Demand rising for Indian chefs in Lanka

Indian culinary experts are in demand in Sri Lanka with both the south and north Indian food becoming a hit with tourists, including Europeans, and locals.

Sri Lanka could be a good bet for experienced chefs seeking greener pastures as hoteliers here are in search of specialty cooks to meet the demand for diverse Indian cuisine.

There are a plenty of options for Indian food from the road side shops selling ‘vada and idlies’ to middle level restaurants to star hotels with exclusive Indian section offering ‘thalis’ and a varieties of north Indian and South Indian cuisine.

Indian cuisine has made such an impact that Indian food festivals have also become a regular feature in the capital city, which has a large concentration of Indian restaurants.

“There is good demand for Indian food not only from visiting Indians, but also from other foreigners and local citizens,” Kasun Mapatuna, Sales Executive, Taj Samudra, told a group of visiting Indian media persons recently.

He said the luxury hotel had one of the finest exclusive Indian restaurants in the city — “Navarathri” — and had four Indian chefs on its rolls. The hotel organized a ‘dosa festival’ a few months back treating the customers to a range of dosas, he said.