Cracking the recipe for success with Sri Lanka’s first Dairy Solutions Kitchen!

Anchor Food Professionals Head Kumar De Silva divulges how a customer-centric attitude and high quality dairy ingredients are changing the game for chefs and foodies alike

Sri Lankan chefs have been delivering game-changing and delicious recipes to foodies right across the country, following the launch of Sri Lanka’s first dairy solutions kitchen in March.

Over the past few months, Anchor Food Professionals, Fonterra’s foodservice arm, has hosted chefs from international hotel chains to small bakeries in the new Colombo-based kitchen.

Fitted with world-class bakery equipment and stocked with high quality ingredients, the Anchor Food Professionals kitchen was established to trial and develop novel foods featuring dairy. So far, this has included the introduction of exciting recipes such as fresh cheesy bakery items, delicious gourmet desserts and versatile dairy-infused sauces.

Kumar De Silva, Fonterra’s Associate Director for Foodservice in Sri Lanka and the Indian Subcontinent, said that more people are eating out-of-home and on-the-run, and want to know what goes into their food – expecting high quality standards at all times.

More than ever before, the nation’s food and beverage industry is looking for new solutions and recipes to cater to this demand.

“With our resident Chef Jaime Aserappa, we work closely with our customers to identify key challenges faced by their business, and understand how we can tackle these challenges together using our world-class dairy expertise and delicious products,” he said.

“We know chefs today need to do more with less, as Sri Lankans demand more convenient yet high-quality options. 

“In addition, the food and beverage industry often requests recipes and techniques that can be easily taught to incoming staff, without taking away from the quality or wow-factor,” he explained.

Some of the delicious dairy innovations developed with chefs at the Anchor Food Professionals’ Dairy Solutions Kitchen

De Silva said what makes the concept work is the passionate team behind the kitchen bench.

“At the heart of the kitchen is a team with decades of experience and a passion for providing only the best dairy solutions.”

An example of Anchor Food Professionals’ recent work includes a project with a food outlet in the heart of Colombo, which was looking to create a novel cheese condiment. 

The customer wanted a more cost-effective option that worked as both a dip and a sauce, but had not been able to find the right formula. The team helped to develop a practical, easy but delicious way to accomplish this, using the Anchor Food Professionals Cheese Slices and Anchor UHT milk, a recipe that saved costs and was so popular with consumers that the outlet rolled it out across other items on its menu. 

De Silva added: “The solutions kitchen has taken our foodservice business to the next level, bringing new potential for innovation as well as building value-adding partnerships with our customers.”

Fonterra’s Chef Jaime Aserappa (right) working with customers at the Anchor Food Professionals’ Dairy Solutions Kitchen in trialing yet another exciting innovation