Living Foodz announces winners of the 2016 Powerlist Awards

The awards honour the game changers in the Indian food and hospitality industry

by Shrutee K/DNS 

Delhi, August 9, 2016: India’s premium food and lifestyle channel, Living Foodz organized the first edition of Powerlist Awards at a glittering ceremony on August 6, 2016 at The Roseate House, New Delhi, which was the official venue partner for the event. The awards celebrate the outstanding contribution of chefs, bloggers, photographers, authors, critics, stylists, nutritionists, startups, restaurateurs, television hosts in the industry.

The jury comprising of India’s finest food connoisseurs and eminent personalities like AD Singh, Karen Anand, Kunal Vijaykar, Nikhil Agarwal, Rushina Munshaw Ghildiyal, selected winners in each category based on different parameters. The entire selection process was audited by KPMG. Living Foodz also introduced a viewer’s choice award for ‘Lifestyle Entertainer’ and Rocky Singh and Mayur Sharma emerged as the clear winners based on a Twitter poll conducted by the channel.

Speaking at the event, Mr. Punit Goenka, MD & CEO Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd said, “‘Living Foodz - Power List Awards 2016’, is the newest feather in our cap, aimed towards celebrating talent across the food and lifestyle industry. I am extremely proud to witness the growth achieved by Living Foodz over the last year. It is the most viewed and most loved channel in the food and lifestyle genre, and the ratings garnered for each show on this channel reassure the fact that our content recipe is being well appreciated by our audiences across the world. Food as an element, positively impacts each one of us, no matter whichever social spectrum we’re present in. Also the landscape of the food industry is evolving at a tremendous pace. Hence, the Living Foodz - Powerlist Awards endeavors to honour the influencers and thought leaders who are changing the dynamics of the food industry, as well as the social media mavens and unsung heroes who’ve made a social impact and improved access and availability.”

The Living Foodz Powerlist Award winners for 2016 include:

JURY CHOICE AWARDS

Wordsmith Award: Madhur Jaffrey

Five Senses Award: Vir Sanghvi

Golden Eye Award: Jignesh Jhaveri - PHOTOLINK

Food Stylist Award: Nitin Tandon

Blogger of the Year Award: Nikhil Merchant

Social Impact Award: Sikkim Government

Urban Hero Award: Gauri Devidayal and Amjad Yousuf- THE TABLE

Chef of the Year Award: Manish Mehrotra

Restaurateur of the Year Award: Riyaaz Amlani

Wellness Award: Anjali Mukerjee

Food Start-Up Award: Abhimanyu Maheshwari - YUMIST

POPULAR CHOICE AWARDS

Lifestyle Entertainer Award: Rocky & Mayur

Food Historian Award: Pushpesh Pant

Spotlight: Chi-ni - The Roseate House

Commenting on the awards, Piyush Sharma, CEO (India and APAC region), Zee Living said, “The Living Foodz Powerlist Awards is honouring the most powerful people in Indian food landscape.  As the most respected and largest food media brand, we at Living Foodz are excited to play an integral role in the growth story of the industry. The recipients of the awards demonstrate innovation and creativity that the industry increasingly demands.”

Launched in September 2015, Living Foodz has successfully sustained its leadership position in the food and lifestyle genre by a combination of innovative engagement opportunities, on-ground properties and highly engaging shows. The channel which is a one-stop destination for food, travel and lifestyle, continues to raise the bar for entertainment in India and lives up to its motto of making food fun!

About Living Foodz

Living Foodz is India’s first international, 24-hour food and lifestyle television channel based in Mumbai, India. It is a part of the Living Entertainment brand of channels, which is owned by Essel Group and distributed within the country by Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited . Launched in September 2015, Living Foodz explores the evolving social status of food, moving out of the confines of the conventional kitchen and home, and into a world of travel, adventure and culture. It’s innovative and path breaking shows aptly capture its philosophy ‘Where Food is Fun’. Living Foodz is the first lifestyle channel in India to fuse premium show formats and international quality with themes that reverberate strongly with the up worldly-mobile urban Indian audience. Travel, adventure, music, fusion food, international cuisine and lifestyle trends are significant elements of the shows. The channel brings the best and most unusual cultural aspects of the subcontinent to viewers.

