Naga Chef 7: Three cooks move to next round

Chief Secretary Temjen Toy with the top three cooks and judges of Naga Chef Season 7.

With three top cooks remaining in the Naga Chef Season 7 competition, the sixth day witnessed the contestants display their culinary skills and knowledge of Naga indigenous cuisine.

The three finalists - Hechuba Chang, Peteneilhu Kulimbe and Chungmei Phom prepared an array of scrumptious local delicacies to celebrate the rich diversity of ethnic cuisines from different tribes of the Nagas on November 23 night at Mhachaki, Kohima. The dinner was attended by Chief Secretary, Temjen Toy along with a host of special guests who continue to support and promote local cuisine.  

Toy congratulated the finalists and mentioned that food is the indicator of our civilization and we need to evolve in our cooking techniques to promote our Naga cuisine. He lauded Synergy Group Enterprise for taking the initiative to promote our food and adding value to the simple Naga cuisine. He also mentioned that over the years, the quality of food that the Naga Chef Contestants cook has been improving and hope that the participants of Naga Chef will take this cooking experience and turn it to an enterprise.

One of the judges of Naga Chef, Rovi Chasie shared that people in general tend to take cooking for granted and many times do not appreciate and accept it as an art. The title “Culinary Art” in its definition should be more than enough to convince even the most sceptical that cooking is an art. Cooking, in fact, is a very versatile art form, unlike other art medium; it has the capacity to engage all senses. Any Chef knows that presentation is as important as taste, aroma and texture of what is served.

Culinary art has the physical quality of music and dance, something is being made/performed to be consumed later. In fact, some say that cooking is the original art form coming even before music and visual art- quoted from www.closet.com 

At this juncture, the Naga Chef Competition, organised by Synergy Group Enterprise and supported by Department of Tourism, Government of Nagaland, is an important platform in promoting and conserving the Naga Cuisine in particular and our culture in general.

(MExN)