Ifto Team

Chef Rajeev Goyal is one of more popular names in culinary tourism field of India. He is the co-founder of India’s oldest culinary tour company, India Food Tour and has been leading a number of culinary activities like food tours, cooking classes, spice introductions, tea tasting tours in a New Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, Varanasi, Udaipur, Kochi and a few others in India since 2011.

His food tours and cooking classes have won Tripadvisor’s Certificate of Excellence annually since 2012 and have been featured in a number of publications including Time of India, Hindustan Times, Navbharat Times and many others.

He operated a popular Indian restaurant and provided consultancy to a number of restaurants and gastronomy related businesses over the years. He also provides guidance and mentorship to students and professionals in the culinary and tourism fields in addition to working guest lecturer in a few educational institutions.
His long work in the culinary field, extensive travels across the world and experience of operating a fine dining restaurant makes him one of the best people in India to lead a culinary tour.

An engineer from IIT, a trained tea taster, and educator & vendor to some of the most prestigious HoReCa brands. He has 35+ years of experience in the world of teas, has 2 self-published books, likes to work on all 7 days of the week, and is a teetotaler. He truly believes in simple living and high thinking. He has innovated numerous ways to help the people of India at a grass root level through his work. He has been awarded appreciation certificates by various expat communities in Delhi and also by the very esteemed – Air Force One.

Chef Gautam Chaudhry represents the exclusive group of creative chefs who pioneered the trend of Progressive Indian Cuisine. Having started his career with the Radisson Group, Chef Gautam went on to work with The Oberoi’s. He was instrumental in launching Threesixty degrees at The Oberoi’s New Delhi, before heading to Tanzore Restaurant & Lounge in Beverly Hills, USA. He came back to India and rejoined the Radisson Group briefly.

He followed this with a long and successful stint with the Hyatt Group through their Hyderabad and Bengaluru properties. When in Bengaluru, he conceptualized the award-winning restaurant The Pink Poppodom wherein he reshaped the perception of Indian Cuisine with his bold & contemporary cooking. He has been involved in multiple succefful projects which include 38 Barracks and Pink Poppdom restaurants, Demiurgic Hospitality and Giant Foods LL.

He has won multiple awards including Silver Hat Award by Indian Culinary Forum, The Most Promising Entrepreneurs by Economic Times among a few.

Jaidev Jamwal is co-founder of multiple specialty tourism brands involved in activities which include culinary tourism, travel photography and experiential travel in multiple states across India.

Some of the brands like India Photo Tour, India Food Tour and Delhi Bar Crawl are pretty well established and very popular with tourists looking to have an offbeat and enjoyable experience in India.

Many of these have won multiple Awards Of Excellence from platforms such as Tripadvisor and have been featured in multiple national and international publications such as Hindustan Times, Times of India, Navbharat Times and Comida’s.

He is also working on with multiple projects related to sustainable and eco-friendly tourism with special focus on gastronomy and preservation of local cultures of tribal, rural and mountainous regions of India.

Chef Sanjay Agrawal is one of the most successful and talented chefs in India, who turned entrepreneur by opening the nation’s first fresh-tossed salad concept, established in 1993 called Saladchef (a chain of Salad bar & Fast food restaurants). Chef Sanjay trained his culinary instincts from IHM Jaipur in 1986 and started his professional journey with Taj Palace, New Delhi. After absorbing the best in the main kitchen and Italian restaurant at Taj, Chef Sanjay joined Sunset House, George Town (Caribbean) and gained exposure to the Caribbean, Mexican Cuisine and Modern American cuisine. His inclination towards a healthy lifestyle led to the birth of Salad Chef and over time, he has emerged as the pioneer in introducing the calorific count against the products in the menu. Till date, his venture Salad Chef has been extensively covered by prominent media houses like BBC Good food, Outlook, Times of India, Hindustan Times, The Pioneer, Navbharat Times.

Alaka’s expertise lies in the fields of Business Development, Hospitality , Strategic Planning & Implementation, Human Capital Management, Marketing & PR, Project Management & Consultancy, Event Management and Crisis & Contingency Planning. Her adeptness has been aptly demonstrated time and again in multiple Professional wants across her career spread.

Alaka’s Unique Proposition lies in her ability to don many hats with equal élan. In addition to her entrepreneurial panache and a professional body of competencies, she is deeply involved in promotion of Indian teas. and culinary tourism.

Shikha comes from a family of chefs. Her maternal grandparents and uncles are running a Satvik restaurant in Kolkata and this skill of chef has been passed on from generations. Being a foodie since childhood, she always wanted to be in control of what she wanted to eat, and hence she made a constant run to her mother with requests for what she wanted for her next meal.

She has utilised these experiences to operate food tours and cooking classes for international as well as local tourists with great success.

Jyoti Gupta is a self-professed food lover and experimental cook who has extensive experience of working in culinary tourism industry. Over the years, she has worked in various capacities in a number of travel related activities food tours, cooking classes, bar crawls and tea tasting. Among her many hats, she also operates her own clothing design brand, Designs By Jyoti.