Celebrate Women, Celebrate Food, Celebrate Culinary Genius Courtesy High Street Phoenix’s Women’s Day special Gastro Wednesday on 5 March 2014

Events in Mumbai - Celebrate Women, Celebrate Food, Celebrate Culinary Genius Courtesy High Street Phoenix’s Women’s Day special Gastro Wednesday on 5 March 2014. 12.pm to 8.30.pm

Mumbai, 26 February 2014: This Womens’ Day, High Street Phoenix is organizing a special edition of their popular property Gastro Wednesdays dedicated to some of the best female chefs of the city. Scheduled for the 5th of March, this day-long food fiesta will happen at the Courtyard of the destination centre from 12 to 8.30 pm. Treat yourself to some of the finest preparations traversing varied spectrums of Thai and Parsi cuisine to the ginormous world of baking and desserts to the specialized world of gourmet European cuisine, gourmet gifting, artisan breads and finally touching the burgeoning universe of teas.

Popular names like Snigdha Manchanda of Tea Trunk, culinary craftsmen of Pooja Dhingra’s Le 15 Patisserie, home chefs Perzen Patel, Nima Parekh, Richa Lulla and Shivani Tolia, artisan bread maker Aditi Handa of The Baker’s Dozen and Chef Thea Tanneleht of Marzipan - The Bakery Shop will display their culinary mettle at this Womens’ Day special Gastro Wednesday. Also taste some of the delicacies prepared by Neha Manekia of Silver Spoon Gourmet that specializes in gourmet European cuisine, gourmet gifting, artisan breads, Radhika Khanna of Thai catering service Lotus Blossum and Amal Farooque of dessert brand Sugar Overdose.

One can choose from a wide range of sumptuous Thai curries from Radhika Khanna’s kitchen to the handpicked flavours of the most delicious combinations of paan chocolates from Marzipan. Nima Parikh has always been our favourite with her delightful brownies while Pooja Dhingra’s macaroons keep us wanting for more. Enjoy all these authentic savors and recipes and more at this Woman’s special Gastro Wednesday at High Street Phoenix.

Gastro Wednesdays, organized every alternate month by High Street Phoenix, seek to bring to Mumbai flavors from all around the world to satiate the taste buds of the average Mumbaikar.

So this 5th March, indulge your taste buds in a plethora of lip-smacking goodies as you raise a toast to the female culinary wizards of the city!

Details of each participating Chef and brand:

1. Aditi Handa of The Baker’s Dozen

After completing a course at the International Culinary Centre in New York (formerly known as the French Culinary Institute), Aditi Handa established The Baker’s Dozen, a brand dedicated entirely to artisanal breads. Aditi developed a lot of her recipes with the help of the faculty chefs at her culinary school.
The Baker’s Dozen, specializes in sourdoughs such as pain aux cereal and pain aux levain with blueberries and cranberries; as well as four grain German bread; brioche; focaccia; and pain de complet (regular wheat bread).

If bread is part of your regular diet, remember to get your daily stash from The Baker’s Dozen, where the loaves are baked every morning and home delivered by the evening. Since there are no preservatives, the breads have a short shelf life of up to three days in a bread box.

2. Amal Farooque of Sugar Overdose

Sugar Over Dose is a home based business run by 29 year old Amal Farooque, a self taught baker who quit the financial world to take on her passion for baking full time. A self confessed sugar addict Amal could ‘cook a complete meal, including clean and cut a full chicken and fish by the age of 8′ and finally started her own patisserie in May 2012.

3. Avanika of dessert brand Yumsilicious Bakes

Yumsilicious Bakes is the result of 22 year old Avanika’s attempt to stay connected with baking and the internet. With her culinary expertise in making irresistible rustic cakes, she has been one baker our chocolate lovers adore.

4. Megha Deokule - Organic Store I2Cook

If the organic food frenzy hasn’t caught you yet, here is your chance to get converted. Under the brand name ‘i2cook’, Chef Megha Deokule sells a range of dressings that are made using unprocessed ingredients. Fruit lovers, go for the dreamy cinnamon and spice spread. If you dabble in Asian fare, the Thai peanut butter dressing will double up as a dipping sauce.

5. Neha Manekia of Silver Spoon Gourmet

Silver spoon Gourmet is a gourmet company specializing in gourmet European cuisine and gourmet gifting. Their food – Modern European, their style – exquisite, their passion – insurmountable and their flavours – delectable. Silver spoon Gourmet is the brainchild of husband-wife duo Chef Joshua D’Souza and Neha Manekia. Coming from 5-star hotel backgrounds, they have learned under some of the best professionals in the luxury 5-star hotel segment.

Neha Manekia - Working as a senior Training & HR professional in The Ritz-Carlton, Huntington Hotel & Spa, The Ritz-Carlton, Bahrain Hotel & Spa, The Ritz-Carlton, Sharq Village & Spa and Dusit Thani Dubai, Entrepreneur Neha Manekia knew she had found a home in the industry. Her vision for Silver Spoon was always a budding dream which today is a reality. A passionate hotelier, Neha believes that with a little effort and thoughtfulness, gourmet dining.

Chef Joshua D’Souza - A graduate from the Indian Institute of Hotel Management, Goa, Chef Joshua has worked with some of the best luxury 5-star hotels in India and the Middle East.

Graduating from IHM, Goa, he started his career at The Taj Fort Aguada Beach Resort, Goa. He soon moved on to a long career with The Ritz-Carlton, Bahrain Hotel & Spa, The Fairmont, Dubai and The Westin Mina Seyahi, Dubai. He has worked with some of the best Michelin Star chefs in the region and has received awards in all the restaurants he has worked in.

