On 10 January 2020, Miss Sweeya Santipitaks, Consul-General of Thailand in Kolkata, attended the Thai cuisine cooking demonstration under the “Thai Fest” event, to promote Thai food products among the Indian public at Nature’s Basket supermarket, Park Street branch, Kolkata, West Bengal, India.

                 The activity was organised by Nature’s Basket, a chain of retail supermarkets under Spencer's Retail Ltd., which focus on the import and the distribution of high-quality food products for high-end customers. Its Park Street Branch is the first leading supermarket of Kolkata which offers a variety of Thai seasonings and ingredients on its permanent Thai product shelves.

                      The Consul-General of Thailand, as a Guest of Honour, delivered her welcoming address to thank Nature’s Basket for organising this activity and introduced the Indian Chef Ms. Zara Chisthty Adedin who had completed a Professional Thai Chef Diploma in Bangkok. The Chef demonstrated how to cook Thai dishes namely Vegetarian Green Curry and Chicken Satay, with the Thai ingredients and seasonings available at Nature’s Basket and persuaded attendants to taste them. In addition, the Consul-General of Thailand also encouraged the audience to experience varieties of Thai flavours by visiting Thailand.

                      On this occasion, the executive of Nature’s Basket thanked Royal Thai Consulate-General for supporting “Thai Fest” cooking demonstrations and commented that Thai food was amongst the most popular foods of India.

                 This activity was the last in the series of “Thai Fest” events under Spencer’s and Nature’s Basket, with an objective to boost the popularity and sales of imported food products from Thailand. The said Indian supermarket chains had been associated with the Royal Thai Consulate-General, Kolkata, and in launching a number of Thai cuisine demonstrations from 15 December 2019 till 10 January 2020 at Spencer's, South City Mall Branch, and Spencer's, Quest Mall Branch. Moreover, Spencer’s also organised Thai cuisine cooking demonstrations in collaboration with the Office of Commercial Affairs, New Delhi, at supermarkets in New Delhi and in Gurgaon, Haryana. Nature’s Basket executive reported an increase of 82 percent in their overall sales of Thai food products, during the “Thai Fest” campaign.