On September 25, 2024, the Operations Club at Jaipuria Institute of Management, Jaipur organized an exciting Intercollege Competition, Flavors within Frame: Mastering the Art, which uniquely combined the principles of operations management with the culinary arts. The competition challenged participants to not only create delicious dishes but also think strategically about resource management, waste management, and time optimization. A total of 30 teams, including participants from JIM Jaipur, IIIM, IRM, and ICFAI University registered for this thrilling event. Following an initial round based on a Kahoot quiz, 15 teams were selected to the final round.

The final round started with solving riddles in which each of the team has to solve riddles within 20 minutes to gather their required ingredients. Once the riddles were solved, participants had 5 additional minutes to collect their ingredients by exchanging chits with the coordinators. After that teams were given 40 minutes to prepare their dishes, focusing on resource optimization, quality management and waste reduction. Once the dishes were ready, participants notified the coordinators, and the judges began their evaluations.
 

The dishes were judged based on four key criteria: 

Variety (10 points for the number of different dishes created), 
Quality (10 points for taste), 
Waste minimisation (5 points for reducing waste)
Presentation (5 points for creativity and presentation).
 

We were privileged to have Chef Mumakshu Pachori from Tea Connect as the external judge, along with the internal judges, Dr. Aparna Mendiratta, Dr. Manpreet Kaur, and Priyanka Yadav. Their expertise added a valuable layer of insight to the evaluation process. The first and third prizes were won by the team from Jaipuria Jaipur, while ICFAI University Jaipur won the second prize.

The event concluded with a heartfelt vote of thanks delivered by Dr. Ajit Kumar Singh, Assistant Professor, who acknowledged the participants' efforts and the judges' valuable contributions. Dr. Singh expressed his sincere gratitude to the Operation Club Chair, Dr. Lokesh Vijayvargy, for his mentorship from the event's inception to its successful conclusion. He also commended the outstanding work of the Operation Club student heads, Kartik Agrawal and Chahat Vijay, along with all the junior coordinators. This unique competition not only showcased the students' culinary talents but also underscored the practical applications of operations management. The combination of strategy and creativity demonstrated how these fields can merge to create a truly memorable experience.

We are also grateful to our sponsor Tea Connect, for offering discount coupons to all participants and lifetime discount coupons to the winners.

Student Experiences:

“I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to the Operations Club for organizing such a beautiful set of activities. The cooking activity, with a chef guiding us, felt like a MasterChef competition! Working in groups taught us teamwork and how to be more productive. The treasure hunt was equally amazing—the hints and the locations were so engaging and well-planned. Overall, both activities were fun and insightful, showing how to make the best use of resources. Kudos to the entire team!”

Chirag Rohilla, Aryan Kabra, Gunjan Arora, Shivin Chawla, Anubhav (JIM, Jaipur)
 

“Your event is just awesome. We learned Management is all about managing minimum resources and getting maximum output like we had to make 11 dishes in 30 minutes. We enjoyed it. We learned time management and resources allocation. Thank you for giving this opportunity, and hoping that more will happen like this. We will love to participate again!”

Vidhi Jain, Akshya Pathak, Akshita Agarwal, Isha Rawat, and Meena Kumari (IIIM, Jaipur)
 

“I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to the Operations Committee for giving us this wonderful opportunity. Our team, "The Taste Makers," proudly secured the 1st position in the cooking competition "Flavours within Frame," winning a cash prize of ₹2,000. The entire experience was filled with excitement and learning, from the Kahoot quiz, where we ranked first, to the treasure hunt, and, of course, the cooking and eating! Our team gave their best effort, and we had so much fun along the way, laughing and bonding over every step. We made five unique dishes, including sushi, which amazed everyone, along with bhelpuri, cucumber boats, bread crumbs chaat, and namkeen bites. The competition was well-organised, and the coordinators were incredibly supportive. We also gained valuable insights into resource optimization - apt for an operations event. A huge thank you to the Operations Committee, faculty, coordinators, and judges for this fantastic experience!”

Harshit Somani, Tanisha Shah, Vidhi Khandelwal, Vandana Mittal, and Radhika Bhardwaj (JIM, Jaipur)

“Participating in the food competition with my team of four was an exciting and memorable experience. The twist of solving riddles to gather ingredients added a fun challenge, making us think on our feet and collaborate effectively. With creativity and teamwork, we took on the “no fire cooking” challenge and managed to create seven unique dishes. The process pushed us to innovate, try new combinations, and work under time constraints, which made it even more thrilling. Every member of the team contributed their strengths, and the result was a diverse spread of delicious dishes. Overall, it was not just about cooking but about problem-solving, teamwork, and having fun in the kitchen.”

Sauhard Suhalka, Hera Pervez, Anmol Agarwal, Samyak Jain, and Khushi Bhutra. (JIM, Jaipur)

“This event, participating in the Flameless Cooking Competition by the Operations Club, became a very enriching experience. Riddle-solving to get the ingredients proved to be quite fun in an intellectual sense and creating a dish through methods which do not use fire posed quite an intellectual and resourceful challenge for each one of us. We managed to obtain the 3rd prize with our products, which was a proud moment, reflecting the amount of effort devoted to the assignment and the dedication we put into it. Thank you, Operations Club, for the thought-provoking design of such an exciting event that enables us to know how deliciously we can cook and generates wonderful learning and improvement in doing things under pressure.”

Himanshi Bagzai, Vanshita Agarwal, Shikha Goyal, Radhika Agarwal and Vanshika Gera (JIM Jaipur)

“We had an amazing experience participating in the 'Flavours Within Flames' cooking competition organized by the Operations Club. The event was well-coordinated, and we thoroughly enjoyed the challenge and creativity it allowed us to explore. The competition gave us a platform to showcase our skills and work together as a team, and it was a great learning opportunity. The entire event was fun, engaging, and extremely well managed. We are thankful to the coordinators for their efforts in making this event memorable for all participants." 
Areeba Suhail, Khyati Luniya,  Rishabh Sain,  Chanchal Kumawat, Vikas Singh (JIM Jaipur).