Guwahati, October 16, 2024: Guwahati Foodie, the largest dedicated food-related community in the region organised the final round of its annual Ethnic Food Contest on Wednesday, October 16 at Novotel Guwahati, in commemoration of the World Food Day 2024. The first round of the competition comprised an online food photography contest and the selected participants were invited to present their dishes at Novotel, Guwahati.
This is the 6th time that the community has hosted this competition with the aim of promoting the local and ethnic cuisines of the region on the online platform. In the past, this competition was limited only to the online platform, but this year Guwahati Foodie decided to take it a step forward and organised the final round physically, wherein participants selected based on the online round presented the dishes made by them in front of the culinary experts judging this contest.
Like the previous editions of this annual contest, the entries were opened on World Tourism Day, 27 September. Thereafter, the final round of the competition was organised today, on the occasion of World Food Day 2024, thus commemorating two UN events namely the World Tourism Day and World Food Day. In the finals, the participants presented a variety of well-prepared and well-presented items, out of which Dolee Talukdar, Sabita Swargiary, Urmi Lahkar Baruah were selected as winners by the judges. The final presentations were judged by Chef Anirban Goswami, Sous Chef, Novotel Guwahati and RJ Mandy, Cluster Programming Head, Gupshup 94.3 FM.
Speaking about the contest, Sisir Kumar, the owner of Guwahati Foodie said, “This contest is our attempt to promote our ethnic cuisines and culinary traditions over social media. We are very happy that a large number of participants, across ages, ethnicities and locations participated in the contest. We also want to thank our partners for supporting our humble attempt to preserve our culinary culture. We are glad that this year we were able to take this annual competition beyond the confinement of the online world and create an opportunity to actually taste some of the exotic cuisines from the region.”
Sisir Kumar thanked the Guests for taking out time from their busy schedules to be a part of the award distribution event. He also extended his thanks to the Hospitality Partner – Novotel Guwahati, FM Partner – Gupshup 94.3 FM, Nutrition Partner – Amul, PR Partner – Amplified Brand Communications and Supported by Momo Ghar and Sterling Reserve Premium Drinking Water.
“As the General Manager of Novotel Guwahati, I am immensely proud to have been part of this celebration of Assam’s diverse and vibrant food culture. Events like these not only promote local flavors but also offer a platform for talented chefs and home cooks to share their passion for food. It was inspiring to witness the dedication of all participants, and I congratulate the winners on their well-deserved success,” said Manmeet Singh.
“We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to all participants, judges, and the Guwahati Foodie community for their overwhelming support. Novotel Guwahati remains committed to fostering culinary traditions and supporting the local food community through such events,” He added.
Sri Ritu Konwar of AMUL says, “Amul is excited to be associated with the Guwahati Foodie’s Ethnic Food Competition which gives a platform to the participants to showcase their love for ethnic food of the region. Amul’s organic product range which was launched recently also complement with this concept of promoting local and healthy food and food habits.”
Speaking on the success of the event, Tapan Kumar Baruah, Owner of Momo Ghar said, “Firstly I want to congratulate each of the winners and participants who reached the final rounds for displaying their extraordinary talent. Secondly, I am very happy to see the number of enthusiasts of ethnic cuisine on social media and we are happy to see the interests of the people in the cuisines of the region. I also want to congratulate Guwahati Foodie on organising this event and encourage him to continue the tradition.”
Guwahati Foodie organises this competition annually to highlight the rich heritage of ethnic cuisines from the state and the entire Northeast region and to encourage people to identify the local ingredients and cook the dishes on their own. More than 500 entries came in from across the country for this contest, out of which three were selected as winners by a panel of judges including experts in the field of cooking, photography and local cuisines.
