Travel

Lankan wins five gold medals at Culinary Olympics

Group Skills Development Chef, Aitken Spence Hotels Dimuthu Kumarasinghe was appointed a judge at the 15th Food and Hotel Asia Culinary Challenge competition in Singapore.

The Food and Hotel Asia Culinary Challenge is regarded as one of the most prestigious culinary competitions attracting hundreds of chefs from around the globe competing against one another for top honours.

Asia's most highly regarded culinary event, FHA 2006 covers virtually every aspect of Food and Hotel Management, focusing on hotel/restaurant equipment/supplies, Food and Beverage, Hotel Furnishing and Accessories, Food Service and Catering Equipment, Housekeeping Products and Hospitality and retail Technology. This is the first occasion a Sri Lankan has been invited to serve as a Judge.

Kumarasinghe has many laurels to his credit. His greatest achievement was winning five gold medals at the culinary exhibition and competition - the 21st Culinary Olympics. His five medals at this event were in four different categories.

Originating in 1900 and held every four years, the Culinary Olympics draws the creme de la creme of the culinary world. Dimuthu beat master chefs from countries such as France, Germany and Switzerland, that have a strong cultural culinary tradition.

Kumarasinghe's culinary awards at the Olympics were in the categories of 'plated dessert; dessert buffet platter; petit fours', 'artistic salt dough showpiece', 'artistic pastry showpiece - marzipan' and 'artistic pastry showpiece - pastillage'.

In the first event, he was required to create a festival buffet platter of petit fours and dessert. In the second event, his task was to create a showpiece for a cold-food buffet. For the marzipan pastry showpiece, his creation took a classical ballet theme, giving it an air of elegance and finesse.

Having started his career in the 1990's, he joined the Hilton Colombo, and then proceeded to the Regency Inter-Continental, Bahrain, where he worked for seven years. Following this, he joined Aitken Spence Hotels, where he is currently Skills Development Chef - Culinary artist, and is the resident pastry chef at the Triton Hotel, soon to re-open as Heritance Ahungalla.

His outstanding career began in 1991 when he won his first Gold Medal at the Salon Culinaire organised by the Chefs Guilds of Sri Lanka. He won the 'Most Outstanding Artist' Award at the Salon Culinaire in 1993, 'Most Outstanding Artist' at the Middle East Food Exhibition (MEFEX), Salon Culinaire, Bahrain in 1998, the 'Best Pastry Showpiece' Award at the 11th Food Hotel Asia Culinary Challenge, Singapore in 2000, and 'Best Pastry Chef' at the 13th Food Hotel Asia Culinary Challenge, Singapore in 2002, where he also won gold, silver and bronze medals in four categories, including 'Dress the Cake' competition, Artistic Pastry Showpiece, Petit Fours and Vegetable Carving.

SriLankan training programs accredited

Two prestigious global institutions, City and Guilds and Edexcel International, have granted accreditation for several programs conducted by SriLankan Training, the educational arm of SriLankan Airlines.

"This recognition is yet another step forward in the evolution of Sri Lankan Training as one of the foremost training institutions in the country," said Manager Human Resource Development and Training, Ranjeewa Kulatunga. "We are indeed gratified, although not at all surprised, that we have met the standards of prestigious institutions such as City and Guilds and Edexcel International."

SriLankan Training last year became the first institution in Sri Lanka to be certified to conduct City and Guilds courses and Edexcel International's programs.

Now the airline's own training courses have been recognised to be world-class. "This recognition will be of great benefit to SriLankan Training, in our constant efforts to position ourselves as one of the country's premier training institutions," said SriLankan's Training Manager Chinthaka Kulatilleke, "Our objective is to make Sri Lankan Training a centre of learning by providing services to external students."

SriLankan Training, one of the country's foremost private sector training establishments, offers many of its programs to external participants, especially other private sector companies including the travel industry.

"SriLankan Airlines is the only Customer Service program that Edexcel International has accredited in Sri Lanka. We are in the process of providing accreditation for two more of the airline's programs", said Country Manager, Edexcel International Ishan Sidique.

Air Arabia wins ME ICT Excellence Award

Air Arabia LLC, the Middle East region's first low-fare airline and the only one in the UAE, was honoured with the Middle East eBusiness Portal of the year recognition at the 11th Middle East ICT Excellence Awards ceremony.

This award recognises an eBusiness portal that offers multiple online services as a one-stop shop to its customers. Air Arabia CEO Adel Ali received the award at a ceremony at Burj Al Arab in Dubai. The award was presented by Dr. Mohammed Saeed Al Kindi, Minister for Environment and Water, UAE, the chief guest of the function and Ali Al Kamali, the President of the organising committee.

Recognised by the industry as a role model, Air Arabia continues to invest in its online business solutions as an integrated element of its business strategy. The airline is experiencing strong growth through the eBusiness portal and anticipates that this will continue as new online developments are rolled out to the marketplace.

Ali Al Hamdany, Director of Information Technology and Corporate Projects, Air Arabia said: "We are delighted to win this important ICT Award and we see this as a milestone for our future achievements. This award is a testimony to the work executed by us and we look forward to developing this platform to provide ease of use and innovation, resulting in savings for our customers and business."

10,000th Asia Miles member rewarded

Almost five years after launching the Asia Miles program in Sri Lanka, Cathay Pacific Airways has welcomed and rewarded its 10,000th member.

Ajith Dias, partner of Modern Motor House Company, Colombo 10, as the 10,000th member of the Asia Miles frequent flier program, was rewarded with ten thousand Asia Miles at a ceremony held recently at Cathay Pacific's office in Colombo. Dias, a motor spare parts dealer and a regular commuter to Bangkok started travelling on Cathay because of the convenient times of arrival and departure between Colombo and Bangkok.

The ongoing Asia Miles promotion from May 1 to June 30 offers members either a one way economy air ticket to Singapore or Bangkok or an upgrade from economy to business class on these sectors, which normally requires 20,000 miles. For economy class travel, the Asia Miles requirement for one-way has been slashed from 20,000 to 10,000, while for a round trip it has come down from 35,000 to 20,000.

"The Asia Miles promotion has generated a great deal of interest among our regular customers", said Edward Higgs, Country Manager, Cathay Pacific for Sri Lanka and the Maldives "We see rewarding our frequent fliers as a way of giving back something to our most loyal customers", he said.