By Sourish Bhattacharyya
 |
| Non-profit Creative Services Support Group founder Anand Kapoor had orchestrated a memorable nine-course charity dinner accompanied by music at The Oberoi Gurgaon last year |
HAVE you fancied having canapés suspended
from helium balloons floating at your nose level? If you did nurture such a
dream, you can spoil yourself when the French arts group La Cellule unveils its floating buffet
on October 1 in one of a series of charity events being organised by Anand Kapoor, the powerhouse behind the
non-profit Creative Services Support
Group (CSSG), between September 28 and October 5 in Delhi and Mumbai.
Kapoor says he’s “going mental” — well,
he’s not exaggerating, for he has a full-time job in New Delhi with a UK-based,
BAFTA Award-winning design house and CSSG is the organisation he runs in his
spare time to provide skill development opportunities to talented young men and
women from economically marginalised families.
Seven Michelin-starred chefs from
England, Scotland and Spain and two of Australia’s top ‘hatted’ chefs are
participating in this year’s CSSG Summit 2013: Food and Art Edition. The
programme includes four dinners and breakfasts curated by the visiting chefs in
Delhi and Mumbai; a day of ‘food art installations’ in Delhi to accompany talks
by actor Nandita Das and Golf Australia’s
brand ambassador and acclaimed chef Ian
Curley; two days of master classes at the restaurant Le Cirque; a gala
dinner in Delhi featuring a performance by the singers of Glyndebourne, the 600-year-old opera house in Sussex, England; and
the release of a book of recipes by the international chefs associated with the
CSSG’s initiatives.
Kapoor informs me that the tickets to
the gala dinner took just half an hour to sell out! The master classes, too,
have been snapped up by the Australian High Commission (September 27) and the Delhi Gourmet Club (October 2). Also engaged
in this mega-celebration of food and philanthropy are Delhi’s most talented chefs
Manish Mehrotra, Ritu Dalmia, Nira Singh, Sabyasachi ‘Saby’
Gorai, Jatin Mallick, Mickey Boite and Avanti Mathur.
Last year, Kapoor had organised an
unprecedented charity dinner where he had seven international celebrity chefs,
including UK-based Vineet Bhatia and
Anjum Anand, prepare a nine-course
meal served to the accompaniment of music presented by B.L.O.T. at The Oberoi Gurgaon. The money he raised from the event
was used to support four young men, who spent their childhood growing up homeless
in the New Delhi Railway Station, realise their life’s ambition of becoming
chefs. These aspiring chefs, whose further career development, up to a stint
with Michelin-star restaurants in the U.K., is being supported by the Delhi
Gourmet Club, are working with the restaurant Tres, the patisserie chain L’Opera, the French eatery Chez Nini and pastry chef Avanti Mathur’s Sweet Nothings.
The chefs you’ll see in action this
year are:
Frances Atkins,
The Yorke Arms, Patley Bridge, North Yorkshire (Michelin Starred), who’s one of
only six women chefs in Britain to have a Michelin star.
Ian Curley,
The European, Melbourne (Hatted), who’s a celebrated chef famous for teaching
cooking to the homeless and working for the rehab of alcohol and drug abuse
victims.
Mark Best,
Marque, Sydney (Hatted), who’s a former electrician, a brilliant exponent of
French cuisine and has worked with such global maestros as Alain Passard and
Raymond Blanc.
Alyn Williams,
Alyn Williams at The Westbury, London (Michelin Starred), who’s been Marcus Wareing’s
head chef at The Berkeley and is the youngest in this lot of seasoned hands.
Michael Wignall,
The Latymer, Surrey, (Michelin Starred), who’s an extreme sport fanatic when he’s
not running his Michelin two-star establishment.
Roger Pizey,
Marco’s, Stamford Bridge, London (Michelin Starred), who’s an acolyte of Albert
Roux and Marco Pierre White and has reignited the British passion for traditional
pastry treats.
Laurie Gear,
The Artichoke, Buckinghamshire (Michelin Starred), who’s a largely self-taught
chef, having started his career washing dishes, but he’s a fine exponent of
European cuisine.
Marcello Tully,
Kinloch Lodge, Isle of Skye, Scotland (Michelin Starred), who’s a big promoter
of sustainable eating, slow food and British farm products.
Fernando del Cerro, Casa José Aranjuez, Madrid (Michelin Starred), who’s famous for his culinary
creations with the produce of Aranjuez’s historical vegetable garden.
A treat awaits Delhi before it goes
into the Navaratra mode and steers clear of all that’s good to eat and drink.
No comments:
Post a Comment