I'm excited! This is going to be an awesome week!

The first time this event happened, a couple of months back, it was for an exclusive audience of about 6 people. ONLY. You can read about that in my blog post, but to make things short, this was a wonderful meal that had chocolates in every course. Right from the starter to the, duh, dessert, everything had chocolates. I mean, chocolate shavings on pasta instead of parmesan! You get it!?!

Nitin Chordia, the man behind this, is back. Literally. First he went to Belgium to get chocolates and now he went to London to bring back some chocolates that the best chefs in town will create into a meal!

The videos and photos are from his trials that are going on to make this week happen!

The schedule is as follows

Tuscana Pizzeria, Wallace Gardens during 28-30th Nov from 7pm onwards

On the Rocks (Sheraton Park Hotels & Towers) on 28th Nov from 7pm onwards

The Flying Elephant (Park Hyatt Chennai) on 29th Nov from 7pm onwards

Lotus (The Park) on 30th Nov from 7pm onwards

You can expect a four course chocolate infused meal paired with wine (except at Tuscana). Each venue will have a unique menu conceptualized by their Chefs. 

For more details, look up, 

Want to showcase your cooking skills? OK, I got an email about this contest and it looked very interesting, especially the part where it is organised by the Round Table guys and every single penny goes to a noble cause. So, there are the details as given by the organising guys.

Superchef Chennai is a culinary competition open only to amateur adults and kids. Food is a big part
of people’s lives and interest in all things related to it is at its peak now. With this thought in mind,
Madras Cosmopolitan Ladies Circle 38 (MCLC 38) and Madras Cosmopolitan Round Table 94 (MCRT 94), along with The Park Hotel, Chennai, bring to you SUPERCHEF CHENNAI 2014 on the 8th February 2014, the second edition of their hugely successful inaugural event held last year around
the same time.

MCLC 38 and MCRT 94 are two groups of young men and women from varied professional and non-
professional backgrounds who get together and engage in community service activities. In order
to sustain their charitable efforts, MCLC 38 and MCRT 94 raise money through various fund raising
events held throughout the year. They are non-profit organisations where 100% of the money raised
goes to their various charities.

In 2014, their main focus will be Sanjeevi Primary Health Care Centre, a long-term joint initiative
between MCRT 94 and Ford India. Sanjeevi has been providing free primary health care to 40 villages
in and around Maraimalai Nagar, Chennai, for the past 15 years. The centre has treated around 3
lakh patients at absolutely no cost to them and is closely involved with the local community, holding
various specialty medical camps and other programmes covering education, environment, hygiene
and awareness.

Superchef Chennai 2014 will be a platform for men, women and children to showcase their culinary
skills and knowledge over a weekend of various fun and interesting competitions. This year’s event
is going be bigger and better as the participants will get the opportunity to cook in front of and be
judged by stars of the culinary world, Chef Sanjeev Kapoor, Chef Vicky Ratnani and Chef Sanjay
Thumma as well as by The Park’s very popular Chef Rajesh Radhakrishnan.

This year there will be 3 broad categories in which people can compete, Adult Individual, Adult
Team and Juniors (Age group 10 – 14 years). People wishing to take part will have to send in a
recipe along with their registration forms. Day 1, namely, the Prelims day on the 8th will be held at The Park Hotel and will have a quiz to test the culinary knowledge of the shortlisted participants and Day 2, namely, the Finale day, on the 9, have the Live Cooking segments for the finalists.

Registrations will be accepted between the 26th points in the city, details of which will go up shortly on the Superchef Chennai Facebook page. Online registrations will open a few days earlier. The title sponsor for Superchef Chennai 2014 is The Park Hotel and main sponsors are Hatsun Agro and Butterfly Gandhimathi Appliances. The co-sponsors are D.R.Raanka Bros, Vummidi Bangaru
Jewellers and Julaaha. The associate sponsors are Oryza, Uncle Sam's Kitchen, Eventjini and
Advitiya.

Superchef Contact Details: Phone number: 7401447342

The legendary Moti Mahal from Delhi, I believe were the ones who invented the Butter Chicken Masala and a host of other dishes that we might think were centuries old. (I hope they don't stake claim for Chicken 65)! I really like this place and I have been a regular customer for their packed lunch - which is a real value for money for me - at Rs 225, the quantity and quality is quite good and I have written about it too. So last week, a bunch of 15 of us from CFG were invited to test out their offerings and it turned out to be a gala evening.

There is no way I can remember all the dishes we had and I was not able to try all of their dishes either, but a lot of them were excellent. The paneer, (yeah, I am talking about a veg dish), was excellent and was loved by the herbivores and carnivores equally. Their standard butter chicken was just as good and there was a Lasooni (or Lasuni?) kebab that was excellent. The range of Indian breads were just as good and the spicy paratha was rather different. We finished off with an excellent paan ice cream to end a wonderful dinner with friends.

You can check out my previous visits here and the experience with the wonderful packed lunch here.

Till next time....

I
t is not everyday that you get to watch a super talented person cook out a meal! What if this person is talented enough to be the MasterChef India's runner up?

This Saturday, the 9th of March, as an part of the Women's Day celebrations, Adoniya (yeah, the same one that dishes out exquisite cupcakes for all and fashion stuff for women) is bringing down Shazia Khan to Chennai!

Shazia calls herself a dreamer who knows what she wants! That appears to be right, for she is involved in her family business of running educational institutions in Bangalore, does her bit for the society via her 'Anubhava Shiksha Kendra' an educational wing for under privileged children AND then goes on to be the runner up at a MasterChef!!!! "My father was a great cook and an even better host" she says remembering her late father "so, it is only natural that I inherit some of it" in all modesty! But she is quick to admit that she learnt most of the cooking from her mother in law in whom she found a mentor, guide and friend who taught her things in both the kitchen and in life!  Like most great cooks, cooking is a stress buster for her and also like most people who make it big in their profession, has had no formal training in cooking!

