The latest additions to MLH :

Nuevo Latino cuisine

Demi Hewamanna

Chef Indika Jayawardena hails from S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavnia and he flew off to the US to finish his higher studies and follow something technological but decided later on that “it” wasn’t what he was made to do.

He is the newest addition to Mount Lavinia Hotel and so far he is very much enjoying it there and participating in the delightful culinary events the hotel hosts.

“I am passionate about cooking”, Indika said. Begging his love for cooking in the United States, Indika has been working New Jersey and Philadelphia and for seven years has been in the US.

First he began at the Washington Square Rest with celebrity Chef Marcuz Samuelson and was there for one and half years, then he was with Chef Jose Garcez at El Vez in Philadelphia and then at Pluckemin Inn in New Jersey. Later on he was the Sous Chef at the Adaaran Water Villas in Madlives.

“I like to use French and Japanese techniques as they are clean and straight forward and I want to ”, he added.

I want people to experience freshness in what they eat. I like to serve people with a variety of small courses and like to spread it out and have few elements around them.

I want to educate people to renew further in cuisine.

As he says he wants to showcase some of the best locally sourced ingredients that Sri Lanka has to offer and the best techniques and present them in a not-so-traditional manner.

The ingredients are mostly local, but the presentation has some flair to it. The thought process behind the dishes created is a little more in depth, with emphasis on individual flavour profiles and textural elements in the dish.”

Indika’s roots are organic, but his influences are broadly Latin American, Japanese and French. Indika occasionally does wonders with locally sourced ingredients and local seafood however with the techniques taking on global influences.

But on the whole, bright Latin flavors and Indika’s unfettered enthusiasm combine in an array of dishes that definitely needs to ventured.

Indika describes his food as “Contemporary American cuisine with an emphasis on Nuevo Latino American cuisine,” but since then he’s expanded his repertoire to include his own interpretations of dishes from across the world, and now surfaces a Nuevo blend.