2000 Chefs will participate in 20 categories at the 6th Culinary Challenge of South Indian Chef Association 

South Indian Chefs Association SICA President Chef Damu and SICA General Secretary  Chef Sheetaram Prasad met the media in this regard at The Park hotel in Nungambakkam, Chennai. 

They said that this 6th Edition SICA Culinary Challenge and Exhibition 2023,India’s first WACS endorsed Competition.15th to 17th September 2023 at Chennai Trade center Hall no-1

They said the main objective of the event is to establish a professional platform for culinary professionals in India to showcase their individual and collective skills and to showcase their creative talent in this competition where 2000 culinary professionals will participate.

The primary objective of SICA Culinary Competition and Exhibition 2023 is to establish a professional platform where culinary professionals in the sub-continent region can display their individual and collective skills, creative talent, learn and share best practices, partner and network in a purely collaborative environment.

South India Chef’s Association (SICA) is organizing its 6th edition of the industry’s most premier culinary event, SICA Culinary Challenge and Exhibition 2023 from 15th  to 17th  September 2023, at the Chennai Trade Centre, Chennai, on the sidelines of the regional edition of AAHAR International Food Fair 2023, Chennai. This event is supported by ITPO (India Trade Promotion Organization) and TNTPO (Tamil Nadu Trade Promotion Organization). 

As a preliminary to this, SICA has already conducted workshops on Pastry Art & Hot Plate Presentation, to impart technical knowledge to approach professional competition.  Chef Dimuthu Kumarasinghe  Master culinary Trainer from Chefs Guild of Lanka along with his team of 4 expat Chefs from Sri Lanka and Maldives, demonstrated the art of food plating techniques across four location – Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Cochin in August  2023 respectively, where more than 200 professionals and students participated at each location to learn the hands on techniques of approaching competition professionally.

SICA has organized numerous events in the past with wide scale participation to drive all round awareness and excellence in the culinary profession.

Event Highlights

India’s first WACS approved National Competition

WACS approved international jury will judge the competitions

Live Culinary Challenge contest for junior and apprentice Chefs from culinary institutes

3 Live cooking challenges at the Venue 

Exclusive Cock tail and Mock tail Competition for Students and Professionals

2 Category of hands on competition for House Keeping professionals  

The largest gathering of food and beverage industry professionals – executive chefs, F&B managers, academicians, technocrats and culinary journalists

Grand Award Ceremony on the concluding day of the event at AAHAR to recognize Gold medal winners and felicitate senior chefs and the international jury members and Sponsors. 

Participants of over 2000 chefs across south India chapters.

3 International culinary teams from Maldives, Sri-Lanka, Mauritius are competing with national culinary teams. 

SICA Chefs Lounge to socially engage and networking with industry leading chefs and professionals.

For making this event a great success, we extend our warm welcome to you and your support in covering the event. This will go a long way to increase awareness and appeal to a wider audience.

More details about the competition & its categories:

SICA member organizations can nominate their employee chefs to participate in numerous competitions at individual and team level. 

Competition categories

Individual Artistic display Competition

Individual Cold Display Competition 

Practical Live Cooking Competition

Cocktail / Mock tail Competition

Table Cover Display / Layout Contest for 2 persons including wine glasses

The Culinary Team Challenge – Edible Buffet

Housekeeping competitions 

Class 1: Three-Tier Wedding Cake

Class 2: Artistic Pastry Showpiece

Class 3: Artistic Bakery Showpiece

Class 4: Fruit & Vegetable Carving

Class 5: Butter / Margarine Sculpture

Individual Cold Display

Class 6: Plated Appetizers

Class 7: Petit Fours or Pralines

Class 8: Three-Course Set Dinner Menu

Class 9: Desserts

Class 10: Authentic Indian Regional Cuisine – Powered by Nestle

Class 11: Cocktail / Mocktail Competition

Class 12: The Culinary Team Challenge – Buffet Competition

Class 13: Table Cover Layout / Display Contest for 2 guests including wine glasses

Class 19: Best creation out of waste

Class 20: Creative Arts for the Rooms 

Live Contest Category

Class 14: Live Competition

Class 15: Practical Asian Cooking

Class 16: Dress the Cake 

Class 17: Live Innovative Biryani Cooking 

Class 18: Creative Skilled Paratha 

Participate cousine in competition:

– Skill paratta’s,

– Asian paratta’s 

-Live paratta 

-Briyani’s

-Millet based briyani 

-Chetinad briyani 

-Dindigual briyani 

-Dress cake competition

 Jury Panel (International)

Chef Thomas A.Gugler – President World Chefs Germany 

Chef Gerard Mendis – Chairman – Chefs Guild of Lanka

Chef Mooroogun Coopen – President Mauritian Chefs Association 

Chef Daniel Schade – President Association of Chefs Germany 

Chef Dimuthu Kumarasinghe – Assistant Vice President Food and Beverage – Aitken Spence Hotel

Chef John Sloane – Assistant Senior Vice President – Galaxy Macau,Hong Kong 

Chef Mahendran – Executive Sous Chef SATS  Singapore 

Chef Mariyam Shiuna – Chefs Guild of Maldives 

Chef Fathimath Umar – Senior Lecturer Pastry arts Maldives 

Chef Abdulla Sabah – Maldives Chef Tilak Senaratne – Chefs Guild of Lanka 

Chef Keerthi Hapugasdeniya – Chefs Consultant Australia 

Jury Moderator 

Chef Baranidharan – Jury Moderator, Founder and CCO – Chefs Imprint 

National Jury Panel

Dr.Chef Manjit Singh Gill – Président – IFCA 

Chef Vijaya Baskaran – General Secretary – IFCA 

Chef Vinod Bhati – Indian Culinary Fédération 

Chef Arvind Rai – Exécutive Chef ITC Ashoka, Delhi

Chef Kasi Viswanathan – F&B Director Radisson Blu Atria – Bengaluru

Chef Nimesh Bhatia – Chef Consultant 

Chef Vikram udaygiri – Chef Consultant 

Chef Mohammed Siddiq – Chef Consultant 

Event Dates & Venue :

Live Competition – Class 14

04th September, 2023 at IHM, Tharamani, Chennai

Practical Asian Cooking – Live – Class 15

5th September 2018 at at IHM, Tharamani, Chennai

For Classes 1-13, 16-20

15th, 16th & 17th September, 2023 at Hall No.1, 

Chennai Trade Centre

7:00 am onwards 

Grand Award Ceremony

18th September, 2023 at Raddisson Blu Hotel GRT  

531, GST Road, St Thomas Mount,  Chennai

 10:00 am onwards

To know more details about competition and membership log on to www.sica.co.in

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