French catering students dish it out Tamil style

Madurai: It was a day to tickle their taste buds for the catering students from France at Arittapatti village, 25km away from the city. The French team arrived in the village on Tuesday to cook food with the community people in the traditional manner using firewood.
Excitement was all evident in the eyes of the 16 catering students when they got to cook traditional food with the villagers.Ayrameen kozhambu, ellu thuvaiyal, thinai payasam, paanagaram and murungaikeerai poriyal were the dishes they tried their hand at.
Frege Meggie, 19, said, "It was so much fun to cook food in the traditional way. In France, the food is cooked in professional manner. Here it is much different, right from the way the vegetables are chopped to the use of the ingredients."
The NGO Dhan Foundation organised the event in collaboration with the Namaste Inde Food Inde 2016 team from France. The idea was to introduce the catering students from France to firewood cooking and the unique culinary tradition of Tamil Nadu.
Despite the cumbersome process involved in cooking with firewood, the students were enthusiastic about cooking more dishes. A Ravi Chandran, vice president of Arittapatti village said, "We are more than happy to teach foreigners about the traditional form of cooking because I see a lot of interest in them and they are adjusting well."
Gilles Charles, member of Namaste Inde from France, who led the group said there was a huge difference on the person who cooks as compared to India.
"In France, it's the men who cook food in a professional way. In India, it's mostly women who cook. The big difference here is love, hence there is much love when the food is cooked by a mother."
K P Bharathi, programme leader, Dhan Foundation, said, "This is the fourth time we have involved foreigners in showcasing the state of Tamil Nadu. However, this is the first time that we have involved foreigners in cooking traditional food with the community people. Our idea is to let them have an experience of frewood cooking and help them in connecting with villagers."