This is an opportunity to showcase India to the world: Suborno Bose

The 11th Young Chef Olympiad will take place between February 2-8, 2025 and ETHospitalityWorld spoke to Suborno Bose, chairman, International Hospitality Council (IHC), founder Young Chef Olympiad (YCO), and chairman IIHM about this year's event and what’s different from earlier editions.

“In this our 11th year, we have actually decided to introduce artificial intelligence (AI) as a theme of the YCO and one of the reasons is that the world is actually now moving towards culinary AI, and we need to start using AI in a much broader way,” Bose said adding that event would kick off with a conference in Goa on February 2 and then move to Kolkata after culinary contests across India for the finals on February 5.

One of the changes made to the competition this year, he added, was that there would be some level of public voting allowed from all participating countries—there will be 50 teams from 50 countries taking part.

Though there is one team per country, each nation has an average of 10-15 institutions taking part initially to be nominated. Compared to a total of 200-250 colleges taking part in the initial stages of the 10th YCO, this year saw around 750 to 800 colleges in the fray, Bose said, a sizable increase in participation.

“In accordance to the suggestions of last year’s debriefing and advisory committee meeting led by Sanjeev Kapoor and Nakul Anand, this year the competition to choose a candidate from India was open to everyone, not just those from IIHM and chosen by an impartial jury over multiple levels,” Bose said pointing to a new feature this year compared to earlier editions of the YCO.

The prize money for the competition remains USD 5,000 for the winner, USD 3,000 for the first runner up and USD 2,000 for the second runner up.

Speaking on his budget and sponsors, Bose said, “Our budget is around INR 3.5 crores and this year, due to multiple reasons, I think the sponsorship scene was a little lower than the previous years”.

“This is an opportunity for us, apart from everything else, to showcase India to the world. As a leading Indian institution in hospitality and tourism, I think we get this leadership position to show India in all its glory—it helps to build Brand India as well," he said about some of the outcomes of the whole set of events and competitions.