The channel has a strong line-up of chefs, restaurateurs and food aficionados such as Ranveer Brar, Kunal Kapur, Rocky Singh, Mayur Sharma, Gautam Mehrishi, Vicky Ratnani, Maria Goretti, Pankaj Bhadouria, Ajay Chopra and Rakhee Vaswani. This year, Living Foodz launched its flagship show ‘Ganga, The Soul of India’ which saw actress and producer Dia Mirza on Indian television for the first time. Apart from television programming, the channel also connects with the audience through specially curated events and on-ground celebrations of food and culture. Whilst the channel’s television viewership has climbed rapidly since its launch, it has also garnered a significant online fan following due to its engaging and informative style content. Having raised the bar for Indian lifestyle and entertainment on television, Living Foodz has steadily gathered a strong fan base for its unique offerings, and promises more such fascinating shows in the months to come.

About Living Entertainment Enterprises Pvt Ltd:

Living Entertainment Enterprises Pvt Ltd in India is the company housing all the brands of the Living network belonging to Essel Group. The Living Group of channels already exists in the international markets catering to a large audience in the health and lifestyle space. Living in India aims at bringing alive all things factual with an element of entertainment in order to appeal to global audiences. The Living group of channels in India will truthfully echo the ‘Living’ philosophy and encompass everything that will help one to discover, awaken and transform oneself.

The company’s pioneer channel is Living Foodz the international food & lifestyle channel that has a universal feel and appeals to the new age Indian. In the future the space will see launch of more channels under the Living Entertainment group fulfilling the growing need of Factual Entertainment of the audiences.

Meet the jury

About AD Singh

Over the years, AD Singh has steadily led a gastronomic revolution launching restaurants in Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Pune and Hyderabad that are as beloved for their cuisine as they are for their ambience. AD made his restaurant business debut in 1990 with Just Desserts, a jazz café that served only coffee and desserts, which was an immediate hit. In 2000, AD opened the doors to Olive Bar and Kitchen in Bombay, which he brought to New Delhi in 2003. In 2005, the brand expanded with the launch of Olive Beach in Bangalore. Over the years, under the leadership of AD, Olive has grown into much more than a restaurant, becoming a way of life, a melting pot where life imitates art, and often, the other way around.

In mid 2013 Olive Bistro opened in Hyderabad followed by Gurgaon and Goregaon. Olive Bistro embodies the spirit of the group in a more affordable and casual avatar. Other ventures by AD Singh under the Olive umbrella include Guppy that opened in New Delhi in August 2013 in a lovely new space as a contemporary Japanese bar whose kitchen is a playful wonderland in a modern setting. In December 2013, AD launched SodaBottleOpenerWala at Cyber Hub in Gurgaon which is an ode to the dying legacy of a Bombay Irani cafe. This was followed by openings at Khan Market New Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Noida. In 2015, he launched yet another concept restaurant Ek Bar at Defence Colony, Delhi; the new Indian Cocktail Bar serving a modern menu, inspired by regional Indian cuisine.

Partnered associations include Monkey Bar, India’s first gastropub with a presence both in Bangalore and Delhi and The Fatty Bao, an Asian gastro-bar that is a love child of two fabulous ideas – new Asian-style dining and a cool rooftop bar. The newest addition to the Olive group is Toast and Tonic in Bengaluru. Launched in February, 2016 it is the hippest new bar in town. With Toast and Tonic, the original Monkey Bar returns in a new avatar drenched in East Village chic and full of surprises.

