Culinary Challenge 2011 - Food with a twist

When one has tasted it, he knows what angels eat - Mark Twain:

Demi HEWAMANNA

It was another successful night for Jetwing Hotels, as it concluded the Jetwing Culinary Challenge 2011 last week at the newly re-launched Jetwing Blue and bringing out true talents of Chefs from all the Jetwing Hotels.

Just like any other challenge, the chefs of seven Jetwing Hotels were given the chance to showcase their talent and let the country’s leading chefs judge their work and people of the media as well as special invitees were invited to taste these master creations.

The competition began in the morning with everything coordinated and dealt with by the culinary teams of the Jetwing hotels. In the morning session the challenge demonstrated the chef’s style and belief into their menus. Hilton Colombo Executive Chef Rohan Fernandopulle showcased a signature dish and the candidates had to recreate the same dish in a given period of time. Through this, the chefs learnt about the constant changes made to a dish and how to prepare dishes according to guest’s preferences and be ready with the recipe.

“The candidates gave their 100 percent in striving to recreate the dish, and they certainly succeeded in it. It was a dish named Two Dancers of a Negombo Sea, the name coming from two of the main ingredients, a lobster and a modha fish (barramundi),” Chef Rohan stated.

After the morning challenge, the chefs were divided into two from each hotel for the team challenge. Each team selected a work station and black box containing ingredients that they had to put to use to some extent. With these they had to prepare a five course menu for dinner – the course we had.

After the guests had a chance to experience the five-course meal of the selected team chefs. It was a tough choice for the judges as they are the ones who had to choose a winner.

From seven teams the winner to take the trophy home was Jetwing Blue with its chefs Daya Wickramasinghe and Kumudu Waruna de Silva. Their course included succulent herb-crusted rack of lamb slow roasted along with accompaniments and a lip smacking dessert of a chocolate and strawberry cheese mousse tower and warm banana cream pudding. Chef Wasantha Kumara of Jetwing Sea was the winner of the Culnirary Chef Challenge.

Winner of the Best Starters, Best Soup and Best Dish went to Jetwing Blue’s Chefs Daya Wickramasinghe and Kumudu Waruna de Silva. Best Dessert was won by Chef E G Wajira and Chef M A Nanda Kumara of Jetwing Lighthouse. In the Culinary Challenge the second runner up was Chef M A Madushanka of Jetwing Beach and the first runner up was K M Lakshman of Jetwing St Andrews.

“I am especially proud of the initiative shown by our chefs, their talent and potential is unsurpassed. Gastronomy has always been a part of Jetwing, as we certainly feel that good food is an important part of not only a resort chain, but a part of our culture as Sri Lankans as well,” Jetwing Chairman Hiran Cooray said.

The Jetwing Culinary Challenge was first held in 2006. Since then, the challenge has evolved with time, taking note of trends and expectations in the culinary industry. The current iteration consisted of two competitions, the Culinary Chef Challenge and the Culinary Challenge itself.