Guwahati Foodie – a community of food lovers from the Northeast region -gave awards to the winners of ethnic food photography contest held on the occasion of Bhogali Bihu, on March 5.
Bhaswati Das, Momi Barman and Violina Saikia won the awards out of more than 600 participants. The winners were handed the awards by singer Ailita Kashyap, actor Prince Chauhan, and actor-turned promoter of Koupat Restaurant, Juri Dutta. Each of the winners received a trophy, a certificate, and food vouchers as their awards.
Guwahati Foodie organised the competition to highlight the rich heritage of ethnic cuisines from the state and the entire Northeast region. Titled the Bhogali Bihu 2023 Ethnic Food Photography Contest, traditional ethnic cuisines was an important factor while judging the entries. More than 600 entries came in for this contest, out of which three were selected as winners.
Entries included traditional laru-pitha, desserts, full course meals and even select dishes that are usually part of the Bhogali Bihu menu for the Assamese people. The winners were decided by a panel consisting of eminent persons from both the world of food, as well as the world of photography.
Speaking about the contest, Sisir Kumar, the owner of Guwahati Foodie said: “This contest is our humble attempt to preserve the culture and ethnic heritage of the state of Assam. Magh Bihu is by far the most important annual culinary festival for Assamese people across the globe and we wanted to celebrate it by organising this contest to make more and more people aware of our cuisines and traditions.”
This is an annual contest organised by Guwahati Foodie to commemorate the festival of Bhogali Bihu.
Congratulating the winners, singer Ailita Kashyap mentioned: “Congratulations to the winners and all participants of the competition. Being an avid foodie myself, it makes me very happy to see the participation and presentation of so many people in an ethnic food contest. It will definitely help to preserve and sustain the culinary heritage of Assam.”
Actor and promoter of Koupat Restaurant, Juri Dutta, said: “My fondness and inclination towards cooking ethnic recipes and my wish to cater to wants of ethnic food led to the Koupat Restaurant. I have a couple of expansion projects planned for this year, one in upper Assam another one in Delhi NCR. Also, we have recently opened our another brand named ‘The Delhi Rolls’’ just behind the IIT Guwahati, in front of Faculty High School this February 10th. I am really hopeful for my food endeavours, fingers crossed!”
