The 7th SICA Culinary Olympiad 2025 will take place in Chennai from September 19 to 21. It is India’s first WACS-endorsed food contest.The event will be held at the Chennai Trade Centre. Over 3,000 chefs from South India and four international teams from Maldives, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, and Australia will participate.
The South India Chef’s Association (SICA) is organizing the Olympiad alongside the regional edition of AAHAR International Food Fair 2025. The event is supported by ITPO and TNTPO.
SICA has already conducted workshops on Pastry Art and Hot Plate Presentation to train participants. Chef Dimuthu Kumarasinghe from Sri Lanka demonstrated advanced food plating techniques.
Highlights of the Olympiad include:
Live Culinary Challenges for senior and apprentice chefs, Cocktail and Mocktail Competitions for students and professionals, Housekeeping competitions focusing on sustainability, International WACS-approved jury to judge events, Pan-India participation from regional associations.
A grand award ceremony will be held on the last day to honour gold medal winners, senior chefs, jury members, and sponsors.
A SICA Chefs Lounge will allow chefs and professionals to network and engage socially. Celebrity chefs like Sanjeev Kapoor and Sanjay Thumma are expected to attend.
Competition categories include:
Individual Artistic Display, Individual Cold Display, Practical Live Cooking, Cocktail/Mocktail, Cover Display/Layout Contest, Culinary Team Challenge – Edible Buffet and Housekeeping Competitions.
This year, a new event called Dabra Coffee Live Dessert Challenge has been added, along with 2-Course Asian and Western Cooking challenges at IHM Chennai on September 11 and 12.
The Olympiad will be a major gathering for chefs, F&B managers, academicians, technocrats, and culinary journalists.