After the stupendous success of the inaugural edition held last year, we were delighted to roll out Hospitality Horizon Top Chefs Award 2025 which recognised and honoured culinary wizards and legends in the country. The awards ceremony was held alongside All-India F&B Summit 2025 which brought together an amazing line-up of the best minds in the culinary world for an invigorating exchange of information, ideas and insights.
Held at Trident Bandra Kurla, Mumbai, the event was presented by Haier. Powered by Partners were RICH’S, UNOX and Urban Platter.
The event was held in association with The Food Bloggers Association of India (FBAI), Media Partner The Free Press Journal and Trophy Partner Creative Awards & Rewards and was ably hosted by RJ Gaurav Sharma and Suvir Saran. Senior VP Operations, Trident Hotels & GM Trident Bandra Kurla David Mathews, who was the most gracious host, delivered the welcome note.
Winners of the Jury Choice Awards were decided by the Grand Jury, comprising the who’s who of the food and hospitality industry, while the winners of the Editorial Choice Awards were decided by the esteemed Editorial Board.
As for the summit, there were three engaging panel discussions. The first session, moderated by Sameer Malkani, had a mix of Influencer Chefs, Home Chefs, Independent Chefs & Celebrity Chefs with Guntas Sethi, Saurabh Udinia, Tara Deshpande and Rakesh Sethi sharing their insights.
The next two sessions were moderated by Kalyan Karmakar in his own inimitable way.
The second session was with Standalone Restaurant Chefs and included Manuel Olveira Seller of La Loca Maria and La Panthera, Rahul Akerkar of Aditya Birla New Age Hospitality, Shantanu Mehrotra of Indian Accent, New Delhi and Varun Totlani of Masque.
The summit came to an end with the last session with legendary Hotel Chefs including Nikhil Nagpal from Avartana, ITC Hotels, Naren Thimmaiah from Karavalli, Vivanta Bengaluru, Arjun Singh Yadava from Trident, Nariman Point, Mumbai and Manisha Bhasin from ITC Hotels & WelcomHotels who had the audience glued to their seats with their insights into the culinary world.
The gala event, which was attended by the who’s who of the food and hospitality industry, was accompanied by gala dinner providing a unique opportunity to meet and network with industry stalwarts.
It was a night of celebration for top chefs who stepped out of their kitchens, raised a toast and became the centre of attention.
HALL OF FAME
Suvir Saran, True Palate Hospitality
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT
Davinder Kumar, Le Méridien New Delhi
CELEBRITY CHEF
Harpal Singh Sokhi
CHOCOLATIER OF THE YEAR
Zeba Kohli
PASTRY CHEF OF THE YEAR
Sanjana Patel, La Folie
TOP 10 STANDALONE RESTAURANT CHEFS (IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER)
Dhiraj Dagran, Comorin
Jerry Thomas, GIPL
Krishna Sharma, Swan
Manuel Olveira Seller, La Loca Maria & La Panthera
Niyati Rao, Ekaa
Rahul Akerkar, Aditya Birla New Age Hospitality
Rijul Gulati, Indian Accent, Mumbai
Shantanu Mehrotra, Indian Accent, New Delhi
Varun Totlani, Masque
TOP 10 HOTEL CHEFS (IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER)
(There was a tie for one of the positions, hence, there are 11 winners in this category)
Altamsh Patel, Hilton Mumbai International Airport
Arjun Singh Yadava, Trident, Nariman Point, Mumbai
Arun Mathur, Trident, Bandra Kurla, Mumbai
Ghulam Qureshi, Dum Pukht, ITC Maurya, New Delhi
JP Singh, Bukhara, ITC Maurya, New Delhi
Nikhil Nagpal, Avartana, ITC Hotels
Naren Thimmaiah, Karavalli, Vivanta Bengaluru
Neeraj Tyagi, Grand Hyatt Mumbai
Shubham Thakur, Megu, The Leela Palace New Delhi
Vikramjit Roy, Grand Hyatt Gurgaon
Vividh Patil, Sofitel Mumbai BKC
TOP CORPORATE CHEF (JOINT WINNERS)
Manisha Bhasin, ITC Hotels & Welcomhotels
&
Rakesh Sethi, Radisson Hotel Group
TOP 5 INDEPENDENT CHEFS (IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER)
(There was a tie for one of the positions, hence, there are 6 winners in this category)
Abhijit Saha
Ashish Bhasin
Avijit Ghosh
Gautam Chaudhury
Nishant Choubey
Saurabh Udinia
TOP 5 INFLUENCER CHEFS (IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER)
Guntas Sethi
Natasha Gandhi
Sanjyot Keer
Smita Deo
Tara Deshpande
TOP 5 HOME CHEFS (IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER)
Ananya Banerjee
Kanak Kathuria
Raji Gupta
Sambhaji Balu Atugade
Sherry Mehta
