Instant caterer with a 3-course meal?

Imagine dishing out a three course meal in 20 minutes? Food Factory will just show you all the possibilities coming to your rescue as a professional ‘instant’ caterer.

Conceptualised and executed by Michelle Saelen, a Sri Lanka- based culinary food consultant who came to the limelight when he launched the Deli Market 10 years ago, this new model in ‘chefing’ aims to introduce a fully functional, professional commissary kitchen offering the convenience of standardised quality fresh, ready to use and ready to serve solutions for the modern chef and home maker.

Aptly named the Food Factory, the 205 Vauxhall Street space in Colombo 2 is any fanatical cook's or for that matter any incurable food addict’s fantasy come true.

“We strive to bring the benefit of locally grown specialty produce ‘ready to use’ and its own creations of fresh, naturally produced gourmet foods, ‘ready to serve’ to as many consumers and chefs in Sri Lanka,” Saelen told The Sunday Times FT.

He said that it is important to recognise that today's consumer is more conscious and knowledgeable about their food with an increasing amount of customers now insisting on fresher quality, convenient to use yet cost effective ingredients.“The food factory conceptualised on this basis, providing premium quality fresh produce and food products, ready -to- use and usable to the last gram’, while eliminating the tedious procedure in selecting, purchasing, processing and also waste,” he explained, adding that the Rs.17 million venture is entirely financed by him without any financial assistance.

He said that the Food Factory addresses several needs of chefs of leading hotels and restaurants, such as meeting the growing demand for unique ready -to- use freshly made products and produce, which are at times, not readily available. “There is also the convenience, which allows the chef to focus on the intricacies of creative food preparations rather than the cost and control of wastage, training, supervision and the control of payroll,” he explained.

“People are smarter about the food they eat these days and more customers have turned to fresh food and consider the convenience.

The food factory will provide convenience for people who are to busy to slush about food preparations, but care about what they eat,” he added. He also said that there is a tremendous shortage of professional chefs in many hotels and restaurants at any given time and the Food Factory aims to fill this gap.

“We already supply the bakery products to some hotels and also specialty products are provided at times. We plan to extend this line gradually,” he added.

He added that the entire ‘factory’ has a ‘show cooking’ concept and anyone can visit the factory at any time. He said the staff strength of 40 has all ages ranging from 18 years to 70 years. “Some of them started their careers at the Deli Market 10 years ago,” he said, adding that the company’s strength lies mainly in sound training recognising their potential.

Saelen has many other plans in mind such as opening up a hotel school with an international collaborator. “This is a long term plan, but at present I aim to create more awareness in the ready to use and ready to serve solutions,” he said.