Dubai residents with exceptional culinary skills battled it out on Sunday for The Bombay's Indian recipe challenge. The winning entry is to make it to Marco Polo Hotel's signature Indian restaurant's list of dishes when it joins the Dubai Shopping Festival's (DSF) Guinness bid for longest buffet at Zabeel Park this January 19.
Fifty participants were hand-picked from among the 400 plus entries sent for The Bombay's recipe challenge. Only 46 people made it to the main event.
“We are so overwhelmed that so many were interested in the event,” said Sunil Marya, VP and General Manager of Marco Polo Hotel.
At 4:00pm, participants with food and family in tow started arriving at the hotel. The banquet area was a buzz of activity as participants arranged their dishes on rows of tables. Some ladies were hurrying for last minute garnishes.
Everyone hoped their recipe would be part of the grand record breaking event.
Innovative food
Participants not only delivered dishes for the Indian chicken and Indian vegetable dish category - but also blew away the judges with innovative food art. There was a watermelon carved like a pot on top of a burning stove. A chariot made out of bread, a field covered by grains and scarecrows made out of eggplants.
“Each and every tang of their recipe matters, that’s why it took us so long to come up with the results of the competition because they are all cooked great,” admitted Chef Uwe Micheel, President of the Emirates Culinary Guild.
“Believe me; it is not that easy to judge these foods. They all taste good and excellent, but we only have to choose a few,” added Chef Laxmi Kanth, executive chef of Marco Polo Hotel.
Finally, after much consideration, the winners were picked. Indeed the dishes were mouthwatering. Kiran Kataria bagged the top prize for the Indian chicken category with her chicken tikka with honey and dry fruit gravy. Dr. Esther Jacob was runner up with her yellow rice with spicy chicken.
In the vegetable category, Gahana Khatwani took the top prize with her stuffed Jaffrani paneer, while Vandana Jain was runner up with her stuffed paneer slices in Moghlai gravy.
“Whoa! I can’t believe that my recipe will be a part a record breaking event, thank you so much!” Kataria expressed in delight. Aside from getting her recipe in the Guinness bid, she also received a voucher for free catering worth Dh3,000.
