Special chefs of Rohtak varsity’s food truck show culinary skills

Sunit Dhawan

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Tribune News Service

Rohtak, August 16

Himanshu and his sister Himani, students at the Centre for Disability Studies in Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU), are super-excited about a new venture — a food truck start-up launched on the campus on the occasion of Independence Day.

Himanshu and Himani, both of whom are speech and hearing impaired, serve as chefs in the food truck, which has been rolled out by the university’s Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) and provides them an opportunity to exhibit their culinary skills.

Within a day of its launch, the brother-sister duo has started winning the hearts of visitors as well as the university officials involved in the project.

The food truck, named Dafeteria (to emphasize the involvement of deaf chefs), was inaugurated by Dr Sharanjeet Kaur, the chairperson of the Rehabilitation Council of India.

Dr Alka Rao, Advisor, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), was the guest of honour at the inaugural ceremony, while MDU Vice-Chancellor Rajbir Singh presided over the event.

The venture, based on the motto ‘Good Food, Great Cause’, has been designed by MDU student Padmajai and alumni Sahil and Mandeep under the mentorship of Ashish Dahiya, Director, Institute of Hotel and Tourism Management at the university.

“The food truck initiative aims at empowering the deaf community by providing them opportunities to excel as chefs and frontline service professionals. We plan to launch such food trucks in the other universities of the state,” says Prof Dahiya, adding that the launch of Dafeteria also heralds the introduction of the country’s first-ever Certificate Course in Food-Truck Operations to be offered by the MDU.

The project is closely aligned with several sustainable development goals of the United Nations, he maintains.