Women in large numbers and a couple of men showcased their culinary skills at the ‘Our State – Our Taste’ contest organised by The Hindu, in association with A.P. Tourism, at hotel S.V.N. Lake Palace here on Saturday. The initiative, first of its kind in the fort town, was to discover the signature dish of Andhra Pradesh and also to introduce popular dishes to food lovers across the globe, particularly the tourists visiting the State.
Collector Vivek Yadav, who lighted a lamp to mark the inauguration, appreciated The Hindu for its initiative to organise a cookery contest in different categories — sweets, vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes. “It’s a chance for women to showcase their talent.”
Later, the Collector tasted the mouth-watering dishes, which include Bandaru laddu, bellam gaarelu, vulli gaarelu, pootha rekulu, saggu biyyam paramannam, lemon rice, vulava chaaru, bendakaaya pulusu, cauliflower pappu, velluli aavakaya, gongura pachhadi, naatukodi pulusu, sora pittu, chepala pulusu. He presented prizes sponsored by Premier and Gopuram.
D.S.N. Jyothi bagged the first prize in the non-vegetarian category for sora pittu, Ch. Rajni Priya, first runner-up in vegetarian category for vulava chaaru, and Ms. B. Nirmala, second runner-up in sweets category for Bandaru laddu. Noted chefs K. Ramakrishna Raju of ETV Abhiruchi, Chinnam Raju, Ramesh Chnadra, and Naveen Kumar acted as judges.
District Tourism Officer D. Anita said that the winners in the contest at the district-level would participate in the State-level contest, which is likely to be held sometime in the second week of March in Vijayawada. The event would be conducted at Rajahmundry on Sunday.
Stage set for the 4th preliminary round at Hotel Anand Regency, Rajamahendravaram.
Spot Registration
Participants can register for the contest after visiting the respective venue between 9. a.m. to 10. a.m. AP Tourism is the title sponsor while premier cookware and appliances and Gopuram Food Products are other sponsors for the event, Vaibhav Jewellers are the regional sponsors. TV5 is the TV Partner., Red FM is the Radio Partner and HDFC Bank is the official banking partner. White Thoughts and branding is the creative and digital partner of the contest.