“Eating is a necessity, but cooking is an art.”
The world is a diverse place with amazing creations and tastes around the world. Among all the elements that connect us, a major factor is the cuisine. The nations around the world have various styles of cuisine that uniquely define each of them. In order to create awareness about various international food cultures among the young crowd, the Rotaract Club of University of Kelaniya organized “TOP CHEF MASTERS 2016”, a cuisine competition. This is one of the club’s signature projects under the International Understanding Avenue and it took place for the second consecutive year.
The competition was chaired by the co-directors of International Understanding, Rtr. Nipun Sameera Fonseka and Rtr. Amasha Liyanage. The competition consisted of two phases. The first challenge was to send a creative recipe including the entrée, main course and the dessert. From the first round six teams were qualified for the second phase.
The final round of the “TOP CHEF MASTERS 2016” was held on the 5th of November 2016 from 2.00 p.m. onwards at Queens Café, Mount Lavinia. On the day of the event, the welcome speech was done by Rtr. Amasha Liyanage. The introduction of the project was done by the President of the Rotaract Club of University of Kelaniya, Rtr. Harindu Darshana Abeysinghe. The introduction of the judges and the teams was done by the editor, Rtr. Ridma Jayasinghe. The judges were Mr. Chamath Nissanka who is currently a demonstration chef at Keells Super and Mr. Malith Pramodya who is a demonstration chef at Unilever. As the final challenge the contestants were given a set menu to prepare in two hours by the chefs. Parallel to the cooking session many fun games were organized by the organizing committee.
The team “Knife Masters” emerged as the winners of the competition and a special reward was given to the team who sent the most creative recipe as well. The event was concluded by distributing gifts to all the participants and tokens of appreciation for the judges. Finally Rtr. Nipun Sameera Fonseka delivered the vote of thanks. “TOP CHEF MASTERS 2016” was successfully held for the year 2016 and afterwards the participants, the audience and the organizing committee enjoyed a wonderful DJ party which continued till late.
Written by : Rtr. Amasha Liyanage (Co-Director of International Understanding)