World's biggest Olympiad for culinary students from Jan 27

Kolkata: The second edition of the Young Chef Olympiad (YCO) organised by India's largest hotel school chain, International Institute of Hotel Management (IIHM) and supported by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, will be held from January 27 to February 1, 2016 across the four cities of New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata.

The second edition of the Young Chef Olympiad (YCO) is a platform to connect young chefs globally and build bridges for talent in this field across borders. It also aims at blending culinary cultures and making it an integral part of the participant's lives.

Supporting this thought, Dr Suborno Bose, Chairman of the Young Chef Olympiad & CEO- IIHM said, "The intention is to scale up every year and globally reach out to as many countries as possible for the culinary event. Food has always been the biggest unifier and continues to be so in today's day and age. YCO has connected talent across borders from the best culinary colleges under one roof, making it a truly global event."

YCO will play host to over 67 countries in India for the much-awaited culinary competition that will be spread across six days and four cities as the participating culinary students contest for the grand title and a cash prize of $10,000.

Each country will be sending in their best student chef along with their chef mentors to compete for the winning honor. This year the YCO will see the best of the culinary art students from England, France, Malaysia, China, Switzerland, Australia, USA, Spain, Sweden, Hong Kong, Canada and more.

Starting with a grand opening ceremony on 27th Jan 2016 at Talkatora Indoor Stadium, New Delhi where the biggest culinary heats of the planets will take place; it will be followed by cook-off in all the four cities culminating into a Grand Finale to be held in Kolkata on 1st February, 2016.

Dr. Lalit K. Panwar, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, also added, "With the rapid expansion of tourism and hospitality industry, the requirement of skilled manpower is constantly increasing. I hope the Institute will continue working with its clear vision - mission framework for providing high quality trained manpower for meeting the needs of the hospitality sector. I convey my best wishes to the Institute for organizing such an international event and putting India on the culinary map of the world."

The Jury from around the world will travel along with the teams to choose and crown the winner. Renowned names on the judge's panel for the second edition of YCO include Chef Eric Neo - President of the Singapore Chef Association and Executive Chef of Intercontinental Singapore; Chef Kunal Kapur - Indian Celebrity Chef and Ms Karen Anand - Indian Celebrity Food Critic among many more. The event will also see the presence of brands like Hyatt Hotels, ITC Hotels, Leela Hotels, Swissotel, Novotel as the Hospitality partners along with other brand sponsors.