The Indian Gourmet Festival at Le Vendome Restaurant at Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi is all set to be the flavour of the season. From May 11 to 20, 2006, four chefs from the Leela Kempinski in Mumbai, led by Corporate Sous Chef Surender Mohan, will prepare delectable and exotic Indian dishes that will satisfy the palates of guests with a puncheon for exotic cuisine, whilst dining in the opulent surrounding of Emirates Palace.
Chef Surender is part of the success story of Jamavar, the signature Indian speciality restaurant across all Leela Kempinski properties. With experience of over a decade, Chef Surender has travelled to many countries and participated in many international food festivals, popularising Indian cuisine in the global restaurant scene. He has also won many awards, the more recent one being the International Culinary Art Master Challenge at China International Gourmet Expo.
“The Indian Gourmet Festival promises to be an exciting and mouth-watering gastronomic treat that should not be missed,” said Noel Massoud, General Manager, Emirates Palace. “Jamavar is famous all over the world for serving sumptuous Indian dishes, and this is a great chance for our hotel guests as well as residents from Abu Dhabi and neighbouring emirates to come and enjoy this rare opportunity.”
The festival will feature myriad Indian dishes which will include offerings from across Indian subcontinent with added emphasis on the North and the Southern belt of the country. Guests can feast on soups, biriyanis, rotis, kebabs, curries and desserts over lunch or dinner in La Vendome restaurant. Although the event will end in a week, the Leela Kempinski chefs promise that the taste will linger long after the food fest is over.
Chef Surender will be assisted by team members Jayarama Naidu Purushotham, Sous Chef South Indian Cuisine; Puskarsingh Deewansingh, Chef De Partie Tandoor; Umeshchandra Dinanath Gupta; Chef Halwai-sweets and Shashwati Bhattacharya, Hostess.
The Leela group has always been a torch-bearer of Indian culture, cuisine and heritage. The initiative with Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi will give it yet another opportunity to spread the “Essence of India” in the Middle East, familiarising people in this region with different aspects of Indian culture, as well as help in furthering the spirit of cooperation between Kempinski hotels.
The Leela Palaces and Resorts presently owns and operates four properties with 1006 rooms ie: Mumbai with 406 guestrooms, Bangalore with 256 guestrooms, Goa with 152 guestrooms and Kovalam, Kerala with 187 guestrooms. After all the current projects are completed the company’s turnover and corresponding net profit is expected to more than double.
The 5 new projects under implementation would add upto 1698 guestrooms: thus increasing the total inventory by a whopping 167% to 2704 guestrooms by 2009. This includes expansion of the Bangalore hotel by 120 guestrooms to make it a total of 376 guestrooms, Udaipur with 82 guestrooms, Gurgaon with 319 guestrooms and 90 Serviced Residences, Chennai with 412 guestrooms, Hyderabad with 325 guestrooms and Pune with 350 rooms.
The Chairman of Leela Palaces and Resorts, Capt. C. P. Krishnan Nair said “the strong economic growth in India has increased the appetite for luxury products in India including the desire for a superlative hospitality experience. Leela group is among the few players that is gearing up to actively exploit this opportunity by creating more luxury hotels across India.”
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Built in the style of a majestic Arabian Castle rising from the desert sands, Emirates Palace is situated on a 1.3 km stretch of private beach and surrounded by hectares of manicured lawns. Emirates Palace is operated by Kempinski as part of their prestigious portfolio, which comprises distinctively individual properties in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, South America and Asia.
Emirates Palace comprises 390 luxury rooms and suites and a variety of fine dining options. The resort’s leisure facilities include two intricately landscaped swimming pools and two state of the art fitness centres. Two spas and a marina with private berths for yachts and super yachts will open by the end of 2006.
The Emirates Palace houses the most luxurious and technologically advanced meeting facilities in the region which include an auditorium with 1,100 seats, a main ballroom that can accommodate up to 2500 guests, over 40 meeting rooms, a Media Centre and a Business Centre.
