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