 
by Srian Obeyesekere
Mouth watering spicy sea food delicacy could be a potential foreign
exchange earner for the country, according to one of Sri Lanka’s top
notch chefs in the trade Dr. T. Publis who lamented that sadly this was
not happening.
 Seventy-year old Publis, who can pick dishes at the tip of his
fingers, while insisting that this could be made possible making maximum
use of the country’s natural resources of the sea, rivers and lakes,
lamented that in the contrary sadly today sea food resources here are
being destroyed by confining such species like prawns and `irawa,’ white
in colour that once provided consumers a favourite Sunday `ambul thiyal’
dish, into specific demarcated areas.
“By this we are losing resources, and its high time the fisheries
authorities put a stop to this,” said Publis known to provide some of
the best dishes when it comes to hotels and the catering trade.
The veteran chef, started his career in the hotel trade at the age of
1 8.Overlooked by Publis, whose fantastic know-how has seen the Sri
Lankan elevated to the position of Director Culinary Affairs and
Promotions at Mount Lavinia Hotel and supervised by its foreign
Cuban-American cook Leonel Velazquez, Seafood Cove was launched
recently.
Its a restaurant with a simple setup on a stretch of the golden sandy
beach with nature’s seafood bounty fresh prepared and served with an
ambience that this ancient hotel is reputed for to sate the pallet.
Speaking to Publis was indeed very revealing with 50-years of
experience in the cooking trade as to the intricacies of hustling mouth
watering dishes as he says,”Sea food is a wonderful protein providing
diet which sadly is not properly tapped.
 A striking example is Japan which utilises 90 percent of its sea food
resources. We need to utilise our sea food better by making the maximum
use of the sea, rivers and even lakes,” he stressed.
The Cuban American foreign chef Leonel Velazquez said that he was
specialising in introducing American dishes and a host of other dishes,
both for Sri Lankans and European tourists by sampling different types
of fish from the Indian Ocean.Thirty-five year old Velazquez counts
years of experience in the trade having specialised in several
countries, and is supervising the Seafood Cove. |
