-Nithis Kumar
South Indian Culinary Association(SICA), the leading forum for culinary professionals in South India has planned a series of workshops for the Culinary community across South India. The agenda for such an initiative is to create awareness about how the restaurants and food industry should function after the end of COVID-19.
Due to the lockdown, many sectors, especially the hospitality industry is said to be devastated. The sessions are related to how the kitchens should prepare food safely to the customers in these hard times. Speaking to ChefBharath.com on the initiative, Sheetharam Prasad, General Secretary of SICA, said, “Considering the changing trends among the consumers, it is important to change our business. The sessions will give us an idea of the business.” According to him, there are two aspects that every hotel should follow- health and hygiene.
“We should take care of the eater’s health. Secondly, hygienic food is necessary to avoid the spread of the Coronavirus. It is a time to follow the social distancing properly among the customers.”, he said, further appealed that every hotel should follow the Government norms during the food preparation.
“The government officials will be monitoring these norms constantly to ensure whether the hotels should follow these norms or not. It would ensure their business run more professionally according to the need to limit the spread of the virus.”, he further added.
Profile of experts:
SICA is planning to bring a slew of food experts will talk about how hotels can run their business strategically post- COVID-19. The first session was kick-started with BG Sathya, who is a food safety trainer. “Being a Food Safety Services International (FSSI) member, he had an experience of 20 years in this field. He would like to address things related to food safety”, says General Secretary of SICA.
On a concluding note, he said, “Many have a question on increasing their immunity. As a chef, I would like to suggest some food items that will make people healthier.”
Some of the key ways to boost up immunity are eating food limited based on the need of an individual, intaking essential nutritional food items such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, ginger, and consuming protein-rich items are obvious to increase our immune system. He also said that this prior information and workshops would continue even after the end of the current lockdown especially to create awareness and giving more updates for all chefs.