards were evaluated by jury chairperson Alan Payen with renowned national and international chefs.

The winners of the different award category were Rajan Loomba, The Ashok Hotel (Golden Hat Award), Imtiaz Qureshi (Lifetime Achievement Award) and Rinku Madan (Best food writer award).

"Cooking and serving great food is only one part of the mix - it has to be met with the enthusiasm of its staff for the overall experience to be memorable. The evolution and concept of these awards is to recognize, honour and promote the fraternity of chefs and encourage youngsters to join the industry," ICF president Davinder Kumar said.

The other categories include Master Chef International Cuisine award that went to Anuj Verma and Lady Chef of the Year ?to Preetika Malik from ITC Hotels.

"The objective of the awards is to offer fellow chefs a professional platform to showcase, exhibit, hone culinary skills and raise the overall Indian Culinary Art at par with international standards," he added.

Chefs competed in 11 culinary categories and showcased a series of live culinary skills.

The Oberoi Kitchen Artist award went to Chef Jitender from The Ashok, Master Chef International Confectionary Award went to Chef Prashanth Bhatol, the Leela Ambience, le Meridian.

Chef Ankit Sharma was awarded with Master Chef North India Cuisine Award, Sukanta Pal with Master Chef Indian Sweets Award, Harish Chander with Master Chef Oriental Cuisine Award, Prem Kumar with Master Chef Kebab Award, Radison Blue and Mohanjeet Singh won the Student Chef of the Year Award.