24th January, 2013, the grounds
of Institute of Hotel Management at Taratala Road, Kolkata was teeming with
visitors and students at 8 pm which is otherwise a very unlikely feature in
these grounds. The occasion being the Gourmet Nite 2013, which ushered in the
Golden Jubilee celebrations of the college. Established in 1963 this college is
the oldest in the city and has been the grounds of many celebrities of the
Hotel Industry. This year’s Gourmet Nite was definitely special for me and my
batchmates as it not only brought back hordes of memories but we were
celebrating 25 years of passing out of this esteemed institution.
It took us all back to the December of 1985,
when we had just joined this college with loads of aspirations. Our seniors,
with permission from Mr. Koshy, our Principal, decided to start the first food
festival hosted by amateurs and called it the “Gourmet Nite”. Although the name
has stuck by ever since 1985, the festival which had once served world cuisine
for its guests served a complete Indian fare this year. The theme this year was
“Chakh le India”. None of us were interested in what was happening around us as
some of us were meeting each other after 25 years and were far too excited to
concentrate on anything else! And as a result “Chakh le India” was literally “Chakh
le” for some of us! Now that is something we definitely did not anticipate. There
was a snacks counter from which we had some delicious kababs and small bites
with our drinks but when it came to eating dinner we almost missed the bus and
just about managed to taste some of the spread laid out. The food was quite
delectable and the students under the guideance of the professors (all of whom
are alumni of the college) turned out a very mean sorpotel, vindaloo and
biriyani amongst many other dishes from the various states of the Indian subcontinent.
The salad counter also had a fairly good spread and there was a chaat counter
too. Trying to catch up 25 years of news from each other made us miss the
desserts completely and it was the chaat counter which came to be our saving
grace!
The evening saw many luminaries of the Hotel
Industry present. Anjan Chatterjee, founder of the Mainland China Group;
Subhomoy De, General Manager of Peerless Inn Kolkata; Chef Sujan Mukherjee,
Executive Chef of Taj Bengal; Chef Anirudhya (Rambo) Roy, Executive Chef Taj
Lands End; Chef Rajesh Dubey, Director Food Production of the Mainland China
Group; Swaminathan Ramani, Chef Sushanta Sengupta and Anindya Palit of the 6
Ballygunge Place; Bharat Dhamala and Namrata Borthakur of the Red Hot Chilli
Pepper all graced the occasion. Barring Swaminathan Ramani of 6 Ballygunge
Place and Bharat Dhamala of Red Hot Chilli Pepper the rest are all alumni of
the college. The oldest student Mr. Barun Chakraborty was felicitated that
evening but due to ill health he couldn’t be present and just 3 days later he
left us all for the heavenly abode.
Chef Sujan Mukherjee, Chef Anirudhya
(Rambo) Roy and Chef Rajesh Dubey are all a part of the group that was
celebrating their 25 years of passing out. It was this group who had celebrated
the Silver Jubilee of the college and standing on those very grounds they were
all back to being carefree 19/20 year olds with not a worry on their shoulders
for those few hours. The Batch of ’88 was in their third and final year when
the college celebrated their Silver Jubilee. This batch was a very talented lot
in all respect. They had decorated the college beautifully, something we sadly
missed this year! Their talent in the kitchen is also evitable considering the
fact that they have 3 well renowned chefs in their batch. The reunion celebrations
of this batch started with the Gourmet Nite on the 24th January, and
went on till the 27th January. The only regret that they possibly
have is that they would have had a lot more people joining in on that evening
at the Gourmet Nite had they known about it earlier. The dirty dozen who were
there that evening had a complete blast forgetting their age and thus the food
too!! The Batch of ’88 is one of the three batches who have seen the Silver and
the Golden Jubilee of the college and hopefully will live to see the 75 years
celebrations too! And when that happens they will once again shout out their
famous slogan “yeh kya ho raha hain......”
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| Institute of Hotel Management, Kolkata |
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| Anjan Chatterjee – Founder of the Mainland China Group |
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| The Famous 3 from the Batch of ’88 – fom left Chef Sujan Mukherjee, Chef
Rajesh Dubey, Chef Anirudhya (Rambo) Roy |
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Subhomoy De – General Manager, Peerless Inn, Kolkata
|
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| Young students of the college at the Gourmet Nite 2013 |
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| A lighthearted Batch of ’88 |
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| Silver Jubilee preparations going on |
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| Sujan Mukherjee at the 1988 Goumet Nite |
3 comments:
no change in rambo n rajesh all these years. thanks for journey into the time machine.
Thanks for the pics ! And an interesting read indeed !
the first food festival organised by the students of ICTAN (21, convent road, kol 14)was in the year 1972 or 1973. the name of the festival was the gala nite. The chef Mr gomes (sr)of our college was there.
the next festival was arranged in the year (so far i remember) 1975. the venue was at international club campus. this festive was named "gourmet nite"
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