A collaboration of coffee and visual art

In all honesty, the heading of an invitation reading “an interactive coffee and art performance” left me in a state of flux, and the ambiguity about this abstract topic kept on bothering me until I reached the venue. However, the first ten minutes of the event gave me an insight about the entire concept and that was just the beginning of my excitement.

As I am a part of Team Shivangi Reviews, I was invited to cover this event. It was organised by Tourism Victoria, and it featured a collaboration of aromatic coffee and creative art. Tourism Victoria is a Victorian government lead tourism agency which works to develop the local and global market potential for Victoria’s tourism industry. The occasion was all about the beautiful and interactive coffee and art performance  put together by the multiple world latte art champion St. Ali Barista – Ben Morrow and renowned visual artist Harun Robert where both of them demonstrated their talent and creativity in blending the latte with the visual art. Ben Morrow is a latte art expert, and his finesse has allowed him to be at the forefront for half a decade. On the other hand, Harun Robert a.k.a. Rob is a visual artist from India. At Melbourne, coffee is a passion and an important part of their culture. Melbourne is home to a plethora of cafes, and this culture is growing exponentially. Also, according to the latest survey, Melbourne is the world’s most livable city. In short, it was the occasion to bring a glimpse of Melbourne into India by blending the art of coffee and art.

At this time, you all must be thinking: “What exactly is the meaning of collaboration of coffee and visual art?” The winsome artists – Ben Morrow and Harun Robert – demonstrated their remarkable calibre in preparing the coffee and designing the spectacular paintings respectively, and they combined both the arts by making Latte a part of the masterpieces. In other words, Ben Morrow enthralled the audience by creating different designs on top of the lattes and then Harun Robert took the control to present those lattes on his beautiful coffee canvas as shown in the below images. The marvelous display of blending the coffee with the visual art was the show stopper. The aesthetic masterpieces designed by Rob were amazing, and he also used coffee as a color while creating them. The below image shows Ben Morrow creating a wonderful design on a latte.

Ben Morrow and Harun Robert

This beautiful canvas depicts the culture of Melbourne. Several latte designs on this visual art show cycling, love of cricket, a Yacht, and a parachute where each one of them is symbolic for the city. These things represent or define the spirit of Melbourne, and this was one of the focus points of this event. The images below exhibit the great combination of Latte and the visual art, and every image reflects the charm of Melbourne in it.

The below image reflects the importance of Cricket where Ben Morrow merged his latte designs of wickets and a cricket ball with the canvas.

This image shows the culture of sailing and water balloons in Melbourne.

Melbourne presented on a beautiful canvas where the latte depicts a half moon.

The session was followed by another aspect where Ben morrow gave the audience a chance to experience the Melbourne’s finest coffees. The excitement to experience the aroma of wonderful coffee was very evident. The scent of coffee was omnipresent, and being a fervent fan of it, I enjoyed every aspect of the demonstration.

Overall, it was a very unique event which presented an abstract art. I enjoyed it.

Steve Jobs – The Good Bad and Ugly

The biography of Steve Jobs left me in a state of flux where I forcefully pondered about his two traits: a**hole and visionary. Is it possible to despise and admire the same person? Can a person be both – a ruthless jerk and a genius? May be not, but I believe that Steve Jobs made an exception, and, indeed, he had both the aforementioned traits where people hated him – mostly – and respected him at the same time.

I had an amazing journey with the book where I came to know many traits of Steve Jobs, and also, I learnt so much about running a company. The terms Apple and Steve Jobs are glued with each other. In other words, they are inseparable, and the use of either of them will force you to think about both of these terms. Apple was Steve Jobs’s dream, vision, life and a way to change the world. And yes, he did change the world in terms of technology and gadgets. Apple products are far more than a brand for people. The aesthetic look and feel of the devices make their owners extremely proud for owning something extraordinary which marvels in all the aspects of beauty and design. All my Apple gadgets – iPod, iPhone, and iPad – have become my endearing eccentricities which, of course, is not a sane fact. Through the medium of this article, I would like to share some of his thoughts, good side and bad side.

