Grand Banquets
By Ankita Sharma July 26, 2020 1 Comments

For any chef it is a privilege to cook for an important public persona like a president, prime minister or other head of state. Ankita J Sharma spoke to chefs about their experience in catering banquets for heads of state visiting India.

The Ahmedabad visit of the Shinzō Abe, the Prime Minister of Japan In the month of September 2017

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe and his wife Akie Abe – first Lady of Japan arrived in Ahmedabad on a two-day visit to India. Hotel CrownePlaza Ahmedabad City Centre was given the responsibility of serving dinner in honour of the Prime Minister of Japan.  It was a star-studded affair with the Hon Prime Minister of India  Shri Narendra  Modi and the Chief Minister of Gujarat Shri Vijay  Rupani , and about 400 dignitaries  from the governments,  international media,  industry , trade and technology.

Ankita J Sharma:  How did you feel when your hotel was given the responsibility of catering to the banquet for the  Japanese Prime Minister?

Chef Aman Tandon: As the Executive Chef of Crowne Plaza – Ahmedabad it was a great feel of pride and honor for me to have well-executed an impeccable food and services order for the Prime Ministers of two countries and many dignitaries in one of the most prestigious banquets operations of my career.

Ankita J Sharma: How was the menu decided for the banquet?

Chef Aman Tandon: We designed the menu to cover both Japanese and Indian cuisine, with a good selection of Gujarati dishes,  and this was sent to the PMO  for approval. Based on their feedback, the final menu was designed to cover the cuisines of both countries.

Ankita J Sharma:  What kind of setting was envisaged for such an important banquet?

Chef Aman Tandon: The décor banquet comprised of velvet, silk and crisp linen, ferns and petals with light effects to highlight each decorative element, and two types of elaborate tableware – the Indian food was served in silver- and-gold platters while the Japanese food was served in black-and-white porcelain.

Ankita J Sharma: How did you ensure the authenticity of Japanese food at the event?

Chef Aman Tandon:  Chef Yasuhiro Ohara was flown in from ANA Crowne Plaza Fukuoka , an ING Hotel in Japan, for a period of a fortnight to ensure that the Japanese food was as authentic and flawlessly served as possible.  This was a great learning experience for our hotel’s team too. Executive Assistant Manager Gayatri Bisht and I worked were in close coordination with the team in Japan to  source all the ingredients that were needed. A mixed team of Indian and East Asian specialty chefs, we worked with top quality appliances and equipment to ensure perfect timing and precision at the banquet.

At each stage of the preparation, food was documented, tasted and sample-tested by the food squads from Delhi and Gandhinagar, including the officials from the Prime Minister’s Office and Chief Minister’s Office.

Ankita J Sharma:  How did your team prepare for such a prestigious dinner?

Chef Aman Tandon: As the event required precise serving of dishes pre-portioned in platters or porcelain within a set time, the team went through mock drills and training – the movement of left and right sides, gloved service techniques, laying covers, refilling and the final cover clearances, everything was practiced to ensure precision. The service of cuisines from Japanese to Gujarati dishes started by 1925hours and was over in an impeccable service execution in the next 55minutes.

`

Ankita J Sharma:  What was the greatest learning experience from the banquet service?

Chef Aman Tandon: The learning curve was time management, product management, plating perfection and the importance of having continuous practice and mock-drills to ensure error-free service.  I learned how important it is to have the right human resources who have the expertise to fulfill their respective role, with the unity of command and operational sequences which played the most important role along with planning.

Ankita J Sharma:  How did you and your team feel after the event?

After the event we were praised by then Area General Manager of Crowne Plaza,  Sanjay Kaushik who is a great go-getter and has always inspired our team members to carve out a niche for ourselves, gaining success and learnings in everything we do.

I still get goosebumps when I remember how every minute was ticking as we prepared for the big dinner, the immense feeling of excitement, nervousness and breathlessness, and the finale after the last course when guests cheered us and we could feel the pride in out hearts seeing  the Prime Ministers of both countries, and the first Lady of Japan,  subtly waving to us as stood proudly in uniform.

