Cracking food carnival

Lulu Hypermarket Bahrain is showcasing delicious cuisines of the world with a series of special promotions, cookery competitions and a variety of culinary demonstrations, including a visit by an Indian celebrity chef.

The Food Carnival 2019 was inaugurated at its seventh and most recently opened store in Saar’s Atrium Mall by Shaikh Khalifa bin Duaij Al Khalifa, president of HRH the Crown Prince’s Court, on Thursday evening.

Scores of shoppers joined in the celebrations and were welcomed by a traditional Bahraini band and an array of stalls offering the chance to sample tasty treats and dishes produced at live cooking stations.

Shaikh Khalifa was shown around the delights by company executives including Lulu Group director Juzer Rupawala and regional director Mohammed Kaleem, after performing a ribbon-cutting ceremony and helping to cut into a giant celebratory cake, right.

“The Carnival will run until April 6 and feature an interactive exploration of different cuisines and cookery contests,” a Lulu spokesman said.

One of the highlights of the event will be the visit of TV celebrity Lekshmi Nair, whose travel-cum-cookery show is hugely popular in India.

During her visit, Dr Lekshmi, described by one journalist as ‘the Nigella Lawson of God’s Own Country’, will judge a cookery contest for the traditional Indian ‘payasam’ dessert.

There is also a pasta cooking contest and a children’s cookery contest during the celebrations with details available throughout the kingdom’s stores. The event will also feature great promotions on foodstuff and a variety of cookery demonstrations ‘to indulge your epicurean hankerings’.  

Lekshmi is a director of an academy of law but, on the extracurricular front, has been a TV news reader and a member of the Kerala State Film Censor Board.

She is best known as a celebrity culinary expert, being the host of the top-rated cooking programme Magic Oven and has penned three recipe books. Another programme hosted by her, called Flavours of India, highlights the food specialities, culture and heritage of each of the states in India and she is in the process of publishing the travelogue as a book.

She is also a literary critic and writer, a multi-brand ambassador and also guest faculty at catering schools in the Gulf region. She had given umpteen number of culinary demonstrations in numerous other countries too.

Lekshmi told Indian national newspaper The Hindu, who once described her as Kerala’s ‘new Tarla Dalal’ – a renowned Indian food writer, chef, cookbook author and cooking show host – that although being a ‘culinary expert’ was never a dream, her cooking talent quickly shone through.

Harking back to her college days, she said: “Every time I went back to hostel, I’d take jars of pickles with me. My friends would go gaga over my pickles. Studying for Hotel Management was unheard of then and my family wanted me to pursue law.”

But her passion for cooking grew and she began experimenting with Chinese and Kerala cuisine. On the second birthday of her son, Lekshmi, pictured below, threw a small party and cooked a variety of dishes. It was well appreciated and soon a friend asked her to cater for her party. The party was a success and the rest is history and she has come a long way from catering to kiddies’ party for 15 to wedding receptions for 500 and more.

She was also keen to advance her culinary skills in Thai cooking and went to a course. Magic Oven happened by accident and, she said, the response to the show was ‘overwhelming’. Now she boasts more than 60,000 followers on her Instagram social media account, a further 28,000 on Facebook and the recipe videos on YouTube have attracted more than 35,000 views.

Dr Lekshmi is scheduled to present a live cooking demonstration and launch the Payasam cookery contest at Lulu’s Dana Mall in Sanabis on Thursday, April 4 at 6.30pm.