Ladies at Gourmand celebration

A gourmet lunch attended by an eminent (and elegant) table of ladies representing Mumbai���s leading vegetarians was hosted by The Oberoi.
To celebrate the success of Rashmi Uday Singh���s book, Around The World In 80 Plates, at the World Gourmand Cookbook Awards, Frankfurt. The book, which was published by The Times of India Group in 2004, was adjudged the Best of The Best at this year���s awards ceremony from among two hundred thousand food and wine books worldwide.
In putting together the signature recipes for the book shared with her by 80 of the world���s greatest chefs, Rashmi had sought the help of Oberoi Executive Chef Joy Bhattacharya; at the celebratory lunch, the same chef produced several masterpiece dishes out of the book to the delight of the Times��� high-profile lady guests. Which in itself was a challenge, given the cultured tastebuds at the table were Marwari, Gujarati, Sardarni, Sindhi, Parsi, etc..
All of them vegetarians, of various ages, and coming from the fields of films and television, business, banking, law, construction, fashion design, retailling, leisure and luxury, marketing, industry, led by Chairman of the Times Group, Indu Jain. They included Amla Ruia, Ruchira Aggarwal, Meenal Bajaj, Manisha Girotra, Kalpana Morparia, Shalini Piramal, Prerna Goyal and Kamal Hiranandani. Sangita Kathiwada, sporting a new look, was seen along with Pallavi Kotak, Neeta Lulla, Divya Mafatlal, Smita Mehta, Bijal Meswani, Elina Meswani, Malti Jain, Madhoo, Reshma Jain, Kavita Khanna among others. Sushma Reddy and Mandira Bedi were glowing as usual. And so were Nisha Jhaveri and Natasha Poonawala. Saryu Daftary came along with daughter Gauri Pohoomal.