3-Day culinary master class at GNA University

Phagwara: Faculty of Hospitality at GNA University organized three days’ Culinary Master Class on advanced cooking techniques and modern plating for the aspiring chefs. Chef Sanjay Thakur, the Resource Person, a passionate chef from the Himalayas Himachal Pradesh (India) and Flight Chef with Etihad Airways shared his extensive experience to train students with food pairing, menu planning and modern cooking techniques. Chef Sanjay demonstrated latest cooking trends used in high end and Michelin star restaurants as sous vide technique, confit, use of whippers for foaming. Chef Sanjay completed STEP trainee program with Oberoi group and moved to Melbourne Australia to pursue Hospitality management with Holmes colleges and joined Langham  hotel in Melbourne.

Chef Dr Varinder Singh Rana, Deputy Dean, Faculty of Hospitality delivered a Welcome Address and shared about the importance of sustainability of ingredients.

During the three days of the Workshop, Chef Thakur focused on some of the common ways that food texture can be manipulated in interesting ways and took the students through the hands-on basic process and popular techniques in “molecular” cuisine, primarily altering appearance and texture of foods. The art of transforming natural ingredients which are often used in the food industry fused together with everyday ingredients to enhance existing cuisine disciplines and concepts amazed the participants of the workshop. Natural ingredients like seaweed, poultry, meat and other plant extracts & food additives were used in the best possible way. The resulting food preparations were spectacular, unexpected and took the cuisine experience to another level without too much effort. 

The Workshop trained the students the fundamentals to kick start a gastronomy journey which can open the doors to countless possibilities in classic and new world cooking. Needless to say, the workshop was fun, exciting viz-a-viz a great learning experience for all the participants.

The first day of workshop was dedicated to pre-preparations and learning about tools and equipment used on fruit juices & food extracts for popular molecular techniques like Spherification & Gelification using Sodium Alginate, Calcium Lactate, xanthan gum & Agar Agar. During the second day and third day of workshop Chef trained the students in making purees, coulis, tulies using fruits, vegetables and even sea food and poultry. See through bread was the attraction for the day which was served topped with modern version of pindi chole. Chef also answered all the queries put up by students. Overall, it was an informative and fruitful session for both the students and the faculty members.

S. Gurdeep Singh Sihra, the Pro-Chancellor, GNA University appreciated the efforts of Faculty of Hospitality and motivated them to arrange such fruitful workshops for the students. 

Dr. Raj Kumar Mahajan, the Registrar, GNA University conveyed Vote of Thanks to the Resource Person and the gathering.