Michelin women chefs share culinary expertise with Indian girls

New Delhi :Eight international Michelin women chefs are currently in India as part on an initiative to mentor and share their culinary expertise with underprivileged girls.

The initiative is part of a program by the Creative Services Support Group (CSSG), which offers a chance for underprivileged girls and young women to pursue a career in the hospitality sector.

Ana Ros who owns her own restaurant and is also a member of an association of young restaurateurs in Europe is one of the participants who has traveled for the event from Slovenia.

“By being associated with this initiative, I believe my experience as a chef would help to motivate underprivileged girls to put in their own efforts to become best chefs in the world,” Ros says.

Another Chef Lauren Eldridge from Australia renowned for her specialised fine dining restaurant down under believes she can help the girl students polish up their skills to a level that would help them compete on an international platform.

“The initiative started earlier this year and it has been taken seriously by me to pull in the girls to make them learn whatever I have learnt in five years of my career. I believe if all the girls are trained and learn finesse in their work they would be able to compete on international platforms,” says Lauren.

A total of 53 underprivileged girls cooked together with the eight Michelin chefs at the Le Cirque restaurant at the Leela Palace hotel here.

From the palate of ingredients that were provided, the girls together with the chefs learnt to cook Pizza, a variety of frittatas, chargrilled vegetables, pastas, marinated cherry tomatoes and apple crumble with vanilla cream.

The chefs are also part of a series of charity dinners that are being hosted in Delhi and Mumbai till September 14.

Elaborating on the need to empower women, Anand Kapoor, President, CSSG says, “There is an ongoing need to raise awareness and for female role models to change the perception of women who face restraints in society. We have dedicated 2015 as the ‘Year of the Women’ and we have been creating avenues that will empower them to make choices that can make a difference in their lives as well as in their communities.”

Jatin Malik, who has been a chef for 18 years and has been associated with the initiative for over a year says he has employed two of the girls in his restaurant here.

“I always believe there is a lot of talent in these girls and whatever I have learnt could be given back to society by training them. We have started with two of them and many other will be joining our team soon. Their awareness of how to conduct themselves as professional chefs in a kitchen is commendable and soon they would learn the contemporary European cuisine too,” says Malik.

PTI