Abandoned by his biological parents, Steve Jobs directly or indirectly was affected from this trauma. Albeit, he had great foster parents, the thought of forsaken did bother him for most of his life. He was a complex person who suffered from tempestuous mood swings. He believed a lot in innovation, and he knew that it was the key to success. He had a soft corner and an enormous respect for creative people. Perfectionism was not something he learnt from someone; I think he was born with it. He knew that even a tiniest detail makes a difference, and for something to be perfect, all the elements have to come together in an impeccable manner. He was an honest person – and by that I mean brutally honest – where he never refrained from using the most derogatory and obnoxious language in case he does not like something. This was his style, and when he was asked to deal with people in a respectful manner, he said that he does not want to be fake. He would like to stick to his personality rather than being someone who he is not. And this is how Apple products are. All the products reflect his personality where his aim was to make people feel that the products not only have great looks, but they are also great in terms of functionality – no sham. Some people say that give the customers what they want; however, Steve Jobs said that people do not know what they want until you show it to them. And this is what he did. He created gadgets that looked so magical and extraordinary in their appearance that everybody used to dream about their possession. He was a great impresario where his every presentation on the launch of his products is remarkable. He used to leave the audience in awe, and the crowd used to go berserk at his appearance and speech. His amazing aura was beyond measure. He had an emotional touch with his products, and one great thing which he used to mention was “When you are creating something, think that you are creating it for yourself rather than your customers.”

After reading the book, I realized that everything happened for a reason in his life. Apple was born on April 1, 1976, and Steve Jobs was one of the founders along with his best friend Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. He was always difficult to deal with, and when his contentious behavior crossed a limit, he was asked to leave the company in 1985. He was devastated, and I believe that was the most difficult and excruciating phase of his life. However, he invented another company known as NeXT, and after sometime, he became the CEO of one of the greatest animation companies known as Pixar. The history was created again when he returned to Apple in 1997 to reclaim his throne, and Apple changed the entire gadget industry since then. They revolutionized the music industry by creating iPod and iTunes store. They introduced the concept of Apple stores where Steve Jobs spent great deal of effort in designing the strategy, but the historic moment came when Apple launched the most remarkable product known as iPhone. That moment completely changed the preferences and tastes of the people where everybody started looking forward to something which just has a screen and a button. Steve Jobs was absolutely correct in mentioning that people do not know what they want until you show it to them.

The Good Guy:
Steve Jobs was a genius and a great visionary. His uttermost passion to make great products was the biggest motivation factor for him. He never cared regarding what others perceive of him. He was so focused in creating great products that his harshness on people never bothered him about his reputation. He used to envisage unfeasible requirements which, at first instance, always looked impossible to the team, and if someone dared enough to say “it’s impossible”, he used to fire that person most of the times. However, he used to motivate his team to such a great extent that those imaginary requirements were achieved most of the times. He started his company at the age of 20, got it registered at the age of 22, and by the age of 25, he was worth $256 million. But his top priority was to build an enduring company where people were motivated to make great products; everything else was secondary. Of course, it was great to make profits because that’s what allowed him to make great products; however, the products, and not the profits, were the motivation for him. He was a perfectionist who believed in making perfect products in terms of their design and usability. And, in order to achieve this perfectionism, his mantra was to simplify things as much as possible. Steve Jobs gave lot of importance to simplicity, and he simplified every product to the tiniest detail. One of his quotes: “Simplicity is the ultimate perfection” is my favourite, and this is something I diligently follow where I keep things very simple in my professional and personal life.

Steve jobs strongly believed in the integration of hardware and software, and that is why, Apple has its own hardware which is very well integrated with the software. Unlike Microsoft where you can install the OS on any vendor’s machine, Steve Jobs never licensed its OS. He had the obsession for control; hence, he always preferred controlling the entire machine from top to bottom rather than licensing a part of it. He knew that Microsoft dominated the world of operating systems because of their open approach, and they were declared the winner in the personal computer realm, but Job’s concern was that if they follow the same approach, the system will be easy to hack which will destroy the simple user experience. In all honesty, I simply love this approach. That is why, it is more easy to hack Android because it is an open platform.

