Media Release

Udupi, Mar 13: The Cultural Co-ordination Committee (CCC) of Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) along with the Welcomgroup Graduate School of Hotel Administration (WGSHA) organized the sixth edition of live cooking competition for MAHE's faculty members in the WGSHA kitchen. The competition was held as part of Staff Utsav 2023. Sixty staff members participated in 3 categories: vegetarian, non-vegetarian, and sweets and desserts.

This year, the millet box challenge was made available for both vegetarians and non-vegetarians cooking. This is in line with the United Nations' announcing 2023 to be the international year of millet. The participants had the option of choosing any one of four types of millets that were provided as their base ingredient: amaranth, pearl, finger, and little millets. The participants showed their creativity and ability to think outside the box by making a main dish and a side dish from the ingredients given. The winners were: The first prize in the vegetarian category went to Dr Sonali Walimbe (Manipal School of Architecture and Planning), and to Dr Vineetha R (Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Manipal) in the non-vegetarian category.

In the sweets and desserts category, the participants were asked to make one Indian dessert. On the spot, they were given a secret ingredient dark chocolate that they had to use in the dish. This competition provides staff members of MAHE an unique opportunity to cook in a professional kitchen and showcase their culinary skills. This event by CCC has been a star attraction in the university town.

Nine eminent judges were part of the team: food enthusiast Shyamala Nayak, food enthusiast Sadanand Kotian, executive chef, Country Inn, Manipal, and Anurag Singh Nair, chef de cuisine, Country Inn (vegetarian category); Tarun Singh, general manager, Country Inn; Saurav Yadav, assistant F&B manager, Country Inn, and Sapna Salins (non-vegetarian category).

Utsav 2023, the biggest cultural fest for all constituent units of MAHE, will be held between April 10- 14 in Manipal.