The African Development Bank Summit 2017

The 52nd Annual Meetings of the African Development Bank was held at

Gandhinagar from 22 to 26 May 2017. This was the first time that the

Annual Meeting of AfDB was being held in India.

Ankita J Sharma:  How did you feel when your hotel was selected for the stay of the Heads of states and Governors of the African nations, bankers, investors, media and high—profile delegations of the banking and finance industries?

Chef Aman Tandon: We were excited when Hotel Crowne Plaza  – Ahmedabad City Centre was selected to host the dignitaries and delegates.  The President of Abidjan, Ivory Coast and many other important people came to Ahmedabad for the summit.

It was exciting to serve people whom we had seen featured in international heralds and magazines or on news channels like BBC , CNN and Discovery.

The challenge in front of us was to provide impeccable service , excellent food with all possible delicacies, best stay experiences, and be at the beck-and-call  with the business communication facilities, handle back-to-back board room meetings and conferences held amongst the governors, and so forth.

Ankita J Sharma: What was the biggest challenge of handling the food and beverage service for an international summit?

Chef Aman Tandon: Teams from the Indian MEA , PMO  and CMO, industrialists and investors would call on short notice for a popup of sizable dinners or high tea for the delegates and foreign guests that would delight and impress.

Ankita J Sharma: How did you prepare for these challenges?

Chef Aman Tandon: To get ourselves prepared to meet the requirements and win the hearts of those who staying in our hotel with best of our offering, I ensured our kitchen had the best of ingredients – sauces, herbs, spices, condiments and exotic non-veg varieties in seafoods including  – octopus , squids , Jumbo tiger prawns ,Lobsters ,  clams , calamari. Belugan caviar, fishes like tilapia , john dory , trout , Sea sole , Norwegian smoked salmon  and Japanese tuna , New Zealand lamb shank , racks of lamb,Australian lamb ribs,  dressed pork and cold cuts from Europe were all partof our inventory.  As many delegates were from French-speaking African countries we had to ensure French cuisine, plantings and presentations.

Ankita J Sharma:  What was the highlight of the summit for you?

Chef Aman Tandon: We had to serve 900 delegates of the summit with a multi-course menu which was to be served in formal style at a sit-down Lunch which ranged from amuse bouche to entremets de sucre. The most critical part was to serve these courses individually pre-portioned, accompanied by appropriate garnishes and sauces, finely plated and uniformly done – 900 plates of each course followed one after the other —- the service sequence of each course has to be synchronized to be served with no interruption at all the corners of the huge dining hall where all 865 Covers and chairs were set. The month of May in Ahmedabad, serving Lunch of western menu individually plated for five courses to be served uniformly at the same time each course, cleared together each course in a very synchronized manner and displaying highest standards of global sit down food and beverage served.

In the peak of summers, we made a full airconditioned kitchen adjacent to the dining hall for minimum distance between the cooking area, plating area and the dining areas.

Ankita J Sharma:  How did the teamwork on ensuring the best of service to such elite guests?

Chef Aman Tandon:  We were faced with the task of organizing well-trained service personnel to serve 900 diners, – after 12 to 15 minutes of each course the clearance has to be done at lightning speed with next course of the prix fixe lunch menu ready at right temperatures, uniformly and artistically garnished on each plate as per the portion size finalized during the food trials. As the Executive Chef of Crowne Plaza Ahmedabad catering on-site, I had to ensure utmost hygiene, sanitizedwork area, well uniformed food handlers wearing right head gears , gloves , kitchen disposable towels and well sanitized work , plating area with  state-of-the-art equipment and gadgets  like hot holding , blast freezers , combi ovens for ala minute cooking , chocolate tempering baths for desserts ,  ISI SYPHONS to create Molecular Espumaor foam  , Butane lit torches to gratinate the Pasta course and caramelize the crème Brule along with the food thermometers to constantly check temperatures of food .

