Culinary Culture, India’s premier culinary rating, events, and content platform recently launched FoodSuperstars, India’s first and only awards platform celebrating the country’s greatest chefs.
A first of its kind annual ranking of the top 30 Chefs, FoodSuperstars has a simple mission to honor and reward chefs who are the true heroes of the F&B industry. While many platforms in the country recognise restaurants, FoodSuperstars has been created to shine the light on chefs who often remain in the shadows and are true to their art. The nominations were selected through a rigorous process of evaluation from FoodHunters, a seasoned community of 40 culinary experts, food critics, and writers spread across the country.
The prestigious awards ceremony was hosted by Vir Sanghvi to bestow the chefs with a plaque honoring their skills.
Along with the ranking of the Top 30, each edition will also feature six special awards that will be bestowed to chefs for exceptional achievements throughout the year.
In an exclusive conversation with The Daily Guardian, Raaj Sanghvi CEO of Culinary Culture gave his valuable insights.
Excerpts
Q. What is the idea and need behind creating FoodSuperstars, an awards platform for recognising chefs?
A. Culinary Culture was formed with a mission to honor the people who make the food in India. We have many restaurant rating platforms, but no other platform recognizes the chefs. In India, unfortunately, for a long time chefs were not even allowed to come out of the kitchen and greet guests and at many award ceremonies, it was always the restaurant owners or managers who would go up and receive the awards on stage. We wanted to change this and create a platform dedicated to Indian chefs. FoodSuperstars is a celebration of Indian chefs.
Q. How FoodSuperstars aim to be the Indian equivalent of Michelin Rankings?
A. Actually, FoodSuperstars is inherently different from the Michelin guide. For starters, the Michelin guide is not a ranking system, it is a rating system that awards 1/2/3 stars to exceptional restaurants. While the Michelin guide focuses on restaurants, FoodSuperstars shifts the focus to chefs, who we believe are the real heroes of our industry and rarely get the recognition they deserve. Our trophy and plaque go to the chef, not the restaurant. Culinary Culture has plans to launch its restaurant rating system, which will rate restaurants around the country, but more on that later!
Q. What is the method of rankings and process to be followed by FoodSuperstars to recognise the top 30 chefs in the country?
A. FoodSuperstars goes through an exacting process. First, over 40 FoodHunters, India’s most passionate foodies from across the country, nominate the chefs, sending in a detailed explanation of why they deem a chef-worthy to make the list. Their nominations are debated at a physical event, where the FoodHunters defend each of their choices. Then, a shortlist goes to Culinary Culture’s Jury of India’s top gourmet experts. This Jury finalizes the list to arrive at the TOP 30. To avoid any commercial considerations or undue influence, FoodSuperstars does not accept advertising or any considerations from restaurants and the FoodHunters pay for their meals. Finally, the identities of the members of the Jury are kept secret, so nobody can influence them or offer favors. The final list is kept secret until it is revealed at the ceremony and not even the FoodHunters know the final rankings.
While the only criterion that matters is excellence. The Jury looks for quality, dedication, and inspiration. To be considered for the list, the chef has to have cooked at a restaurant or delivery service in India during the period under consideration and things like seniority, other awards, or no. of years of work experience do not matter.
Q. What is Culinary Culture’s commitment to creating value for the ever-growing F&B community in India?
A. At Culinary Culture our vision is to change how India’s ‘culinary culture’ is perceived in India and abroad. Before the pandemic, we launches ‘StreetFoodSuperstars’, which was India’s first street food award, where we honored street food vendors from around the country. During the pandemic, we launches platforms such as ‘Gourmet Delivery Awards’, India’s first awards for food delivery, and ‘Plate of Love’, a contest for home chefs with a Jury of leading names such as Huma Quereshi, Vineet Bhatia, Atul Kasbekar amongst others. We have also re-started our Culinary exchange program and last week we had former World No.1 Chef Massimo Bottura and his team from Osteria Francescana come to cook in India. While he was in Mumbai we also hosted an exclusive event where Massimo spoke to some of India’s leading chefs and they exchanged ideas. We hope to continue these initiatives and take them around the country in the years to come and ensure that India’s F&B community gets the recognition it deserves.