Anjan Chatterjee, the man behind Mainland China and Oh! Calcutta, is setting up Mainland Insitute of Oriental Catering (MIOC) in Salt Lake.As the name suggests, MIOC will specialise in training students in the finer points of Chinese, Thai, Malaysian, Indonesian and other Far Asian cuisines. "There will also be a special, six-month course on Bengali food," Chatterjee said. The idea, according to Chatterjee, is to take advantage of Bengal's traditional expertise in the area. "As much as 40 percent of the manpower in hotels and restaurants in India have passed through the catering colleges in the state." Also, with more and more Indians taking to exotic southeast Asian cuisines and given the expanding business relations with countries in the region, the institute would cater to the increasing need for specialised staff, he said.The students of MIOC would also help to meet the demand for around 3,000 staff at the 40 new restaurants Chatterjee plans to set up this year with an investment of Rs 150 crore.Laying the foundation stone, Chief Minister of West Bengal Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said that institutes like MIOC, together with the large number of hotels being set up in the state, were an indication of the robustness of the hospitality sector and the state of the economy as a whole. He also had a special request for Chatterjee: "Please keep Japanese cooking in mind also since it is in West Bengal that the Japanese have the largest volume of foreign direct investment in India."The state government has allotted 25 kathas for the intitute, which is being built at a cost of Rs 12 crore. It will accommodate 3,000 students for various courses of 6-month, 18-month and 3-year duration. The faculty at MIOC, which will open within a year, will comprise of chefs already working with Chatterjee at various restaurants.
