By Bernadine Rodrigo
The Olympics of the culinary world took place from 14-19 February in Stuttgart, Germany. The International Exhibition of Culinary Art (IKA), simply termed as Culinary Olympics, takes place every four years. This year too, Sri Lanka took part in the event and was able to showcase great culinary prowess not only when it comes to cooking Sri Lanka’s own exquisite and complex cuisine, but also the many cuisines of the world.
A total of 28 Sri Lankan participants took part in Culinary Olympics 2020 and each represented their own individual selves. Although they took part as individual participants, they all went together under the Chef’s Guild of Sri Lanka. The top members of the Chef’s Guild too were present amongst these participants, including Chairman Gerard Mendis, President Dimuthu Kumarasinghe, Board Member and Event Co-ordinator Madawa Weerabadhdane, and Head of Brand Marketing and Communications and Board Member and Tilak Seneviratne. These chefs have already proven themselves well before in the past; for example, Chef Kumarasinghe has once won five gold medals simultaneously.
The Sri Lankan chefs this year were very colourful in showcasing their abilities and were also extremely successful after having won 27 gold, 22 silver, and 12 bronze medals. They won these in a variety of categories ranging from Five-Course Meal to Wedding Cake Structure.
However, despite the many wins, Sri Lanka is unable to celebrate the achievement of these talented chefs as a “national victory” at the Olympics as they did not register as a national team. Therefore, this honour went to Norway. Nevertheless, our team did do us proud on this competitive international platform.
