Dishes made from brinjal dominated cookery contest, ‘Our State-Our Taste,’ organised by The Hindu in association with the AP Tourism in here on Sunday.
The ‘Pandiri Hall’ in Hotel Ananda Regency was packed with a good number of women from different places in the city and they brought delicious food to display their culinary skills. About 60% women who took part in this competition made different dishes with brinjal including ‘Gutti Vankaya Koora’, ‘Vankaya Pacchi Pulusu’, ‘Vankaya, tomato Pacchadi.’ Rest of the women opted to exhibit their skills in popular local sweets like ‘Poota Rekulu,’ ‘Bobbatlu,’ ‘Teepi Garelu’ with ‘Cheraku Pakam’ and very few non-vegetarian items, including “Nellore Chepala Pulusu”, Chiken without oil, “Gongura Royyala Pulusu” and Godavari moosa (fish variety) pulusu, are presented.
Students from the hotel management colleges also took part in this event by preparing ‘Bellam Pootarekulu” and ‘Allam-Bendakaya Pulusu’ in a pot. Some of the attractions including ‘Dibbarotte-Cherakupakam’ by Mr. Nihar, ‘Senaga Boorelu” and ‘Kobbari Pulav’ were displayed by teenagers and men.
Chef Sudhakar Kumar from Institute of Hotel Management from Hyderabad has led the team of chefs from different places, who selected the winners. The team, includes chef Raju, who appears in Etv Abhiruchi programme, cuisine expert chef Chinnam Raju and coordinator chef G. Naveen Kumar.
Winners
S. Lakshmi, who prepared ‘Gutti Vankaya Koora,’ won the first prize and Lakshmi Satyavani’s ‘Poota Rekulu’ won the second place followed by Venkata Lakshmi who prepared ‘Vankaya Pacchi Pulusu.’
Mr. Sudhakar Kumar said that the three winners are being selected from each district in the State and they are going to participate in the State-level competitions that are going to be held in Vijayawada soon.
District Tourism Officer Venkatachalam and The Hindu Regional Head (Advertisements) G. Srinivas along with sponsors, gave away the prizes to the winners. Sponsors of the event Gopalakrishna, Regional Sales Manager of Gopuram products, Hazarattaiah of Premier Cookingware, Sai Srikanth from Vaibhav Jewellers, HDFC Bank Branch Manager Narasimha Rao and Sukumar participated in the programme.