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| Sunday, 7 September 2003 |
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Business |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Former airline catering boss turns restaurant owner by Carol Aloysius A former aviation catering chief, who has recently set up his own gourmet restaurant in Panadura, believes that entrepreneurs looking for new ways of earning money, can find their answer in upmarket restaurants outside the city of Colombo. "Gourmet restaurants are conspicuously absent for people with fussy tastes, who want to stop and eat a good hygienically cooked meal in clean comfortable surroundings, while travelling from Colombo to say, Hikkaduwa," says Sarath Hewavitarne, Managing Partner of the newly opened S&S Restaurant, which the owner claims is the first gourmet restaurant in the area. Conveniently located close to the scenic river, this spacious air-conditioned and tastefully decorated eating outlet is hidden from the road as it has been built on a lower level. For travel weary customers, it offers a haven of peace away from the hustle and bustle of the city. Most importantly, it gives them the choice of a wide range of titillating exotic dishes which include Spanish, Italian, Indonesian, Malaysian, Indian and of course Sri Lankan food. "Diners can have their pick from the Indian Naan and Buriyani to the Italian Lasagne, Cannaloni, Tagliattle and noodles made by my cook who was personally trained by me", says the former in-flight catering chief. "VIPs including well-known actors and actresses, politicians and business people patronise this place. Many of them pass this way to work or else live in the area, and they never fail to thank me for giving them what they want - a quiet place in comfortable surroundings where they can enjoy a meal of their choice - no matter what nationality." Overseeing a staff of just seven which includes three cooks all trained by him is peanuts to a man who has supervised a much larger work force in his 36 years of experience in the catering business, of which 32 years have been in airline catering. Having practically cut his teeth in the catering business while working for Air Ceylon, where he managed and coordinated the entire network of operations of the catering and cabin services division of the national carrier for almost a decade, he resigned his post to join a large French catering company as Catering Manager of one of the world's largest airports in Kuwait. "I was Duty Officer of Kuwait Aviation Services Company (a wholly owned in-flight catering subsidiary of Kuwait Airways). It needed all my expertise and experience in management to ensure the smooth functioning of the first international flight kitchen unit of this airline for a period of 12 years. As Duty Officer, I had a staff of around 375 personnel of various categories from 13 different nationalities. We worked together as a team and got on very well," he reminisces. From the in-flight kitchen, Hewavitarne says he supplied an average of 16,000 meals per day at the highest international standards. He also formulated the operational policies required to meet the changing needs of the customers. Apart from the food and beverages required for in-flight services, all other ancillary and passenger amenity items were also provided and controlled by Hewavitarne and his staff for an average of 45 flight departures a day. "In all, the customer handling function of 28 international operators through Kuwait was personally handled by me on behalf of Kuwait Aviation Services Company," he says with a note of justified pride. Although most airlines do their best to serve their passengers hygienic meals, this task is becoming increasingly difficult due to the increasing number of passengers an airline has to carry today, he points out. "A typical airline will serve over 30 million meals an year. However, I can say without hesitation that all the meals that have been served from the in-flight kitchens that I have overlooked maintained the highest standards of hygiene and quality". Hewavitarne's long love affair for the food business began as a child when he watched his grandfather who was the resthouse keeper at Matara serving his own brand of innovative local dishes cooked to guests. His uncle who was the first Sri Lankan to take over the catering services as Manager, Elephant House, was a further inspiration to him, he says. "Today, the food business is very big. Entrepreneurs looking for ways of bringing in foreign exchange to this country should seriously consider setting up gourmet restaurants like this to attract an upmarket clientele including tourists", he says. |
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