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Taste good, look good By Esther
Williams The German
chef, whose last stint was at Colombo Hilton, brings with him expertise
and experience that he has gained from serving at various high-end
hotels in the Hilton group, in Germany, Japan, Maldives, India,
Sri Lanka and South Korea and the Intercontinental Group for over
24 years. Chef Ralph
has a special cooking style that appeals to the five senses. "Food
should look cooked, taste good, smell good…and so on,"
he says. With an immense database of over 50,000 recipes, he is
known in town - his speciality being international cooking with
a local flavour. Chef Ralf has been delegated to supervise openings or re-branding in many hotels in the Hilton group-Maldives, Bangalore, Jaic Hilton, etc. "Openings in any hotel are important occasions," Chef Ralf explains: New chefs need to be trained and supervised, trade tests need to be done, preparation and presentation needs to be supervised in addition to the new menus and recipes that need to be implemented.” In the month
that he has been at the Mount Lavinia Hotel, he has been involved
in kitchen management and restructuring of the whole kitchen. Being
Kitchen Director, he explains involves preparation, marketing, leadership,
training, although the cooking part is still there. "Kitchen Technology does not stop in the kitchen," Chef Ralf adds and hence he determines the presentation of the welcoming drink, the fruit baskets in each room that would contain specialized fruits to show tourists what Sri Lankan fruits are. He spoke of
the importance of authentic taste. "Whatever I prepare, be
it the Thai beef salad or the Vietnamese Spring Roll, it should
be authentic." The native
German Kitchen Master has a depth of knowledge of both European
and Asian cuisines. "I can cook anything - Asian, Thai, Vietnamese
and continental, including German food from my country of origin." Diners at the
hotel will be able to sample his fare in the theme buffets, which
he says are an experience in itself. The exotic buffets lined up
would feature Sri Lankan Night, courtesy the in-house Sri Lankan
Chef (Mondays), Vegetarian night (Tuesdays), 'Silk Road' that would
comprise of Asian specialities, an area where Chef Ralf would make
strong contributions (Wednesdays), Arabic (Thursdays), Barbeque
(Fridays), Italian (Saturdays) and Chef's specialities (Sundays). He also intends
to upgrade the beach experience and provide specialized items in
the A la Carte menu. The dessert table is another aspect that he
is working on. "Desserts should have something frozen, something
crispy and something hot." Chef Ralf sincerely
hopes that the hotel would someday become like Singapore's world
famous Raffles Hotel, a colonial style hotel with a name synonymous
with sophistication and elegance. At the Mount
Lavinia Hotel School, Chef Ralf gives lessons on hygiene and new
trends in cooking. Further, at
the hotel he intends to implement HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical
Control Point), a system that was developed internationally to provide
a uniform programme to assure safer meat and poultry products. Chef
Ralf’s expertise will also be extended to Club Bentota, BMICH,
banquets, conferences, outside catering operations and other new
projects the hotel may have in the future. Chef Ralph
qualified as a Kitchen Master in Germany soon after which he served
as a young chef in a fine dining restaurant, the best in the NW
countryside of Germany (Aachen), close to the Dutch border. He then went
on to the military service and was in charge of the Officers' Mess.
From there he joined the Inter-Continental Hotel Group and served
at Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Washington and Chicago. Having been in Sri Lanka for six years, Ralf Vogt likes rice and curry and the island's culture. With many good friends and his family here, it feels like home. Giving Asian second names to both his children - Alexander Kenichi (10) and Maximilian Lanka (5) endorses the fact. |
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