He is heading the team of four of the United Kingdom's (UK) best chefs traveling to Bangladesh for the third International British Fusion Food Festival brought jointly by Dhaka Sheraton and British culinary magazine Curry Life.

"We are blending the style of Bangladesh with the English way of cooking using all the local spices and ingredients," he said. The other three chefs are Jamal Uddin Ahmed, Oli Khan and Syed Zohorul Islam all of them second generation British born Bangladeshis.

Partha was sharing his experience in cooking at five star hotels both in India and UK. He is the executive chef of the Bengal Dynasty in Flintshire, UK. Prior to that he was in Taj Bengal Hotel in Kolkata and went to UK in 2002.

He is a graduate in hotel management from the catering college in Kolkata. He represented India in many food festivals abroad. He traveled to places with former Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee as his personal chef.

"This is my first time in Bangladesh. We wanted to give the Bangladeshis the taste of what we created abroad and bring the taste of Bengal back," said Jamal Uddin Ahmed, executive chef of Shozna Indian Cuisine, Kent, UK, giving emphasis on learning.

"This time we tried to make it healthier by adding less spice and maintaining the nutritional value. It's very different and modern," he said.

Oli khan, named 'curry king' by the local newspapers, is the executive chef of Surma Tandoori, Hertfordshire, UK. His interest in cooking was spurred while helping his mother prepare food.

Syed Zohorul Islam focuses on North Indian cuisine with a strong Bengali influence. He is the executive chef of The Capital, Durham, UK.

For a long time restaurateurs from Bangladeshi and Indian origins in UK operated on their own sticking to the tradition with resolution which was behind the success of the Indian catering industry with the strong backing of electronic media.

"This is the third year of the fusion food festival and executive chefs from different parts of UK are participating. We are inviting guests to have a taste of the foods by our four ingenious chefs," said Greg Morgan, executive chef, Dhaka Sheraton.

"Fusion is 'east and west coming together' to soothe the pallet of food buffs and aficionados," said Partha.

A series of 'fusion' meals for dinner will be served with some spicy twists on traditional dishes, such as spicy flaked fish with sherry and walnut dressing, roasted red pepper soup with croutons grilled lemon chicken with carrots, he said.

"In my family I am the only one in this business. I had the interest for cooking when I was only 13," said Jamal while he is 17 years into this profession. When he was 16 years of age he stood out as the best chef in a national curry chef compe-tition and was runner-up in another national competition organised by the Food Stan-dard Agency of UK.

"One of the perquisites of working as a chef in five-star hotels is you will have the chance to meet renowned personalities. I met politicians like Hilary Clinton and CEOs of many big companies and really like it," said Partha.

"We love to inspire the young generation to take cooking as a promising career," he said.

There are 50 different dishes in this festival with 14 hot items. The festival started from August 26 in the ballroom of Sheraton and will continue till August 29 in the Bithika restaurant of Sheraton. It will cost Tk 1600 per person. After their mission in Dhaka the team will leave for Kolkata.

The festival is not about food only. It displays the diversity of multicultural UK and the efforts of West Bengal and Bangladesh to forge friendship and tolerance beyond boundaries.