That is enough of knowing her and if you want to see her in action, going to be in Chennai on the 9th (or willing to fly down) and if you have not yet picked up your tickets, then, well..........you know what to do!

So you like many food outlets in Chennai! There are food courts all over the place - but I know of no food court that serves food from some of the best in Chennai and certainly no food court that has Sandy's or Nigar Sultana's Daawat Biriyani under one roof or even under many roofs! So if you think you would like to take some of Nigar's biriyani, wash it down with fruit yogurt from Spoonbill or maybe have some Bradwurst from Spoonbill and wash it down with some of the best dessert in town from Sandy's Chocolate Laboratory, then Madras Market is the place!

My good friend, Sarah Natasha started a humble community on Facebook called Chennai Shopping - it is not humble anymore! It rapidly grew to over 25000 members before a blink, but it did something more than having just a few thousand members - it gave almost everyone with something to show the world - a platform to do that! Suddenly we had talented people displaying their stuff and selling them. There were home bakers, home artists and 'little known but talented' people from all over showcasing their stuff and buyers from all over reaping the benefits.

The first event of Chennai Shopping - a flea market conducted the same time last year was a runaway hit. They have had quite a few small events before and the culmination of all of this is MADRAS MARKET - a two day grand extravaganza consisting of anything you can name. Of course, I am more interested in the food and am wanting to combine Biriyani with Cheese cake and things like that, but there are a whole lot of retailers, there is a music concert and a whole lot  more! I know there is a special food stall that will be selling VEGAN stuff for all you vegan fans, there is Crimson Chakra and a few more!!! Yeah, just too many to name! Oh yeah, Maaria' cupcakes from Adoniya will make their presence there too, so............

AGAM is playing and there is no separate entry fee for the music concert et all, so for Rs 75, this is a double deal!!!! And yeah, I think there is more than one band playing music too! By the time I finish writing this, I won't be surprised if they sign up another band to play - phew!!!

So this weekend, 23rd and 24th Feb, it might pay to leave all else and head to Madras Market. It is happening at the Wesley School Grounds (Opp Woodlands Theatre, close to Express Ave mall). Hoping to see you there!

'I just called, to say, I love you' sang Steve Wonders, quite sometime back! The intensity of the words is quite deep - you can call somebody (ok, in his case it was his special someone) without any reason at all - just to say hi!!!  At the same time you can celebrate nothing - rather you don't need a reason to celebrate. Or you can create reasons to celebrate. The BBQ Cookout on Saturday was testimony to that fact!

And when you celebrate nothing, the celebrations are grander - not by grandiosity of things, but of the souls. People just came in and contributed in more ways than anybody thought. There were no posters, no 'SPONSORED BY' boards, no one knew who brought the meat and who brought the garbage bags and who did what, unless they asked who made this wonderful cake or similar questions to know who did what.

The theme was clear - don't expect to be fed, don't come ravenously hungry. You are going for a walk on the beach and you meet friends who end up sharing their food with you. It made life so much easier!

There was some amazing cooking happening on one end.

And there were people who were busy eating.

And then there were people who were pretending to eat.

Or trying to help.

Some of our guest had more than two feet.

And some needed to be carried around.

While others tried to see the real person behind the Facebook Avatar.

And one person was a complete train wreck.

 And then there were photographers

And wannabe photographers too......

Some old friends met....

When there is BBQ, there should be some music too.....

And the man who started this community movement.

Yes, there was lots of food.

There were somethings that made this cookout a great success - not the fact that over 70 people made it to an event that was not one that had 'CREATE EVENT' on FB as no such event was created, not the fact that there was so much food that people brought in to share with others, not that there were a bunch of us playing music and singing and having fun, none of these. What made this event special was that we left the beach cleaner than it was when we came. There were 8 garbage bags placed and everyone, I MEAN EVERYONE, used the garbage bags to put the garbage. Because of the generosity of the people, there was so much food and so there was so much food left. One of the good souls gave away the food to people who deserved it and they were happy to get a good meal.

So, yeah, sometime celebrating nothing is grander than celebrating something. And we hope and pray that we have these community events for as long as there are people to meet and greet and help without expecting anything in return. And in the end, as far as I could see, EVERY SINGLE soul went back happy!!!

And when Harsha Bogle and Ravi Shastri applauded Chennai a decade back, when the Chennai crowd gave Pakistan a standing ovation - in spite of India being the losing side, it showed the true character of Chennai. And Chennai reminded us as to why it is special - the people here are special! While politics, religion and anything else that divides people always seems to attack Chennai slower than the rest of the country, we hope the Chennai we know stays this way for ever!


*The photographs without the ChennaiFoodie watermark are a copyright of PHOTOSTROPHE - Thanks for letting me use them.
* Thanks to Chinna Win Photography for letting me use the Black and White Music Photo!

I have been to the second edition and it was amazing - the sheer number of bakers and their baked goods were overwhelming! Unfortunately, I will be out of town and if you liked baked stuff, get yourself to the Baker's Showcase! I am pretty sure it will be just as good or maybe even better than the last edition. I am rueing missing this out, but I really have to be someplace out of Chennai!

If previous experience has taught me anything, it was the fact that you need to get here early! Within the first hour, most of the wonderful stuff gets sold! We normally use the term 'sold like hot cakes', but I am not sure what phrase to use here because they are hot cakes!!!!