Bhubaneswar: The Grand Finale of the Subhadra Shakti Traditional Food Competition was held today on 22nd July 2025 at Hotel Mayfair Lagoon, Bhubaneswar, in the gracious presence of Deputy Chief Minister Pravati Parida. The event marked the conclusion of a more than two months-long journey of women in the culinary competition from Block to District and then to State level. The district winners were given a seven-day residential professional training at Institute of Hotel Management, Bhubaneswar. In the Semi-final event at IHM Bhubaneswar, out of 30 district teams 10 teams were filtered to the final round and performed in the final event today at Hotel Mayfair Hotel, in a quiet and serene ambience. Each team was given a work station with cooking gas, induction cooktops, utensils, cutleries and basic ingredients in a pantry provided on the site. Decorations of the work station, presentation hall and green pathways spelled the fervor of a festival.
Organised by the Department of Mission Shakti, Government of Odisha, the competition is part of a larger effort to promote traditional food systems, recognise women’s culinary wisdom, and foster entrepreneurship among Self Help Groups. Today’s event brought together 10 outstanding finalist teams from Cuttack, Mayurbhanj, Dhenkanal, Koraput, Nuapada, Rayagada, Malkangiri, Boudh, Nabarangpur, and Jagatsinghpur, all of whom had earned their place through block and district-level contests and a rigorous semi-final held on 20 July 2025 at the Institute of Hotel Management (IHM), Bhubaneswar.
Gracing the Grand Finale and award ceremony, Deputy Chief Minister Odisha, Pravati Parida welcomed the finalist in Today’s function. She appreciated the spirit of women to come out from their houses and walk step by step to today’s function, amid their never ending household chores. It is the time for women to take the challenge to become entrepreneurs, which is truly women empowerment and step of the Government to translate the vision of Viksit Bharat and Viksit Odisha into reality. Though the aim of the program was to bring the traditional and lost food heritage of the State, the novel initiative of Mission Shakti Department aimed to trigger entrepreneurial spirit among the women. Hon’ble Deputy Chief Minister thanked the officers of Mission Shakti Department for their meticulous planning and execution and team work to make the entire programme successful.
Chef Abinash, the winner of the 6th edition of the MasterChef India was the centre of attraction as the jury of the day. Executive Chef of Mayfair Hotel, Chef Suraj and Executive Chef of Institute of Hotel Management, Chef Sambit Suman acted as the other jury members of the competition. Institute of Hotel Management Bhubaneswar and Hotel Mayfair, Bhubaneswar partnered with Mission Shakti Department in the first of its kind initiative.
Shree Sakambari SHG from Dhenkanal, Maa Gadachandi SHG from Cuttack and Maa Dhana Khetrapal SHG from Mayurbhanj were adjudged as winner, 1st runner-up and second runner-up and were awarded with cash prizes woth ₹2 lakh, ₹ 1 lakh and ₹1.5 lakh respectively.
Among the guests and dignitaries, Commissioner cum Secretary, Mission Shakti Department, Shalini Pandit, Director Mission Shakti, Dr. Monica Priyadarshini, Additional Secretaries and staff of the Department were present.
