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BCIHMCT’s hospitality event

Over the years, the Banarsidas Chandiwala Institute of Hotel Management and Catering Technology (BCIHMCT) Ensemble has become a platform for interaction among the catering and hotel management institutes. The 9th Ensemble held recently in New Delhi aimed with an objective to correlate the event with the Commonwealth Games.

Around 35 teams from various hotel management colleges across India participated in the events. The annual event is gaining popularity year-on-year and there has been an overwhelming response from both hospitality institutes as well as hotel industry. Around 300 students from various institutes competed in different categories. The number of participants has doubled compared to the last year. In spite of the busy schedules due to Commonwealth Games preparations, hotels in the National Capital Region (NCR) agreed to take part with their senior chefs for judging the competitions

The participating teams were judged on the basis of their culinary skills, presentation and even on the cleanliness and hygiene aspect. Bhandari stated, “People who visit restaurants and high-end hotels are well-travelled, have thorough knowledge on what they consume and what they want. With the trends like open-kitchen system fast catching up in India, it is imperative to have a clean kitchen. No one would like to be served food from those kitchens where the pests breed on the leftover food, the food is cooked beside the overflowing/ choked drains and uncleaned chimneys where the grease is accumulated. Even the hotels/restaurants also ensure they follow strict norms and regulations stated by the local body.

“These students who participated in our event are the future chefs of India. The purpose of judging them on the above parameters is to encourage them and inculcate in them the importance of clean and hygienic kitchen. So when they complete their course from the hotel management institute, they are not just mere chefs but kitchen managers.”

Speaking on clean and hygienic kitchen, third year hotel management student Saranya S, of GIHM Hyderabad, said, “The first thing we are taught when we join the course is personal hygiene. When your personal hygiene levels are excellent it automatically reflects on your kitchen. You will be vigilant and will also ensure the workstation is clean. We are taught to sanitise our hands before entering the kitchen, besides our faculties also ensure we wear gloves, aprons and a head gear to avoid food contamination. When you are trained from the beginning to wear this safety gears it becomes a habit. So, it is like a ritual for me when I enter the kitchen.”

Another student Amrita from Tuli College, Nagpur, added, “We are groomed to be in-charge of kitchen. So maintaining the hygienic levels of the kitchen automatically comes besides cooking. The judges who visited us in the kitchen were not just looking at our culinary skills but also how well we maintained the kitchen after its use. This is an experience for us.”