Kunal Kapur

CHEF KUNAL KAPUR

Indian Celebrity Chef, Restaurateur & Media Personality

Chef Kunal Kapur is a well-recognized Indian celebrity chef, restaurateur, and media personality known for his food-focused television shows, cookbook and hosting High dignitary’ events in the country. Chef Kunal has an in-depth understanding of regional Indian cuisine having learnt it from the best in the industry during his early career. He is equally adept with innovative Indian cuisine that is at par with the best culinary standards in the world.

Kunal is well recognised as the judge cum host for television shows Masterchef India and Junior Masterchef India. His other very popular shows “My Yellow Table”, “Pickle Nation” & FitFoodie make him a cherished household name. Chef Kunal has also filmed two seasons of the Travel & Food show in the US called ‘The Foodie comes to America’. His other travel & lifestyle shows are Dubai Dairies and Swiss made.

Kunal Kapur was born and brought up in New Delhi and pursued his education in Hotel Management from Institute of Hotel Management, Chandigarh. He has worked with some of the leading hotel chains like the Taj Group of Hotels and The Leela group. Besides this, Chef Kunal is passionate about– Food, Automobiles, Photography, Travel and History.

Winner of several culinary & television awards, Kunal has been recognized amongst the Best Chefs in India by National Weekly Magazine – India Today.

Topic

  The Master’s Tadka

Kainaz Messman

KAINAZ MESSMAN

Founder At Theobroma

Kainaz’s culinary journey began at home. She was a little girl when she started helping her mum bake and cook. She grew up in a food centric, food obsessed family.

At the age of 16, Kainaz went to France on a cultural youth exchange programme. That year not only changed her life but also helped her identify her dream.

Living in the South of France with a family that owned fruit orchards, vegetable gardens and vineyards, Kainaz learnt to respect ingredients, to cook with passion and to keep things simple. She learnt French and buried herself in the culinary books that she found.

Upon her return, she proceeded to study French Literature but she already knew she was going to become a chef. Having secured admission at IHM Mumbai, India’s leading Hotel Management Institute, she studied there with heart and soul. She then went to OCLD Delhi where she simultaneously broadened her skills and found her specialisation. OCLD fueled her passion and creativity and simultaneously gave her structure and made her organised. She became a Pastry Chef at the Oberoi Udailvilas and loved the beautiful hotel but still missed her small little French town and its quaint little patisseries.

Today, at a very young age, Kainaz successfully runs one of Mumbai’s largest and undoubtedly, the city’s favourite confectionary chain – Theobroma

Topic

 The Secrets Of Sweetness

Chef Amninder Sandhu

Amninder Sandhu

National Award Winner- Best Lady Chef of India

Chef Amninder Sandhu is born in a Sikh family in Jorhat (Assam).She completed her basic schooling from prominent Hemalata Handique Memorial Institute (HHMI) School, the first English medium school in Jorhat. She is B.Sc. graduate in (life Sciences) from prestigious Sophia College at Pedder Road in Mumbai. She studied three years of culinary arts and kitchen administration at Institute of hotel management, Aurangabad in collaboration with the University of Huddersfield (U.K). She has also done her masters certification with the knights bridge PME School of cake decoration (U.K)

Chef Amninder Sandhu embarked on her journey with Taj Lands End in 2005 as the Senior Chef-de-partie at Masala Bay. Having extensively trained and specialized in Indian cuisine across a number of Taj kitchens in India, Chef Sandhu has been instrumental in capturing the intricacies and nuances attached with ethnic Indian cuisine. Her unique style and her keen sense for authentic Indian tastes translate onto the plate at Masala Bay, through a mélange of flavours which resonate with the essence of the cuisine. Right from her role as chef-de-cuisine where she was required to grow ingredients due to their unavailability, to managing four restaurants as the corporate chef, to setting up cafe outlets in various parts of the city at the age of 35, Amninder has done it all.

Amninder loves challenges and believes in overcoming all odds.

Topic

 Achieving against the odds

Mandeep Lamba

Mandeep Lamba

Managing Director At Hotels JLL India

Mandeep has spent over 30 years in the Hospitality Industry. After successful stints with International Hotel Brands such as Choice Hotels, Intercontinental Hotel Group (IHG) and Carlson Residor in General Management positions, he became, in 2001, President of ITC Fortune Park Hotels, part of the USD 8 billion ITC Group. He is credited for having built the Fortune hotels Brand and establishing it as a leading player in the Indian Mid-Scale Hospitality sector growing the business over 100% year on year throughout his term.

Post his career with ITC, Mandeep set up joint ventures to own and operate hotels in the Indian upscale sector with the multi-billion dollar Real Estate and Financial services conglomerate, Dawnay Day Group UK, Private Equity Firm Duet International UK and subsequently with Onyx Hospitality, the leading hospitality player in Thailand.

Prior to moving to Jones Lang LaSalle India he spent three years in a consulting role as President with TEN Hotels and Hospitality Solutions, a company he founded in 2011 providing end to end solutions to the hospitality Industry.

An established Industry leader, Mandeep is respected for his insight into the Indian Hospitality Industry, having won several awards & recognition for his accomplishments. He is a regular invitee to several Industry forums and a speaker in Seminars & Conferences in India & abroad.

