Lanka army learns fine art of mixing cocktails from India

Wednesday, 5 January 2011 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Indian Express: An Indian hotel has provided training for 11 members of Sri Lanka’s elite army commando unit to sharpen their culinary skills and learn the fine art of mixing cocktails.

The Taj Samudra hotel sharpened the army commandos’ etiquette skills over three months “on culinary and food and beverage trades,” the Defence Ministry said.

The ministry quoted Centre Commandant of the Commandos, Lieutenant Colonel Chaminda Chandrasekara as saying that there was a dearth of “professional knowledge among the soldiers handling military banquets, officers’ messes and similar other occasions where such knowledge is necessary.”

The officer had thanked the Taj for offering free training and “volunteering to help the army at the right time.”

The Taj is located just next to the army headquarters in Colombo and has suffered collateral damage when Tamil Tiger rebels attacked the military compound.

A woman employee of the Taj was shot and bled to death on 11 November, 1995 when the LTTE rebels staged an abortive suicide attack at the entrance to the army headquarters drawing random fire from troops.

The Taj area director Rohit Khosla was quoted by the Defence Ministry as saying he was thankful to the army for “giving him the honour to train its men, who did a great service to their country.”

Khosla said he and his staff are very proud to see that the soldiers of elite commando regiment were trained at the hotel.

He also praised “the high standards of discipline and competency shown by the soldiers during the training.”