FHW Staff – Mumbai
India’s Padma Shri was awarded to Chef Imtiaz Qureshi, the grand master chef of ITC Hotels, for his contributions in culinary art. It is for the first time that a professional chef has been recognised with the Padma Awards, the fourth highest civilian honour of the country. Indian Culinary Forum (ICF), since last eight years, has been consistently striving to get the culinary art to be recognised by the government. The achievement by Chef Qureshi is considered a result of the efforts by ICF under the leadership of Chef Davinder Kumar, president, ICF and Anil Bhandari, a veteran hotelier.
Bhandari said, “Our efforts have paid results at the end. We have consistently been pursuing it with successive governments and ministers for eight years. It is a good beginning, and I am really happy that a great chef has been recognised by the country.”
Commenting on the achievement, Chef Kumar, said, “On behalf of the entire ICF team, I would like to congratulate Chef Qureshi for the award. I am thankful to our government to consider culinary art as one of the most important disciplines in India.”
ICF has been functioning as an exclusive NGO dedicated solely to the advancement of the culinary art of India. This achievement is considered a step forward to mark the importance of the culinary industry to be chosen as a profession.