Topic

 The Evolution Of Indian Hospitality

Zorawar Kalra

Zorawar Kalra

Founder & Managing Director at Massive Restaurants, India

Zorawar Kalra, a Master’s in Business Administration from Boston’s Bentley Business University, with an entrepreneurial bent of mind and a genetic love for food, over the years, has ostensibly studied the Indian food & beverage market, introducing some of the most genre defining restaurant concepts in Indian Cuisine. Counted amongst one of the youngest, successful restaurateurs of India, he has amalgamated a penchant for Indian food with his natural business acumen and a rich heritage spanning over four decades in the Indian culinary space and hospitality industry. Considered as the ‘Man with a Vision on a Mission’ & ‘the Prince of Indian cuisine’, he has recently been recognized amongst the Forty Under 40 – India’s Hottest Young Business Leaders 2016 by The Economic Times & Spenser Stuart, “Restaurateur of the Year Award, 2014”, Vir Sanghvi Awards, HT Crystals, 2014 and “Entrepreneur of the Year in Service Business – F & B Services”, Entrepreneur India Awards, 2014.

Placing Indian food on the global palate, permanently, while showcasing its robustness has been his personal crusade, which formed the basis of establishing Massive Restaurants in December 2012. It is with this intent, and to showcase the exemplary culinary talent from the country, that he recently took up the mantle of being one of the principal Judges in the fifth season of MasterChef India (2016).
Zorawar, an avid golfer, is a technology enthusiast with interests in gadgets, likes to spend most of his leisure time with his family, exploring new destinations or on the Budh International Circuit driving his prized possession with fellow sports car enthusiasts.

Topic

 Changing Trends in F & B

Pankaj Kamble

PANKAJ KAMBLE

Director at Flairology School & Events

Prodigy with a knack of Mixology & Flair, creative and craze for innovation is what can easily define Pankaj Kamble. A true example of passion and patience has helped him master the art of flaring and mixing. Pankaj has won accolades like the Guinness Book World Record and held 2nd place in Sky Vodka flair bartending. He also bagged 1st place in Angostura Bitters National Cocktail Championship and has represented India in Trinidad and Tobago, which, helped him spread the style of flaring. Pankaj has also Represented India at International Bartending Association in Tokyo (2016).

Professionally as an entrepreneur, Pankaj Kamble has achieved mile stone of setting two branches with high tech bar tending institutes in Mumbai and Pune. As a Celebrity trainer, he has conducted more than 50 workshops across India. He was also appointed on the subcommittee of the syllabus revision committee to introduce choice based credit system for the BHMCT programme.

He played an important role in raising the level of flair bartending to the highest level in the Industry by promoting his skill along with Sachin Gowda on the national television through reality shows like Life Mein Ekk Baar, I Can Do That, Entertainment ke liye kuch bhi Karega etc. He has also volunteered towards bringing community together through Mixology flair camp and has been successful in organising a platform of largest gathering of bartending community till date.

Pankaj presently trains bartenders with various moves and style of flair bartending throughout India. A revolutionary name in the beverage industry, he organises various flair bar tending shows and events around the world, armed with years of dedicated flair bar-tending experience.

Topic

Bartending for a CAREER

Sushma Gaikwad

SUSHMA GAIKWAD

Co-founder and Director of Ice Global

Sushma is an entrepreneur, a communication specialist, a breakthrough therapist, and is a Dale Carnegie certified trainer and NLP Master practitioner

Sushma commenced her professional journey alongside her education in the Luxury industry and then joined the media industry as an Experiential specialist at a time when the industry was very nascent. As one of the first few women in the media and entertainment domain, she worked with one of the top event agencies for over half a decade and was working with the pioneers in business. In the year 1997 Sushma was drawn into the arena of Corporate Identity and specialized in Corporate Identity Implementation Processes with Sista’s and Wolf-Olin’s in the UK.

In the year 2000 Sushma established her first entrepreneurial venture as a co-founder of Ice Global that is positioned as one of the premium experiential communication agencies. Ice Global today specializes in experiential strategy, campaign management and experiential execution roll-outs and is firmly entrenched in the field of Brand Communication and Management. Over the years Ice Global has worked with inspirational Brands in automobiles, Media, Entertainment, Engineering, Bollywood having orchestrated experiences of premium caliber.
Sushma is a frequent lecturer at Management Institutes and has been an erstwhile course director at one of the Top Management Institutes in the country and has recently embarked on an initiative designed to educate the next generation of media talent as a director of Wizcraft Management Institute of Media and Entertainment.

Topic

 Events Management and Leadership.

Melvyn Pryer

MELVYN PRYER

Director of International Operations at University College Birmingham

With a background in tour operations, archaeology and as a freelance copywriter in travel, Professor Melvyn Pryer is now the Director of UCB’s International Student Centre, having previously been the Dean of the School of Tourism. Having read for a degree in Geography, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Economic Development, Melvyn gained a Shell International Scholarship award to study for a Masters in the Geography of the Middle East and Mediterranean at Durham University, from where he produced his first publication.

He later proceeded to read for an MBA at the University of Birmingham. Melvyn possesses over 25 years of teaching experience, both at UCB and overseas, and has worked on numerous UK and overseas tourism consultancy projects, covering everything from economic impact assessments, through to development initiatives and tourism education strategies.

He also acts as an accreditor for the Institute of Hospitality, appraising educational programmes around the world, and is an accreditation panel member for the Department of Technical Education in Brunei. In general, Melvyn’s key areas of interest lie in tourism business issues and destination development, whilst his passion for travel has meant that he has long maintained an interest in the global backpacking market.

Topic

 Tourism in the 21st Century