New Delhi: Big times are coming for Culinary Students in India. India will see the world’s biggest culinary competition, the third International Young Chef Olympiad 2017 organized for college students from across the world and is supported by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India.

‘Young Chef Olympiad 2017’ will commence from 28 January 2017 and end on 2 February 2017 across the cities of Delhi, Bangalore, Pune and Kolkata. The best student chefs from more than 60 countries who will flock to India with the opening ceremony scheduled on 28 Jan 2017 at Talkatora Indoor Stadium, New Delhi. The mega contest will be held in 6 days, 4 cities, one title and a cash prize of $10,000.

Many big names in the culinary industry are in the fray. This year some of the hot favorites will be the defending champions – Team Canada, and the others in the list are Team UK, France, Spain, China, Australia, UAE, Russia, Mexico, Mauritius and many more.

As per the schedule of the event, the first Round will be held on 29 and 30 January in Delhi, followed by Round 2 in Bangalore and Pune and the Round 3 is scheduled in Kolkata.

The competition is divided into four phases: Competitors will undertake 3 rounds with differing culinary challenges and at the end of which the 10 contestants with the highest aggregate score from all 3 rounds will go through to the final round.

All rounds will be marked on culinary skills and techniques, adherence to good health and safety and hygiene practice, working methods, minimal waste and best use of ingredients, professional appearance, attitude, dish presentation, taste and flavor.

There will be two sets of judges for each round and for the final round. One set will be marking on the technical and production element and the other set of judges will be marking on the presentation, taste, flavor and culinary knowledge.

This year, the Chairman of the Jury is Prof. David Foskett, (OBE) (Author of bestselling book Practical Cookery & Theory of Catering) and the Chief Judge for 2015 and 2016 was Chef Andreas Muller of the World Skills fame. For Young Chef Olympiad 2017, Chef Boris Leung from Hong Kong is Chief Judge. The Principal Judge and Mentor is Chef Sanjeev Kapoor and the panel comprises of celebrity chefs like, Chef Andreas Muller from Hong Kong, Chef Udo Leick from Dubai, Chef Kunal Kapur, Chef Ranveer Brar, Chef Abhijit Saha, Chef Vicky Ratnani, Chef Andy Varma from UK, Chef Parvinder Bali, Chef Karen Anand, Chef Ajay Chopra, and Chef Shaun Kenworthy among others.