Mumbai. December 17, 2005
Greatly encourages by the success of our inaugural event in Delhi earlier this year, we decided to hold a similar on in Mumbai. Anil Malik, General Manager, ITC Grand Central was most helpful in encouraging and supporting our endeavour. Ten CEOs, assisted by Chefs from the hotel, cooked for about 100 people who bought seats at the table and helped us raise a good some to treat more children.
The venue was at the beautiful Terrace Garden of the hotel. The food canopies, bows on the white covered chairs and the flower arrangements were all in red, the theme for the day.
It was a nice sunny day and our brave CEO chefs this time were:
Khursheed Lam, Manager India & S East Asia, Qantas
Sunil Mehta, Country Head & CEO AIG
Sunil Lulla, CEO, Times Global Broadcasting
Sanjay Luthra, MD, Mattel Toys
Rajat Jain, MD, Walt Disney,
Harit Nagpal, Operations Director, Hutchison Max Telecom
Manish Kejriwal, MD, Temasek Holdings Advisors India
Venkat Mallik, MD, Level UP Network India.
The very first to arrive was Sunil who looked snazzy and his blue Hawaiian shirt raring to go. Sunil’s specialty for the day was Farmer’s Eggs, which his wife Vinodini confirmed he was acclaimed for in their home kitchen, this turned out to be a hot favourite. Additionally he took on cooking the good old Fish & Chips.
Our Master of Ceremonies was Salil Acharya, the hot sitcom star of Kavyanjali, Kasauti and host on the B4U channel’s new gaming show GameMax. Salil kept the CEO Chefs on their toes and the crowd rocking. By 1.30pm all the chefs had donned their Share-a-Smile aprons, chef’s hats and were busy cooking.
The guests moved from stall to stall to check out the cuisine enjoying Moet Hennessy’’s red as well as the white wines, Terrazas Alto Chardonnay and Terrazas Alto Malbec. The hard-core beer drinkers enjoyed guzzling the chilled Foster’s beer straight from the bottle.
With a live band in the background and the audience shouting encouragement the Yard-long beer drinking competition got off to a great start. The volunteers had to consume 2.5 bottles of Foster’s beer filled in the long glass without lowering the level of the tall glass till it was over. Six successful candidates earned the Foundation a handsome sum courtesy Foster’s India. Chris White, Vice President, IntlMarketing, Mattel, Inc. and Rajiv Sahay, MD, Haden International Group volunteered to be the first two candidates.
Khursheed and Sunil at the Chinese pavilion served a delicious Gong Bao Shi Shu and Hei Jiao Jee Pian, while Harit and Manish focused on Tandoori fare of Sikampuri Kebabs (Harit’s personal recipe) and Pudina Paneer Tikka. At the other end not to be outdone Rajat and Sanjay had the crowd queuing up for their Sabz Miloni and Murg Korma. Venkat having a penchant for Italian food served a delicious Fettuccini Pesto.
Foster’s supplied their smart straw hats, which were auctioned together with the last pieces of the popular bekti fish filet from Sunil’s counter. Ashwin Deo auctioned several songs that went towards the treatment of children.
After much drinking and enjoyment of the wonderful cuisine came the finale when the lucky dip prizes were distributed. The lucky winners received gift vouchers from Reebok, laser printer by Xerox, Pixma Printer by Canon, Benq scanner, hamper by Oriflame and dinner voucher from ITC.
We owe grateful thanks to our sponsors: ITC Hotels, Moet Hennessy, Foster’s India and many others. Many thanks also to those who bought places at the table – a number of individuals and organisations such as Novartis India, Hutchison Max and J Sagar Associates, Mumbai.
The event was covered by NDTV Profit who focused the camera on the CEO Chefs getting each of them to say a few words on their reason for being there and their inputs for the food preparation. The coverage was shown at prime time on their channel on December 19, 2005.
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