Playing foodie in the city

Chennai Food Guide (CFG), a community for food lovers from different walks of life, will celebrate its eighth anniversary on September 29 at the Residency Towers. The event will have as many as 200 people participating and will perhaps be one of the largest food-related events in the city.

What started as a community on Orkut in 2005 with an aim of bringing ardent foodies from across diverse fields together, has now grown into a massive group catering to  over 10, 000 food lovers in the city. This is done through various social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and the latest Pinterest.

“The event will comprise fun, music and food. You get to meet our members and business operators who have been pillars of support for CFG,” he adds.

Over the last eight years, the group has been actively involved in a handful of food-related events such as workshops, food photography, baking, barbecuing, biryani cookout and jungle survival among others. CFG also covers and features small shops, eateries, and road side establishments.

“Using this robust social media platform, people from all walks of life discuss various aspects of food,” says Muhamad Ali, moderator, CFG.

According to CFG, the strength of the group lies in its registered blogging team of over 30 Bloggers (each of the bloggers has more than a thousand followers and are popular) who receive invitations by restaurants for a CFG restaurant showcase.

CFG Bloggers Meet, where the bloggers focus on showcasing and highlighting the new restaurants and what they offer. The group has recently introduced a new programme — CFG Diners Club — to promote special and exclusive dining experiences for select restaurants, in and around Chennai.

It is an exclusive event which offers fine dining experiences along with educating people on cuisine and networking.

The group will soon be launching its website, as well, which will serve as an organised food guide.

“Currently, the information is all over, on the many networking sites we host. The exclusive site for CFG will serve as a one-point-reference. Information will be archived more systematically to ensure that valuable information is shared and controlled,” says Ali.