Food
For Thought, Thought For Food
Interestingly there is always a session on food and usually I find them quite interesting and informative, however 2018's session on food blogging titled – Who’s Calling The Shots Who’s Stirring The Pot, Have bloggers mirched up the market, or are they pretenders to the bone?’ turned out to be a damp squib. The panelist comprised Pooja Dhingra owner of Le15 Patissere (the very popular patisserie chain in Mumbai), food blogger Kalyan Karmakar, restrauteur Amrish Arora of Fountain Hospitality. The discussion was moderated by Farzana Contractor publisher, editor and chief photographer of UpperCrust. Contractor was a disappointment, she was quite prejudiced where bloggers were concerned and seemed to have an axe to grind with the food bloggers., Towards the end, though we did have some entertainment when a few young food bloggers took exception to Farzana Contractor referring to the food bloggers as ‘bachchas’ (little kids). Her contention being they were little more than kids, with little or no knowledge of food and therefore not qualified to give opinions or write reviews, The argument that ensued between the food bloggers in the audience and Contractor was quite amusing.
Anyway, in the video embedded below you will find a brief review of the food court, in case the window does not open here is the link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_Bla1q67Kc
Lit
Fests definitely provide some food for thought. We have been visiting the Times Litfest since 2015 and surely enough some of the sessions did satiate our
hunger or to be more appropriate our need for the occasional intellectual
stimulus. However, as Swami Vivekanand rightly pointed out that religion cannot
be preached to empty stomachs, likewise we realized soon enough that it is a
little difficult to pay much attention to any session if you are hungry. An
empty stomach makes your mind invariably race towards food. In these past three
years the Times Litfest has not disappointed us on the food front. I say three years because in 2015 the food court was a vegetarian food court, since 2016 we found a good blend of vegetarian and non-vegetarian fare.
Interestingly there is always a session on food and usually I find them quite interesting and informative, however 2018's session on food blogging titled – Who’s Calling The Shots Who’s Stirring The Pot, Have bloggers mirched up the market, or are they pretenders to the bone?’ turned out to be a damp squib. The panelist comprised Pooja Dhingra owner of Le15 Patissere (the very popular patisserie chain in Mumbai), food blogger Kalyan Karmakar, restrauteur Amrish Arora of Fountain Hospitality. The discussion was moderated by Farzana Contractor publisher, editor and chief photographer of UpperCrust. Contractor was a disappointment, she was quite prejudiced where bloggers were concerned and seemed to have an axe to grind with the food bloggers., Towards the end, though we did have some entertainment when a few young food bloggers took exception to Farzana Contractor referring to the food bloggers as ‘bachchas’ (little kids). Her contention being they were little more than kids, with little or no knowledge of food and therefore not qualified to give opinions or write reviews, The argument that ensued between the food bloggers in the audience and Contractor was quite amusing.
Anyway, in the video embedded below you will find a brief review of the food court, in case the window does not open here is the link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_Bla1q67Kc
Good to see you back, Shilpi! The food here looks far more interesting and delicious than any I've seen at other Lit Fests (except possibly the last one I went to, which was in Trivandrum - that had fabulous food!). Wish I could've been there to attend the session on food blogging. Sounds interesting (and the altercation sounds even more interesting). ;-)
ReplyDeleteThanks for this lovely comment Madhu, considering the time I take to make a post, it is really encouraging that you still follow my blog.
DeleteYes the altercation was really interesting, the young ladies were really irritated but what impressed me about their behaviour was that they were not at all offensive, usually people do tend to become offensive in the heat of the moment. These young women were pretty mature, maybe Farzana Contractor could take a lesson or two from these young ladies.
That is refreshing to hear that they weren't offensive! I think older people sometimes tend to think that their age gives them the license to be rude or abrupt, so this is probably something a lot of older people can take a lesson from.
ReplyDeleteAnd as for following your blog... yes, I do, because I like it. :-)
Thanks a million for those kind words and yes I agree with you about older people sometimes being rude.
Delete