6. Nima Parikh - This one just doesn’t come with the taste but also pretty packaging! Packed in beautiful golden boxes, Nima’s brownies are irresistibly delicious and now vegetarians can have their share of eggless brownies too! She also whips some chocolate sauce (Rs. 250/half kg) and pizza purée which is pizza cum pasta sauce (Rs. 150/half kg). The innovative Walnut Brownie is pure pleasure and even her seasonal Eggless Strawberry Pie is worth checking out. Also available are tea cakes like Almond Raisin and Chocolate Chip and Walnut.

7. Perzen Patel – This home Chef who goes by the moniker “Bawi Bride” is a Bawi by birth and foodie by life. Perzen believes that great moments are born out of great opportunities and her passion lies in cooking everyday Parsi food to feed fellow foodie souls. She also caters to Mumbai foodies and offers dips, desserts and Parsi delicacies for purchase each weekend.

8. Pooja Dhingra’s Le 15 Patisserie

Le15 is Mumbai's pre-eminent stand-alone pâtisserie with a central kitchen in Lower Parel that doubles as a learning centre with regular classes on the culinary arts. With retail outlets in Worli, close to the sea-face as well as the elegant contemporary home store, Good Earth in the Lower Parel area, Le15 ensures each pastry is stored in an ideal condition to maintain the quality of the immaculate dessert.

Le15 owner Pooja Dhingra completed her education at Switzerland's prestigious hospitality management school, César Ritz, acquired a diploma in Patisserie at the highly-regarded culinary school, Le Cordon Bleu and also gained valuable work-experience working with renowned French chocolatier Jean Charles Rochoux.

The French influence is visible as she re-creates the magical dessert she experienced in Paris. Pooja's macaroons provide an array of flavours with multiples textures, with combinations such as the passion-fruit and chocolate, rose, etc. that have even French expats wowing. While macaroons are her signature pastry, she creates innovative cakes, cupcakes, éclairs, tarts and truffles using only select quality ingredients.

9. Radhika Khanna of Lotus Blossom - Thai Catering Service in Mumbai

The genius of Asian cooking is its organic, fuss-free and fluid use of local ingredients. Savour the unique flavours of Asia with Lotus Blossom. Let them do the planning, preparing and serving of a great meal in the comfort of your home. A typical meal by them will include soup, salad, starters, main course and dessert. Prices start at Rs. 700 per person.

10. Richa Lulla of Knead With Love

Richa Lulla is an engineer who is also a certified baker from IHM-Mumbai.
Follow her @ kneadwithlove or contact her through her Facebook page: Knead with love 

11. Shivani Tolia of Yellow Butterfly

An Interior Designer by profession and a foodie by passion, Shivani Tolia is well-known for her jams, dips, sauces & various other yummy concoctions.

12. Snigdha Manchanda, Tea Sommelier, Tea Trunk

Find yourself a cup of tea; the teapot is behind you. Now tell me about hundreds of things. ~Saki

A few years ago, Snigdha Manchanda’s passion for tea took her to a professional tea school in Sri Lanka, where she studied under the guidance of a Japanese tea master. During her study, she visited numerous tea gardens, tasted 100 cups of tea a day, and profiled over 2000 varieties of tea.

She left Sri Lanka inspired and brimming with stories about tea, and decided to make it her mission to demystify tea-speak. Many tea tastings and workshops followed with Snigdha wanting more and more people to discover and enjoy good-quality tea. Thus was born Tea Trunk, the name inspired from her dad’s vintage trunk in which she stored her collection of world teas, back in the day. Today Snigdha’s trunk holds gourmet tea blends crafted by her.

13. Chef Thea Tanneleht of Marzipan, The Bakery Shop which specializes in customized chocolates with filling, paan being central flavor.

About High Street Phoenix:

High Street Phoenix (HSP), is the first retail led consumption centre developed in India over a sprawling 3.3 million square feet. It houses over 500 brands including a variety of F&B, entertainment, commercial and residential complexes.  Pioneered by The Phoenix Mills Co. Ltd., HSP is led by its young, dynamic Managing Director, Atul Ruia and his team of professionals. At HSP, each zone has been specifically conceptualized and designed to offer an international experience and as an answer to emerging urban agglomerations typically defined as 'mixed used developments'.

The centre houses 3 distinct shopping zones viz. Skyzone, Grand Galleria and High Street Units (HSU).The multi-leveled Skyzone boasts of anchor stores of leading national and international brand retail outlets. The Grand Galleria caters to impulse shoppers and is connected to PVR Cinema’s 2000 seater 7 digital screens multiplex. The HSU houses a variety of stores which cater to niche lifestyles consisting of artifacts, handicrafts, stylish accessories, apparel and jewelery stores including a gift store and an optician cum eye wear store. In a nutshell, HSU houses almost everything you can possibly desire to make a truly memorable retail experience.

Popularly known as the heart of HSP, ‘The Courtyard’ - true to its name, presents the perfect platform for celebration and festivities. Completing this picture are an array of eateries that surround it. With a variety of first-of-its-kind retail stores, flagship stores and international brands under its umbrella is hard to resist. The centre today stands as testament to mixed used development and is a unique destination with a wide variety of choices to appeal to all segments of the consumer across the board. 

HSP has added one of Mumbai’s, first luxury and premium luxury retail and entertainment destination, appropriately christened, ‘Palladium’. Palladium has, in a short span of time become an iconic landmark not only for Mumbai but for the entire country and offers four levels of exclusive shopping in an atmosphere of extraordinary sophistication and refinement all under one elegant roof.
The centre also has an expanded car park area making it one of the biggest car pool areas in Mumbai clocking on average of nearly 6,000 vehicles each day.
Winner of the “Most Admired Shopping Centre of the Year – Socially Responsible” at the Asia Shopping Centre and Mall Awards 2014.