Why We Ride
We are doing something as dangerous as riding motorbikes on India’s highways.
We are doing this for the young chefs of tomorrow on campus today who are having difficulties funding their culinary education. Our motorbike ride across India is to raise funds for the Culinary Scholarship Programme. This is the launch year of this programme, which we hope to nurture – with industry support – into an enduring institution that provides the support structure for culinary students who currently lack it.
Fundraiser
This is no ordinary fundraiser, our target is a minimum of INR 10,00,000/- (Ten Lakh Rupees). In exchange, we are offering one special motorbike, the Royal Enfield Himalayan 450, a world-renowned vehicle via a lucky draw of just INR 250/- per coupon. With this calculation, we need a minimum of 4,000 coupons purchased. That’s not a small challenge neither one that is too big.
We are a big country and industry. So hey, this target is very achievable.
We will only announce the winner once we achieve the 10 lakh target, not before.
The Ride Across India
This website is dedicated to explain all details of our ride. We’re calling it Chefs Ride 2025, the reasoning is fairly obvious. Though not only chefs will be riding with us. Many from other departments of hospitality and other sectors of all business will be riding with us, in shorter stages, something similar to a relay.
We estimate we will ride 4,500 kms from start to finish, Panjim to Jammu. With at least 25 long distance riders and many, many, many more joining us for shorter distances. There is a fair amount of excitement in the riding community for Chefs Ride 2025.
Check out our route and schedule on our home page. We are based in Mapusa, Goa, the state has a thriving culinary culture, so it makes sense to start from here.
In all, we will have 10 events in 10 cities on this ride, starting with Panjim, then Southwards to Mangaluru and Eastwards to Bengaluru. From there on, it is all Northwards, with Hyderabad, Nagpur, Bhopal, Jaipur, Delhi-NCR, Chandigarh and finally Jammu. We would like to do more, though that is as much as we can manage this time.
The Meet-Ups
We call the events in each of the 10 cities a ‘meet-up’, because that is what we hope it will be, a meeting of diverse professions and communities for the benefit of the young ones.
From hospitality owners, operators, professionals, students and faculty to the local motorbike riding clubs and the lovely Robins of the Robinhood Army, our meet-up is open to all and we hope to have at least 150 people per venue. With such diversity, we guarantee it is going to be a fun evening to remember for the right reasons for a long time.
Generally scheduled for the early evening, the precise schedules and activities will vary and be shared here in January.
The Scholarships
If we are successful in achieving our target of INR 10 lakh by the end of the ride (Feb ’25), we will announce the lucky draw winner in a live web broadcast in early March ’25.
The scholars, those we will support, will be selected from the applications received. Any current hospitality student can apply, for themselves or on behalf of others. The application will be released either in mid-December ’25 or early January ’25. There are no charges to apply.
As 10 lakhs is not too large a fund for a large country and we need to help as many as possible, we have some basic guidelines. The scholars will be selected based on background checks and interviews by industry leaders. Each will receive a minimum of INR 25,000/- as reimbursement or advance of their current course fees, paid directly to their campus.
The scholars we seek to support are those that are highly motivated and deserving culinary students who unfortunately are financially weak. Our support will continue through the first three years of careers, with mentoring, high quality internships and advance job placements as well.
Of course, full details will be released along with the scholarship application form.