About Karen Anand-Gourmet specialist Karen Anand is a woman of many attributes. She is a Food Consultant, Food Writer and an Entrepreneur, all rolled into one. Karen has been described as 'the Martha Stewart of India’. She has written extensively on the subject of food and wine for 25 years  and has also set up a factory producing gourmet food products under her own brand. 

For ten years, she ran one of Bombay's most successful catering companies specialising in International cuisine. Karen started the city's first European style cheese shop and delicatessen, 'The Grand Cheese Bazaar'. She has also anchored top rated TV shows.  She works internationally and has contributed to restaurant projects in the UK, in particular the hugely successful ‘Bombay café in London‘, Dishoom.

She has written and co-authored many books which have been extremely well received. Karen was awarded the French Food & Spirit Award (Trophée 2006 pour la Culture) for promoting French food and wine for the last two decades in India.

She is the founder of the hugely successful Farmers Markets by Karen Anand, a whole foods food and drink fair, which began in Pune in December 2012 and is now in 9 Indian cities. She also oversees a line of gourmet products under the Pune Farmers’ Market brand.

About Kunal Vijaykar-Kunal Vijayakar is a food writer, author and television personality. A whole generation have watched him eat his way into the hearts of hundreds and thousands of Indians.  He is India’s most recognisable food show host, and the anchor of the country's most popular food show “The Foodie – with Kunal Vijayakar”. A show which ran uninterrupted for nine years completing close to 500 episodes.

He has been a food columnist and writer with The Times of India, Bombay Times, DNA, Asian Age, Mahanagar, and The Week and is currently a food writer and columnist with “The Hindustan Times”. He is the author of “Made In India” – his first cookbook.

He is also an actor, director and Political Satirist, and writer, performer and director of the political satirical show “The News That Wasn’t” and “The Week That Wasn’t”.

About Nikhil Agarwal, CEO & Sommelier- All Things Nice

Nikhil Agarwal, is a trained Sommelier who received his degree in London is the brainchild behind All Things Nice. All Things Nice is India’s leading wine and spirits consultancy that offers specialized services for the wine and spirits industry as well as creates a platform to introduce and educate Indian consumers on wine, spirits and gourmet food by extension. He won the Wine Australia scholarship in 2012 and in 2013 Wine Australia made him their A+ Wine Educator in India and was one amongst five contenders short-listed by the International Wine and Spirit Competition 2015 (IWSC), for The Julian Brind Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Wine and Spirits Industry from contenders from 90 countries.

Nikhil has been in the wine and spirit business for over 17 years, working with companies such as Sula Vineyards, Moet Hennessy and Diageo. He recently has been appointed as Program Director of the Wines Of India Program, an industry initiative which currently has 11 of India’s leading wineries on board. Nikhil lends his written expertise to eminent publications, has been covered by most publications and has been featured on TV channels such as NDTV Profit, Times Now, Bloomberg TV and ET Now. CNBC did a feature on Nikhil as part of the show ‘Young Turks’ in 2013. Currently, Discovery Channel features Nikhil in the show The Flying Wine Maker. Nikhil was voted as India’s TOP 10 Movers & Shakers in Verve magazine in June 2014. Nikhil has been invited by Trade organizations from around the world like to speak about the Indian wine and spirits industry and is considered a thought leader and major influencer in India’s wine and spirits story.

About Rushina Munshaw Ghildiyal-Rushina Munshaw-Ghildiyal is a corporate food consultant, writer, stylist and author with more than 12 years of experience in the Indian food industry. One of India’s pioneering food bloggers, today, she heads A Perfect Bite® Consulting, a premier food consulting firm and APB Cook Studio®, India's first kitchen studio. Her first book, A Pinch of This, A Handful of That, released in December 2013.She is working on 2 more. An expert in Indian and World cuisines and committed to evangelizing home cooking especially with children, she continues to inspire people to cook through her many endeavor and culinary experiences.