Little hands at work: The Yellow Chilli

Kids with a passion for cooking can look forward to an opportunity to tickle their culinary skills.

Celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor’s franchise restaurant — The Yellow Chilli — has come up with a competition titled Chhotu Chef, wherein kids between six and 14 years would be able to take part.

The children would get a chance to learn and cook up their dream dishes at the restaurant.

Rupa Sinha, a member of the restaurant management, said: “Any dish, which the kids had dreamt of sometime in their lives, would be available in front of them. The children would be explained how to prepare it.”

The young chefs would get a chance to learn to prepare various kinds of food or beverage items such as Chinese, snacks, sandwiches, mocktails and others.

Rupa said: “Sanjeev Kapoor says chocolate is mainly a western taste, while lassi is very Indian. This is a great way to show how the twain can meet and result in chocolate lassi. Kids would be taught how to make kesar elaichi and roasted pistachio.”

She added: “Among mocktails, Blue Sparkle (a sparkling mixture of litchi juice, non-alcoholic blue Curacao and lemonade) and desserts like apple toffee, sweet noodles would be available for the children. There would also be Evil Princess and Banana Fry.”

“We have introduced other dishes to tickle your taste buds. These include bhindi kurkuri from Rajasthan, tandoori pomfret and railway mutton curry. The railway mutton curry would take us back to the British period when the dish used to be served on trains,” Rupa said.

The competition would be held every Saturday from 4pm to 6pm from November 30. “The children won’t be allowed to go near the burners. A cook would explain the recipe to them. It is not necessary that the kids prepare something which requires cooking,” Rupa said.

Single participants would also be entertained and the competition would continue for 90 days. The winners of each competition would compete against each other in the later stages. Parents/guardians coming along would get complimentary drinks, while participants, too, would be provided food in addition to the certificates and mementos.

The restaurant is also in the process of contacting schools to invite children to the event.