Culinary art or food culture plays a major role in the promotion of tourism, according to culinary art maestro, Sri Lankan-born, Canadian citizen, Ruwan Jayakody.
A repeated Gold Medalist at the Culinary Olympics, Mr Jayakody had the rare distinction to represent Canada and led the Canadian Culinary Team at the Culinary World Cup 2010 that was held in Luxemburg that also won several golds.
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| Picture shows Chef Ruwan Jayakody (right) Canada having a closer look at one of the food preparations by one of the competing chefs at the Culinary Art 2011 at the BMICH. |
Mr Jayakody, a product of the then Ceylon Hotel School and nurtured by the Chefs Guild of Sri Lanka, being one of its pioneer members, had served many top hotels in Sri Lanka and last served as the Executive Pastry Chef at Mount Lavinia Hotel before emigrating to Canada in 1996.
The Business Times (BT) had the opportunity to exclusively feature Chef Jayakody before he led the Canadian Team to Luxemburg (BT 14/11/2010). Now he runs his own Ruwan Culinary Inc O/A Ruwan’s Cake Art – Toronto to become a major supplier of fine pastries and culinary creations to the hotels and restaurants in the Toronto area,
Mr Jayakody was in Sri Lanka this week to be part of the panel of 33 International judges drawn from various countries at the Culinary Art 2011 – Sri Lanka’s biggest food and hotel show presented by the Chefs Guild of Sri Lanka which was concluded at the BMICH last Monday.
This judging process is a meticulous task where they had to look at the eye catching appearance, actual cooking, combination of ingredients, conformity to standards and tasting every food item vied for awards by 1,460 competing chefs. Top achievers at Culinary Art could have a chance to compete at Culinary Olympics.
Squeezing time between one competition to another, Mr Jayakody told BT that he is striving hard to promote Sri Lankan Tourism in Canada, but the long distance from Sri Lanka to Canada is a major constraint. He said that this problem could be eased to some extent if the national airlines could offer concessionary rates or direct flights to and from Canada.
He said that they themselves cannot handle the promotional network as it involves a wider task but in their small way they are holding Sri Lankan Food Courts. Promoting Sri Lankan indigenous food, fruits and vegetable and blending them with other Western and international food, was another way of promoting the country, he said adding that there are fruits like Gaduguda, Bovitia, Ma-dam, Kirilla, Baaloliya etc.
He said tea could be blended in dishes and cinnamon could be promoted in combination with other ingredients or alone as a drink but in promoting these new items their nutritional value, healthiness should be carefully analyzed. He said that Sri Lanka should promote more healthy food, good for heart patients and diabetes.
He said that food experts are now concerned about food preparation as the world is gripped by alarming mortality ratesby consuming different kinds of food. They are very particular in the use of sugar, salt and fat. But he said whatever the circumstances, people like to eat sumptuous and tasty food – same as drinking and smoking.
He said that kitchen and chefs are an integral part of the travel industry and good food served in hotels gives a particular identify and hotels and countries would be identified by their special kind of food. In hotels and at home, the kitchen provides life, food for human survival and it’s cleanliness is of paramount importance. Mr Jayakody said that a well kept and well maintained kitchen is a life giving asset at home or for hotels and keeps nations healthy. |
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