Kanyakumari-Leh: Chefs to ride again for our community

MARCH, 2024, MAPUSA: It’s on again, this time along the length of India, right down the middle. In this second edition of Chefs Ride, chefs both Indian and international, will ride their motorcycles from India’s Southern tip to its Northern-most city in their much needed effort to spread the awareness of International Chefs Day (20th October) and its message of culinary goodwill.

The group ride will start on 15th August in Thiruvananthapuram before heading towards Kanyakumari 90 kms away, then follow NH 44 all the way North to Srinagar and onwards to Leh. This route travels through India’s centre and will take in at least 18 major cities enroute where large scale events with the local hospitality communities are planned. Chefs Ride 2024 is expected to conclude on 30th September.

This is the second edition of Chefs Ride. In 2023, the route was along India’s Western Coast, commencing in Thiruvananthapuram on 30th August and concluding in Ahmedabad on 26th September. This route took in eight towns. Detailed info of last year's ride is available here:

https://www.chefsride.in/

“We are riding to raise awareness of Chefs Day among the larger hospitality industry because this important day belongs to everyone in a professional kitchen, irrespective of its size. The industry is responding well to this initiative with support coming in from hotel groups, hospitality institutes, chef associations and food companies ready to contribute resources,” said Alan DMello, founder, X Events Hospitality, which is organising the #chefsride.

Over the month-long ride this in 2024, the motorcycle group is expected to stop in Thiruvananthapuram, Kanyakumari, Madurai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Nagpur, Raipur, Nagpur, Bhopal, Gwalior, Agra, Jaipur, Gurugram, Delhi, Chandigarh, Jammu, Srinagar and Leh.

“We are expecting over 70 chefs and culinary students to ride with us. Different groups will join us at various points on the 6000 km ride. We have an open invitation to all professional chefs to join us on this ride as our guests, most expenses paid by us,” said DMello.

20th October is International Chefs Day. A special website (chefsride.in) provides all the details of the ride, its goals and partners.  We encourage professional cooks and their establishments everywhere to celebrate their day with their teams + local communities. This has been celebrated from 2004 onwards in 100+ countries. Since 2016, with our support, the initiative in India has grown from ~400 chefs to 50,000+. We stayed restrained during the pandemic’s two years, so with everyone’s help, this year, we aim to cross the 75,000+ mark. Our goal is to make Chefs Day a default celebration in India by 2030.