Hyatt Hotels and Resorts just concluded their hotly contested annual culinary contest called Good Taste Series by Hyatt. The contest is an internal competition, which symbolises Hyatt's commitment to excellence and creativity in food and beverage. The contest is aimed at cultivating emerging culinary talent at Hyatt hotels around the world and celebrating cultural diversity. The recently concluded events were held at Andaz, Delhi and Grand Hyatt Kochi Bolgatty. The winners of the contest were Chef Prashant Kumar and Chef Balpreet Singh from Hyatt Regency Delhi and Andaz Delhi, respectively. The winners were announced on September 25, marking an end to the India edition of The Good Taste Series 2018. The competition was originally designed in 2014 and was held as an internal competition in North America. The Good Taste Series began being held on a global scale since 2017 and it featured chefs from Hyatt hotels from across Asia Pacific, the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and India.
In this year's edition, chefs from 24 Hyatt hotels from across India competed against each other and each created a dish that celebrated the philosophy of "Food - Thoughtfully Sourced. Carefully Served." The two winners of the competition will be representing India at the EAME/SWA final at Grand Hyatt, Abu Dhabi. For the contest, the chefs received surprise ingredients on the spot, which included duck breast, sweet lime, prawns, fresh turmeric and barnyard millets. These had to be used in the dishes that these chefs created. The judges awarded the most marks to the winners Chef Prashant Kumar and Chef Balpreet Singh for their dishes Quinoa cooked shrimp sausages with summer fruit salsa and Duck bon-bon with quinoa pilaf and xacuti sauce, as well as Poached prawns, turmeric coco sauce, bard yard millet upma and Pan-seared duck, sweet lime salt, panch phoran carrots, pressed rice chaat, respectively.
Talking about the purpose of the contest, Mr. Sunjae Sharma, Vice President India Operations, Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, said, "The Good Taste Series is a global platform for Hyatt to develop and recognise our chefs as well as for them to exchange their knowledge and collaborate with one another." The competition provides everyone, from line chefs to executive sous chef, to present their culinary flair by competing against those from the teams of other Hyatt hotels from around the world. The Indian winning chefs will now be competing against four other chefs, who have won their respective regional rounds organised across Mallorca, Moscow, Dar es Salaam and Abu Dhabi. Following this, two chefs will be selected to face off with four other Hyatt chefs in the global final. The final will take place in Asia Pacific in the first quarter of 2019.