As a normal outlook,  Oriental Cuisine is considered to mostly cater to only non-vegetarian tongue palettes, which is not the full truth. To break the myth, Lovely Professional University organised an oriental cuisine workshop primarily focusing on vegetarian preparations of Japan. One day event by the name of MISO (one of the popular seasoning from Japan) was organised by celebrity Chef de Cuisine Sumit Chowdhury of the Azure Hospitality Chain. The workshop primarily revolved around Japanese dishes based out of vegetables, rice, sauces etc.

Renowned Chef Sumit Chowdhury giving practical training of various Japanese cuisines to LPU Hotel Management students

Chef Chowdhury forwarded hands-on experience to the participants on about 20 oriental recipes. More than 50 participants including from University, educational institutions representing from other parts of the country attended the workshop, the first of its kind to be conducted in the region. It was very informative to know about the culture, flavours, table manners, condiments, a variety of flours, rice, noodles etc. that made Japanese cuisine so special. They learned and understood the authentic style of Japanese cuisine and the traditional ways of cooking that have been passed down the generations.

There are almost infinite kinds of pickles each unique to their specific regions.  Many vegetables are pickled in a medium, such as the byproducts of sake, shoyu and old miso. As such, most of the recipes taught to the participants during the event were based on vegetables, rice, noodles, beans, cheese, sauces, pickles, oils, salt, sugar and more. The recipes included Vegetables Rainbow Roll, Japanese Pickled Roll, Miso Soup, Aagedahi Tofu, Asparagus Tempura & Cream Cheese, Matsutake Sui Mono, Vegetable Tempura, Grilled Asparagus, Mizuna salad, Vegetable Katsu Don, Vegetables Casserole with Tobanjan sauce, Grilled Vegetables, Miso shoyu Ramen, Burnt Garlic Fried Rice, Sticky Rice Cake Wrapper in Azuki beans, Dora Yaki and many more.

Chef Chowdhury shared “I am very happy to be at one of the largest universities of India, LPU, and on sharing my oriental cooking experiences with students, teachers and elite cooking enthusiast persons from across the country. I want to inform that the indefinable loving taste of Japanese preparation is a mystery to many because many a time it is savoury but not necessarily salty or meaty.”

This joint initiative of LPU’s Human Resource Development Cell (HRDC) and School of Hotel Management and Tourism (SoHMT) was an effort to learn more about various cultures across the globe.

Here it is worth mentioning that students of LPU’s School of Hotel Management and Tourism are employed with a multinational chain of hotels across the globe and that too at very hefty packages sometimes going up to a Crore.