Season 9 of the Naga Chef competition commenced today with seven competitors vying for the prestigious title. Naga Chef is a part of the Hornbill Festival and the organisers Synergy Group Enterprise has successfully organised eight seasons of the Naga Chef.

Naga Chef Head Mentor and Judge, Chef Joel Basumatari, stated that the idea of Naga Chef is to promote Naga food.

Today is the first day of the competition and the competition will be happening till 9 December, he added.

Informing on the competition, he said there will be nine sessions and this season they are concentrating on indigenous cooking competition. He added that the contestants will be going through various rounds which includes Innovation Round, My Childhood Memories, Naga Thali, Just Deserts and Surprise Box.

Chef Joel also remarked that the past winners of Naga Chef are now successfully running their own establishments and working in various hotels. He believes that Naga Chef is a good platform to motivate entrepreneurs because once they win the competition, they become a “chefpreneur”.

“It’s like creating a business for them and for their family and lot of unemployed youths, they get jobs in restaurants businesses and all. We are doing our best and they are also giving back to the society,” added Chef Joel.

He also informed that four judges are judging the competition along with guest judges from North East India Chef Association (NEICA) and English-Australian chef, author and restaurateur Gary Mehigan – one of the original judges of the Network 10 Series MasterChef Australia.