Being an elaborate 5-course French menu, it needed to be handled with well-trained service personnel who were interviewed and pre-trained from hotel management colleges, our IHG Academy and teams from other Crowne Plaza hotels been brought in, synchronized, trained and briefed by the area Champion of F & B services Puneet Sharma from Crowne Plaza – Greater Noida leading the services at front of the house. A well-planned approach helped in creating a strong team of resources of about 385 people to meet the challenge of serving the 870 actual number of diners in a time gap of 65 minutes.

Ankita J Sharma: How did it feel to be handling such an elaborate multi-course banquet?

Chef Aman Tandon: I felt like Zubin Mehta leading a symphony, orchestrating of colourfully laid food on plates with elevated garnishes , mosaic of sauces , rightly placed crown of the food on plate in balance with the main course and accompaniments of the largest classical formal French—style multi-course menu laid as it should be .

Ankita J Sharma: What did you learn from this event?

Chef Aman Tandon: The best and biggest learning was the importance of great teamwork , anticipating the need for the hour and being proactive . As my trainings to the team had started well in advance of the day of the event   I had ably demonstrated to both the service and the culinary team the attributes of correct plating and sequencing with the help of lot of videos which I always keep as part of my knowledge bank and learning aids for the practical and development techniques to my team for an easy learning making the best use of technology and Internet .

Ankita J Sharma: Did you leverage this event to market the hotel locally?

Chef Aman Tandon:  We organized NAMASTE AFRICA – a food festival for the international delegates as well as our patrons from Ahmedabad.

Ankita J Sharma: How does it feel to have executed this lunch?

Chef Aman Tandon: The great reward was getting a great note of applause by the core team of the President Abidjan Ivory Coast after the finish of the gala presidential formal lunch.

Chef Tandon as he is popularly known as ,  is the celebrity chef and flaunts a myriad food followers across . An expert culinarian , a successful Strategic operational management mentor who has  conceptualized  nouvel Award winning F & B concepts from cuisines and concepts  all over the globe ,  regional Indian , Modern Indian to fusion food concepts and many more to his laurels  as a modern F & B mentor .    Aman a  PG from USA with specialization in Hospitality and food and beverage operations .  Mentor of more than a dozen awards on his various concepts of dinning and themes in up market 5 star segments of Food Oscars is felicitated Thrice as the Chef of The year in 2012 , 16 and latest 2020 .

One of the few chefs having successfully  served 3 vibrant Gujarat summits , Presidents at AFDB International catering , most prestigious Heads of state , Prime Ministers of Japan , Abidjan , India , Chief ministers , International conglomerates and diplomats , International Cricket , Hockey , Kabaddi teams , various Bollywood and Hollywood Cine , Grammy , Stars of the  Industries  , Top Industrialists , Global leaders , Chief Ministers , Presidents up his sleeves  in presidential sit down silver served dinning events which has led to glories and success in Ahmedabad , Gandhinagar , Statue of Unity , Vadodra  , Delhi , Bangalore  . With over 22 years of modern F & B Operations and administrations and 14 years of a successful experience as an Executive chef, Regional food & beverage operations head with reputed hotels pan India. Dexterous Creative experience in all facets of F&B production operations, management, Menu engineering, O D C  , sizeable Banquet operations, thematic gourmet fiestas, BVQI – ISO 22000 – 2005, Creative F & B product line development and a hands-on approach recently takes up as a Corporate Executive Chef after having delivered successful stints with the  flagship luxury collection in ITC Maurya Sheraton hotel and towers , New Delhi , Radisson Atria Hotel Bangalore , Mansingh hotel and Towers  Jaipur and Agra , Pride group of Hotels and last being Crowne Plaza Ahmedabad City Centre – An IHG Hotel before joining Seven Leisure Hospitality as Corporate Executive Chef.

---

About Author

Ankita Sharma

Ankita J Sharma studied journalism at NIMCJ and Integrated marketing communication at MICA, Ahmedabad. She works as a Social media coordinator and content creator for brands. Her food Instagram handle is @teekhidalmakhani.