The ingenious commerce students of Hans Raj College bring to DU a first of its kind Culinary Arts Society!
A society refers to a group of people who come together on the basis of certain shared interests. Understood in this context, a college society plays a vital role in the life of a student. It not just provides a retreat from mundane academic pursuits, but also gives an individual a perfect platform to exhibit his talents, engage in meaningful interactions, form everlasting friendships and further explore his field of interest and specialty.
Small wonder then, that we at Delhi University take our societies very seriously! In fact, DU colleges are full of all kinds of societies: from the traditional to the extremely whacky, we’ve got them all! Keeping this culture alive,this year, two second year BCom Honours students from Hans Raj College, Aseem Jain and Ananya Gupta , co-founded the ‘Culinary Arts Society’(CAS). The drive to start such a society came from identifying the burgeoning craze for food and food lovers in DU, along with the increasing inclination of students to work in the hospitality and food industry after graduation. The scope of this society is multi-fold: a) to provide a forum for foodies to express their love for food, b) to promote healthy eating among GenY, c) to encourage students to look at and take up lucrative food-related careers, and d) to monitor, control and correct the standard of food served at the college cafeteria.
The CAS became a registered society on 21st July 2016. It is under the charge of Mr. Animesh Nasker, a professor from the Economics Department. At the helm are the two co-founders, followed by a team of eight core-members. The society is open to recruiting students from all courses from the first and second year. Interestingly, the society also has collaboration with the NGO ‘AHAAR Foundation’. The NGO, another initiative of the co-founders of CAS, aims to provide ‘food for all’. Aseem Jain shares, “The modus operandi of ‘AHAAR Foundation’ is simple, yet effective. We take the surplus food from restaurants and distribute it among the needy.” To this, Ananya Gupta adds, “So we are essentially making optimum use of resources, because restaurants tend to throw away unutilised food at the end of the day. By creating a link between the surplus and deficit, we are helping both the commercial food establishments and the underfed and underprivileged.”
The Culinary Arts Society is planning its first official event, a charity bake sale, in the last week of August, at Lover’s Point, Hans Raj College. After this, they plan to hold a food festival in the first week of October, at the sports ground of Hans Raj College, where Indian Cuisine and popular World Cuisine will be displayed. To supplement these mega events, CAS intends on holding year round seminars and conclaves, where topics under discussion would range from informative, like ‘Merits of Eating a balanced and healthy diet’ to fun and frivolous, like talks by renowned chefs, food entrepreneurs and food critics and bloggers.
To keep up with the activities of CAS, keep watching this space!
Featured Image Credits: Ananya Gupta, Hans Raj College
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Images by Paurush Bhardwaj, Alex Arthur, Jasmine Chahal, Hitanksha Jain and Vegh Daswani for DU Beat
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