Akram Diwali Cook-Off

05 January 2021

What better way to celebrate Diwali than putting to use the cooking skills from lockdown 1.0? Youth and Youth+ gathered on Zoom and participated in the first ever Virtual Akram Cook Off on 7 November 2020, preparing 2 items – sweet and savoury. Based on the recipes shared by the Adalaj team, both items were exactly as Dada and Niruma would have had them! The contestants were required to make one of Dada’s favourite item - Ghauv no shiro (whole-wheat flour halwa) in 30 mins and one of Niruma’s favourite - Pawa (Spicy flattened rice) in 15 mins! This successful event was planned and executed within a short timeframe of one week! Being mindful of the short timelines, and the fact that we had just entered Lockdown 2.0, recipes were picked based on ingredients easily found at home.

To make the cook-off official, we called upon the judges! Team members were scrounging around as back-up of the back-up plan had failed...so, we watched as evidences came together, just in time, providing 2 chef judges who agreed at 10pm the night before the event, and spectacular judges they were!

On the day of the event, we had a last-minute entry from a youth at University. The recipes were sent across with a message that innovation would be allowed if all ingredients were not on hand! The youth got flatmates involved too, which made it lots of fun to watch.

In the end we had 8 enthusiastic contestants (4 boys and 4 girls, 2 happy hosts, 2 eager judges and a virtual audience! The contestants set up cameras along side the ingredients to ensure all expressions, reactions and moments of panic were captured on camera. The contestants were judged on the EAT IT criteria:

E = Execution (time, method, mess created)

A = Appearance (artwork, creativity, plating)

T = Taste (expression on face of contestant and family members)

I = Innovation (in use of ingredients, method of preparation, the plating process)

T = aTtire (enthusiasm, Chef character and style)

Given the virtual nature of the event, the judges could not taste the creations. They decided to trust the contestants to be honest about the taste. A clear indicator was the expression after the first bite. The other test was whether the contestants would be happy to serve their creation to Pujyashree. It was a very close contest and all were winners as they had created special prasad in their kitchens! Alas, it was a cook-off competition, so 2 winners emerged. The contestants were left in suspense for a week and the winners announced at the GNC Diwali Event held on 15 November 2020. Both the winners were given hand painted personalised aprons as a token of appreciation!

Here’s some highlights from the event: