Kolkata-based Simran Kapur (17) was conferred the Young Chef India Schools Award 2013 following a major cookout competition staged at the University of West London last September. This class XII student of Modern High School won the Young Chef Finale, a competition for students in class XII, organised by the International Institute of Hotel Management (IIHM) in association with the London-based magazine Tandoori, to showcase the culinary skills of school children.
Over 4,000 students participated in the Young Chef competitions in Calcutta, Pune, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Delhi and Bangalore from January-May 2013. In June, 120 young chefs took part in the regional semi-finals. Finally Simran and five other students were invited to a cook off in London.
The exotic fare dished out at the Young Chef Finale was adjudged by Atul Kochhar, the first Indian chef to be awarded a Michelin star; Cyrus Todiwala, chef and TV presenter; Andy Varma, proprietor of London’s Chakra Restaurant; Tandoori columnist and celebrated chef, Shaun Kenworthy, and Sanjay Kak, director of the Bangalore-based IIHM (estb. 1994). “I was about to make a soup and then I realised I didn’t have enough time so I turned it into a prawn amuse-bouche,” says Simran of the unique concoction which according to Kak, helped her win the Rs.5 lakh jackpot, which she plans to save for her higher education.
“I have always been a great foodie and experimenting with the family dinner is my favourite pass time,” enthuses the young chef.
Also a trained Hindustani classical vocalist, currently Simran is busy with her class XII board exams. And of course, she plans to join the hotel industry to keep delighting gourmets from around the world with her out-of-the-box culinary innovations.
Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata)
Aarya Sarda
Aarya Sarda, a ten-year-old youngster from Nashik, is the proud recipient of the prestigious CCRT (Centre for Cultural Resources and Training) Cultural Talent Search Scholarship Scheme 2013-14 of the Union ministry of culture. The scholarships are annually awarded to outstanding performing arts exponents between 10-14 years of age. A class VI student of the Rasbihari International School, Aarya bagged the scholarship for her solo rendition of raag bageshree and zhala on the harmonium at a specially convened event held last June at the Victoria Memorial School for the Blind, Mumbai. She is one of the country’s four scholarship awardees — three of whom are from Maharashtra — in the Hindustani music instrument – harmonium — category.
A total 42 of the 544 national scholarships announced were awarded to promising young performing artistes from Maharashtra. The CCRT scholarship is valid throughout the period of undergrad education or until 20 years of age, renewable every two years.
Aarya was introduced to music by her father, Shrirang Sarda, promoter-director of the Nashik-based Sarda Group — a big name in the bidi, real estate and hospitality industries — at age two, and trained to play the tabla and keyboard. Later her mother Suchitra taught her to play the harmonium and perform kathak. Their passion for music led them to organise Nashik’s first-and-only annual inter-school music festival in 2003.
“My music achievement is due to my guru Subhash Dassakar and his daughter Surashree who plays the harmonium with me. My proudest moment was when I performed in the presence of the late Pandit Ravi Shankar in Delhi,” says Aarya, whose first public performance was at age five.
With her youthful energy and talent, she is adept at managing a busy schedule between school, tennis, music and kathak dance classes.
“At different times I have wanted to be an astrologer, poet and dentist when I grow up. But whatever my vocation, music and dance will always be a part of my life,” says this promising musician and danseuse.
Sunayana Nair (Mumbai)