The Bad Guy:
Steve Jobs was never good at keeping good relations, and he did hurt a plethora of people in his life. He impregnated his girlfriend when he was 23, and he did not handle this situation well. He was not ready to accept the child as he did not want to take the responsibility. He took credit of lot of people, for instance, Steve Wozniak was the real brain behind Apple I as he was a technical genius; however, he felt that Jobs was very harsh on people and Woznaik never liked this fact. Lot of differences arose between two Steves, and after sometime, Wozniak moved on with other endeavors. Most importantly, Jobs never invented anything. He took the idea of Graphical User Interface (GUI) from Xerox PARC or you can say stole it; however, it is an irrefutable fact that the aforementioned company could have never achieved something which Steve Jobs did with the GUI. He once said, “Picasso has a saying – ‘good artists copy and great artists steal’ – and we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas.”
He was rude, discourteous, and disrespectful while criticizing people, and he never changed throughout his life. He was diagnosed with Pancreas cancer, and this made him suffer a lot. The excruciating pains made him difficult to survive, and even after coming back from his medical leave where he went through physical and mental trauma, his personality was still the same, and his harshness did not dissipate.

Steve Jobs had a roller-coaster life, and his intense personality of a creative entrepreneur revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing. Of course, he left a great legacy and became one of the greatest business executives, the one most certain to be remembered from a century from now.

CORPCHEF – An Inter Corporate MasterChef Tournament in Mumbai

Being a culinary expert, my relationship with food has always been special, and the immense pleasure which I get from cooking is beyond measure. During my stint in an IT firm, I did not encounter with a single person who liked – or I would say loved – cooking, and I started believing that the art of cooking is losing its charm these days especially in case of the corporate professionals. However, the Inter Corporate MasterChef competition proved me wrong to some extent, and it was a great opportunity for me to witness the finesse of some culinary experts who basically are the modern day corporate professionals.

As I am a part of Team Shivangi Reviews, I was invited to cover this event. Known as CORPCHEF, this event was organised by Party Sharty company, and this programme intended to recognise and reward people – professionals from companies such as J.P. Morgan, Yes bank etc. – exhibiting great cooking skills. Amit Mehta who is the owner of the aforementioned company did a stellar job in managing the entire show. A total of 53 teams, where each team comprised of two people, participated in this corporate battle. The tournament consisted of three rounds, and the elimination of some teams at the end of every round gave three major finalists at the end. The lucrative prizes consisted of Club Mahindra holiday packages and a trophy for all the three major winners. It was a great way for the participants to take a break from their monotonous routine and indulge themselves into a different excursion altogether.

The sight of corporate people wearing aprons and toques, showing their creative aspect in cooking wonderful dishes at their respective counters, and running with their presentable plates all around the place was hard to miss. Some dishes looked absolutely spectacular in presentation. The energy and liveliness at the event were the irrefutable facts that demonstrated the fun and culinary merriment among the crowd. The programme had some fun activities for the spectators as well where the correct answers to some culinary questions such as: what is the difference between a Biryani and a Pulao, what are the different types of Pasta etc. gave them an opportunity to win some gift hampers. The huge open space was covered, and the absence of air conditioning system resulted in too hot and sultry environment; however, this fact did not seem to bother the cheerful crowd, and everyone at the event- especially the audience cheering their favourite teams – continued to actively participate with great merriment and gusto.

Sodexo which is a hospitality company was the major sponsor of this event. I had the impression that Sodexo only distributes meal coupons to the corporate people; however, after meeting some in-house chefs of Sodexo at the event, I realised that this huge company has a plethora of services to offer, surprisingly. With a presence across 80 countries, Sodexo is the world’s leading provider of Quality of Life services whether in corporate, healthcare, universities, schools, remote sites, sports & leisure environments. Its basic objective is to enhance the health and well-being of employees, students, patients, doctors, through a wide range of services from construction to reception, sterilization of medical equipment, cleaning and food services. For example: if the quality of food in a school does not match the normal standards, Sodexo sends its team of chefs where they give required training to the school staff in order to maintain the quality of food. There are many more examples about how Sodexo plays an important role in providing quality of life services, and I was very glad to know all these details about this company in the event.

