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By Madushka Balasuriya
“Trust me, our food is much, much greater than Indian food. And it’s the Indians who are saying that,” boasts Chef K.A.C. Prasad, without a hint of hyperbole in his voice. As Vice President of the Emirates Chef Guild his opinion carries significant weight, and while he has worked for the past two decades in the Middle East – with an expertise in Italian cuisine - he is clearly proud of his heritage.
“Our chicken curry, our dhal tempered, has nothing to with the Indian one. And the Indian’s know that. When my boys made the curry, they eat ours, not their one. It’s totally different. And they cannot make our dhal. Most of our dishes our unique. We have a standardised menu, but that’s an asset.”
Chef Prasad was sitting down with Daily FT at the Mövenpick Hotel Colombo, where he was being hosted, just a day removed from adjudicating the 17th ‘battle of the chefs’ held from the 28-31 July as part of The Culinary Art and Food Expo.
The expo, which is one of the biggest in Asia and has been recognised by the world association of chef’s societies and judged by WACS approved top professionals from many parts of the world, has been a major platform for identifying talented young chefs. With chefs competing for gold, silver and bronze in one platform, it is a coveted badge on any budding chef’s resume, and Chef Prasad was impressed with what he saw from the Lankan contingent.
“The class in the participation was tremendous,” he boomed, before going on to explain the respect with which Sri Lankan chefs are held globally. “Last year the Sri Lankan Chef Guild came to the [World Culinary] Olympics Olympics and they got more than 25 gold medals. We went from UAE – 27 people – and brought back 45 gold medals. From these people, 16 were Sri Lankans. You are talking about master talents.”
When it comes to Sri Lankan talent, Chef Prasad is also happy to put his money where his mouth is with half of his 70-man staff at the Miramar Al Aqah Beach Resort in the UAE consisting of Sri Lankans, while seven out of 10 sous chefs are also of Sri Lankan descent.
However, despite this abundance in talent, for Chef Prasad there is one glaring problem. Sri Lankan cuisine’s lack of representation on the global culinary map. For all of our talent – including several celebrity chefs – Sri Lankan cuisine doesn’t get the same recognition as other Asian cuisines, he bemoans.
“We do our part in that manner (promoting local chefs), but as far as the food goes I think all of us need to play a part in promoting it. Aren’t you proud of your kiribath? But who’s bringing it to the market? How are you going to bring it?” he asks pertinently.
“Sri Lankan food at the moment is sad. I don’t know why. Nobody is serious in this regard, where they’re saying you have to do something about Sri Lankan food.”
Chef Prasad acknowledges that there are several celebrity chefs, and others like himself, who do their part in promoting Sri Lankan cuisine, but if Sri Lanka is to really make its mark on the world stage he believes there needs to be a more concerted effort from the top down.
“You have lots of celebrity chefs here, like Chef Happy from Australia representing Sri Lanka, and us from the UAE, as well other talents around the world. I think we all have to really think about it, but more than us the government, the chefs over here, and the media as well.”
One way this can be done, he feels, is by utilising authentically Sri Lankan ingredients such as cinnamon or tea. However when asked as to whether modernising traditional Sri Lankan dishes would be a good idea, he goes out of his way to clarify himself.
“It’s our mother food. I wouldn’t like someone putting bacon on top of Beef Wellington. I’m an Italian food specialist, and you ask any Italian and they will say, ‘don’t ruin my risotto’. And even you, you wouldn’t ask for bacon on your kiribath. It’s tricky though, I love to see the Sri Lankan corner as it is, so I wouldn’t necessarily advise on changing it too much.
“But the idea is not that, the question is, why don’t we bring the food to another level? Why don’t we have even one Sri Lankan dish in [the book] Practical Cookery? In it you have lots of Indian dishes but none Sri Lankan. Somebody has to work towards that goal.”
Stories of individuals taking Sri Lankan staples such as ‘hoppers’ and ‘kottu’ and selling them at a premium abroad are rife, and Chef Prasad explains that this shows the demand is there for Sri Lankan cuisine internationally but that it requires more by way of promotion at a governmental level.
“We need to send people around the world and do more Sri Lankan promotions; try and put a few dishes of ours on the culinary map.
“You know we were in Vietnam – myself, Chef Dimuthu and Chef Gerard – for an event. There were 10 different nationalities, and Chef Dimuthu was representing Sri Lanka and Chef Gerard and I were special invitees. You know what we cooked? We cooked kottu. Cooked for 1,000 people. Everyone loved it. Second day we made cutlets and appa – wow! People were crazy about that. We have beautiful products, but somewhere down the line it breaks down, I think maybe our marketing part is not working.”
As we end our conversation, Chef Prasad adds one final suggestion for Sri Lankan chefs and hotels in their efforts at becoming a ‘go-to’ destination for world class cuisine: improved hygiene.
“It’s really, really not satisfactory. In the Middle East every hotel has hygiene management. We are audited every month. That’s not the case here and this is very visible from the boys. The way the work, the hygiene part, they could never participate at the international level. This is something every hotel has to work for, every government has to work for. The safety and the hygiene part.”
He notes that while the Government needs to do its part in terms of more stringent health checks, he believes hotels too need to make an effort in pushing for higher standards.
“[My hotel] signed a contract with a company which covers 160 hotels around the world. 2500 McDonald’s outlets around the world are inspected by that same company. So this matters a lot.”
Pic by Upul Abayasekara
