A starter is where a meal begins to become interesting. It introduces new flavours, creates curiosity, and gives you a hint of what is still to come.
For me, that curiosity grew when I began my B.Sc. in Hospitality and Hotel Administration at Jagran Lakecity University (JLU), Bhopal.
Until then, hospitality had always been a part of my life because of my family and our restaurant background. But entering hotel school allowed me to experience the hospitality industry from a completely different perspective. For the first time, I was not simply growing up around a restaurant — I was beginning to understand the industry, management, operations, and knowledge behind hospitality.
Initially, I was particularly interested in the management side of hospitality. I enjoyed understanding how hotels and restaurants operate, how teams work together, and how different departments contribute to the overall guest experience.
But somewhere during my first year, food started pulling me in. I became curious about ingredients, cooking techniques, flavours, cuisines, food preparation, and the knowledge behind the dishes we serve. The kitchen gradually became more than just another department of hospitality. It became a place where I could experiment, learn, make mistakes, improve my skills, and challenge myself.
The Turning Point — Battle of Biryani
Then came 2019. During my third semester, I participated in a national-level cooking competition in Bangalore called Battle of Biryani.
I decided to take the competition seriously. For more than a month, I prepared, practised, refined my ideas, and worked on every detail I could control. It was not simply about preparing a dish; it was about understanding the food, improving my technique, and presenting something I could be proud of.
And then came the moment I still remember. I won the Gold Medal.
Of course, winning felt incredible. But looking back, the medal was not the most important thing I took home from that competition. The experience changed the way I saw myself as a hospitality student and aspiring culinary professional.
For the first time, I realised that I was not pursuing food simply because it was part of my family background. I genuinely enjoyed the process of learning about food, preparing it, competing with it, and constantly trying to make it better.
Food was not just a part of my heritage. It was becoming my own journey.
My family restaurant gave me my first taste of hospitality. Jagran Lakecity University, Bhopal, gave me the academic knowledge to understand the hospitality industry. But Battle of Biryani in 2019 gave me something equally important: the confidence to believe that I could create my own place within the culinary world.
From that point onwards, I stopped simply following my family's story. I started writing my own.