Raisa DSouza and Naveen Khadilkar who are the in-house chefs at Sodexo were the judges of the corporate MasterChef competition. Along with judging the competition, Raisa DSouza with her amazing culinary skills gave a live demo of the dish Chicken Mousse tartlet with spicy fig jam. Everybody enjoyed her 30 minutes session, and I took some great tips from it. Raisa Dsouza has been associated with Sodexo from the last three years, and she mentors lot of people in her current role. She uses her culinary knowledge to develop the company’s profile, and her main focus is to position Sodexo on the food segment. It was an immense pleasure to connect with her, and she did enlighten me about all the work – other then meal coupons – taken care by Sodexo.

I had a wonderful time in attending the event where I also got the opportunity to connect with some great people.

 

Dutch food festival in Mumbai

Dutch food festival – The moment I heard about this festival, an epiphany hit me which made me realise that I have not experienced Dutch cuisine till now. Being a food reviewer, where my profession requires me to be well conversant with the different cuisines of food, the aforementioned fact of my unawareness of Dutch cuisine did vex me; however, at the same time, I was thrilled about this opportunity, and I started looking forward to try something very different. In other words, it was the time for me to learn – and write – about a new excursion which I never explored earlier.

As I am a part of Team Shivangi Reviews, I was invited to cover this event. Known as Holland meets Mumbai, this event was launched on June 1 at Foodhall – a  premium lifestyle food superstore – which is located inside the Palladium Mall at Lower Parel, and the objective of this event is to bring its patrons the culinary flavours of Dutch cuisine. This cuisine is traditionally rustic with bread, cheese like Gouda, meat and vegetables such as potatoes and asparagus, and berries which play an important part of the food. The country’s cuisine is shaped by the practice of fishing and farming, including cultivation of the soil for raising crops and the raising of domesticated animals, and the history of the Netherlands.
The Dutch cuisine has gained popularity amongst food connoisseurs across the globe owing to its simple and straightforward flavours. This food festival will take you to the Orange land with some of its most enjoyable savouries such as Stroop Waffle, a waffle made from thin layers of baked dough with a caramel-like syrup filling and world famous cheeses such as Edam and Gouda. This event will continue till June 6.

The food festival was quite an interesting affair where the famous Dutch delicacies –  such as different types of cheese, pancakes, Stamppot, Dutch famous pea soup, waffle cones, apple pie etc. – looked delectable. All the aforementioned food items were for sale ; however, all of them had some trial items – mini or you can say free versions – so that people can taste them before buying. In the juices category, there were four types: grapefruits and mango mix juice, passion fruit ice tea, cucumber aloe vera juice, and jalapeño lemonade where the last one was the most interesting in taste with the pungent flavour of jalapeños. Beautiful pancakes with blueberry compote were tasty; however, while doing the pulse check of the event, a lady mentioned to me that she had much better pancakes in Europe. Of course, and I have no doubt to this fact because every country has different quality and taste in terms of ingredients.

My favorite part of the show  was the demonstration of different categories of Dutch cheese. This section was stunning, and the beautiful sight of different types of cheese – such as Gouda, Edam, smoke cheese with chilly, and Gauda with green pesto – was divine and heavenly. Of course, I tasted all of them, and every type of cheese was delicious.

The entire event was good; however, I felt that some things were not properly organised. The team – or whoever was responsible – did not replenish the trial versions of Dutch delicacies constantly, and as a result, people had to wait to try them. I waited too long to try two very special Dutch delicacies; however, I gave up at the end because the trial items did not come at all. I wish they could have organised this in a better way.

I was fortunate enough to meet the Consulate of the General Kingdom of the Netherlands, and he was extremely kind to answer some of my questions regarding this food festival. He mentioned that food is a great way to bring people together, and he understands that Indians love food and good flavours. He further mentioned that Indians love to experiment, and he and his team would like to bring something new to them; hence, they launched this food festival. I also inquired about Dutch cuisine, and he very graciously stated that Dutch is a very cold country; hence, the food is heavy and sweet. A majority of the population is non-vegetarian, but Dutch has great deal of vegetarian food as well. Lastly, he mentioned that through this initiative, their intention is to bring the two nations together.

At the end, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the organizers of the event as it gave me – and to lot of other people – a huge opportunity to experience and understand the Dutch cuisine. It is a great platform for the food reviewers and bloggers to expand their horizon in terms of food and its knowledge.