Chennai Chef Wins Lifetime Achievement Award For His Culinary Contributions In London

Renowned chef Kothandaraman Damodaran was conferred recently with the 'Lifetime Achievement Award' at the Global Food, Hospitality and Tourism Achievements 2021 that took place in London. Popularly known as 'Chef Damu', the 67-year-old chef was awarded for the valuable contribution made in the culinary world.

The ceremony took place in the House of Commons at the British Parliament on Friday, November 5. The award was instituted by the World Tamil Organisation in the UK and the veteran chef was the first-ever recipient of the award. It was attended by the who's who of the hospitality world, including popular figures belonging to the Tamil community in the country. Sharing his achievement on Instagram, he thanked everyone who played an integral part in his illustrious journey.

'Feel Greatly Honoured'

Speaking to The Hindu, Damodaran was quite ecstatic after receiving the award. He said, "I feel greatly honoured to be selected by the WTO for this prestigious award. This category was launched this year by the WTO and I am the first person to be selected for the award." He added that the event was special for him as he got to meet famous personalities from the culinary world. From John Wood, former chef at Dubai's Burj Al Arab, to Chef Ellan Prem Appadurai, the former head chef at Harrods in London, the ceremony was a star-studded one.

Chef Damu is a popular figure, especially on Tamil television. He hosted a show called 'Cooku with Comali', as well as, judged over 10,000 cooking contests. He is also the president of the South Indian Chef Association, along with being a member of the World Association of Cooks Society. From authoring 29 cookery books to being a recipient of over 100 awards, Chef Damu has done it all. In 2010, he bagged the Guinness World Record for the longest cooking marathon, as he cooked 617 dishes in 24 hours.

Nowadays, he is working on an upcoming cookbook called 'Kalvettu Samayal' that will showcase a collection of ancient recipes from the Sangam period. He used his free time during the pandemic to do his research, where he also found a 3000-year-old recipe as well. Not only that, he took online classes for catering students all around the world and provided consultancy to families and restaurants.

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