Noida: Orane Kids School, a Noida-based school for children and adults with special needs, on the Autism spectrum tried to encourage important vocational and life skills by conducting a virtual cooking competition – Super Special Chef – which was held from February 20 to 28. The result for which was declared on Thursday.
The competition was open to people of different age categories – 7 years to 10 years, 11 years to 17 years, and 18 years and above. The participants tried to represent their creativity and culture through their food platters.
Sonia Jaitly, Director and Founder said in a statement, “Super Special Chef is an initiative that reaches out to all the persons across disabilities. It is a platform to showcase and celebrate uniqueness and diversity. It is a journey that started out as a competition but culminated in bridging boundaries and strengthening the community at large.”
The panelists shortlisted the semi-finalists from the 10-minute video entries submitted, out of which, these were the people who were selected as the winners of the competition.
Under the category of 7 years-11years, Jaya Sanvika bagged the first position before Aradhya Ravindra Margi, who bagged the second position next to Rudra Puranik, as the runner up.
Under the age category of 12 years-17 years, Joanne Rodriquez scored the first position, Abhinandan Ajit Ghodake bagged the second position before Deeptiman Pani and Sachin Balanad who tied as runner ups.
Under the age category of 18 years and above, Dakshay Suhas Rane bagged the first position, next to Nishi Himatlal Vohra in the second position followed by Shubam Taneja as a runner up.
Puja Khatri, Head Vocational and Residential said in her statement, “Cooking is all about people. Food may be the only universal thing that really has the power to bring everyone together.”
Urooz Hussain, who is also a daughter of the rainbow, a model, social worker, and a proud trans woman, judged the final rounds of this competition. Hussain said, “It was a heart-touching experience for me. Now I have many additions to my family with lots of super-powered siblings.”
The event was planned to provide a much-deserved respite and recreation to the special needs community and also served as a platform for integration of the special needs community with society.
