Sweet End

A total of nine hotel management colleges from in and around Chandigarh participated in the contest. Teams of two students each were given a time frame of four hours to prepare a plated dessert,a decorated cake and a bread loaf as part of the competition. “It’s a maiden initiative and we wanted to give students from the region a challenge that was both fun and educational,” mentioned T K Razdan,principal of CIHM. With ingredients provided by the host college,student chefs got down to preparing the task at hand. “We have worked on an Italian theme and have decided to make Tiramisu,” mentioned Amit Bhandari from K C Institute of Hotel Management (in Nawan Shaher),while teammate Anuj Mishra tried his hand at the bread.

Elsewhere,Rajat Sachdeva and Meenakshi Kapoor,both students of Dr Ambedkar Institute of Hotel Management in Sector 42 were busy giving their truffle cake a final layer of cream. “It’s quite challenging to make it in a limited time-frame,and we hope to be better prepared next time,” chorused the two. Judging the spread were Neeraj Chaudhary,executive chef,Taj Chandigarh along with Nikhil Mittal of the popular NIK Bakers chain in the city. “It’s nice to see the students ideate and come up with new styles. Some of the cake textures were really nice,” remarked Chaudhary as Mittal added,“I remember as a student of hotel management,it was really tough to get the icing right. I am amazed at the way the student’s have performed today.”

Up for judging were pre-plated desserts including fluffy soufflés,three-layered puddings while in the cakes,chocolate truffle seemed to be a popular flavour. The students also took pains in churning out bread loaves using innovative ingredients such as dill and olives. In the end,the CIHM Chandigarh team comprising Udit Nagar and Pankaj Kumar won the top spot. Coming in second was the team from Chitkara School of Hospitality,comprising Mudit Arora and Nalin Narula. Vinay Kumar and Ajay Kumar from Hotel and Catering Management Institute,Dera Bassi bagged the third spot.