Tasting India: Farm to Table returned with its second edition from December 13-17, with a galaxy of stellar speakers addressing inter-disciplinary view of food, mapping its journey from the farm to your table, and the challenges at every stage.
The symposium opened on December 13 with the media launch of a national food donation initiative flagged off by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). ’Save Food, Share Food, Spread Joy’ is the tagline of the Indian Food Sharing Alliance, launched jointly by the FSSAI CEO, Pawan Kumar Agarwal, and President of the National Association of Street Vendors of India, Arbind Singh.
The symposium addressed important issues such as India’s culinary tourism potential and on sustainable business models for a sustainable food culture, by key speakers such as Director General of Tourism, Ministry of Tourism, Satyajeet Rajan; Global First Lady of Indian Cuisine, Madhur Jaffrey; Dr Pushpesh Pant, culinary historian; Karnataka’s Agriculture Minister, Krishna Byre Gowda; ICCR Director General Riva Ganguli Das; Kairali’s Managing Director, Gita Ramesh; brand strategist and TV commentator Sunil Alagh; hoteliers Priya Paul and Diwan Gautam Anand; restaurateur AD Singh; scholars Bina Aggarwal, Shylashri Shankar and Ishita Dey; corporate food czars Jaspal Sabharwal and K.S. Narayanan; noted bloggers Kalyan Karmakar (’Finely Chopped’), Rushina M. Ghildiyal, Mohit Balachandran (’Chowder Singh’) and the culinary world’s leaders, Chef Manjit Gill, Bill Marchetti and Manisha Bhasin.
Sanjoo Malhotra, Stockholm-based Make in India promoter, and co-founder, Tasting India: Farm to Table, said, “The symposium seeks to engage opinion-makers in the country and around the world to shift their lens on India’s opulent gastronomical heritage, its potential to emerge as a culinary tourism showcase for the world, and its vast wealth of wisdom relevant to the current global debate on sustainable lifestyles.”
Sourish Bhattacharyya, noted food journalist and blogger, and co-founder, Tasting India: Farm to Table, said, “Our emphasis is not so much on the act of eating food as in the blood, sweat and toil that goes into making it. I can assure you that you’ll just love partaking of it.”