Indian Hotels Company (IHCL) and Tata Steel Foundation (TSF) have joined forces to empower tribal home-cooks through the ‘Tribal Cuisines’ capacity-building programme. This pioneering initiative is an integral part of Tata Steel Foundation’s signature programme ‘Samvaad’, that fosters constructive dialogues among tribal communities since 2014.
Gaurav Pokhariyal, Executive Vice President – Human Resources, IHCL said, “This strategic collaboration with Tata Steel Foundation perfectly aligns with IHCL’s ESG + framework – Paathya. ‘Tribal Cuisines’ endeavours to weave a delightful tapestry of flavours, honouring the culinary heritage of tribal communities. With community as our core, we aim to create and foster an ecosystem of entrepreneurial pursuits for tribal home-cooks and enable them to showcase it to the global community.”
The six-day capacity-building programme, anchored by the Institute of Hotel Management, Aurangabad, brought together 23 home cooks representing 9 states and 11 different tribal communities. The workshop curriculum included culinary techniques, standard processes used in food industries, nutritional aspects, entrepreneurial setups, marketing strategies, food hygiene, food preservation, and exposure to bulk cooking.
Sourav Roy, Chief Executive Officer, Tata Steel Foundation said, “Samvaad is a one of its kind dialogue and action-based ecosystem for tribal identity which works with the unwavering conviction that the tribal way of life holds answers to some of the most complex questions that all of us face. One of the elements is tribal cuisine which subsumes many micro narratives of nature, empowerment, tradition and nutrition while finding expression through this network of youngsters who have made this their life story. We remain grateful to our collaboration with IHCL which is helping tribal cuisine find its rightful place at high tables across India.”
Regarded as the custodian of Indian hospitality, IHCL under its ‘Paathya’ framework continues to invest in building industry-relevant talent pools with an aim to develop and support deserving youth and their families, while contributing to the overall growth of the industry.
