‘Supreme Chef’ winners off to Australia for industrial training
Three young and passionate amateur cooks from Polonnaruwa and Ampara emerged winners of the recently concluded Supreme Chef reality TV show and will soon be on their way to Australia for a month-long training programme under the guidance of renowned Australian-Sri Lankan chefs Peter Kuruvita and Jimmy Shu. Upon completion of their training in Australia, they will return home to join Sri Lanka’s growing tourism and hospitality industry.
Supreme Chef is designed and implemented by Skills for Inclusive Growth ( S4IG), an initiative of the Australian Government’s aid programme in collaboration with the Ministry of Skills Development and Vocational Training. This competition was designed to create opportunities for aspiring chefs and to create a pool of skilled cooks that benefit the hospitality industry.
Initial auditions for Supreme Chef began in August 2018 and saw over 600 entrants enthusiastically joining in from the selected districts of Trincomalee, Polonnaruwa, Ampara and Batticaloa. Eighty amateur cooks from these districts were selected and then whittled down to 20 over three days of intensive cooking auditions. The top 20 were then invited to Colombo for three weeks of Basic Kitchen Skills Training followed by the studio based competition.
Four contestants battled their way through to the much-anticipated finale. Delojini Pushparasa from Ampara, Diana Melonika and Sudarshana Lakmal from Polonnaruwa and Darshini Varatharajan from Trincomalee made it through to the grand finale held in Batticaloa on March 3. Melonika emerged the winner, with Sudarshana clinching second place and Delojini third place.
Melonika will receive Executive Chef training at the Sofitel Noosa Pacific Resort in Queensland Australia under Master Chef Peter Kuruvita while runners-up Sudarshana and Delojini will receive an internship at the International College of Advanced Education (ICEA) in Darwin, an industry leader in training provision for Australia’s hospitality sector. This will also include an internship under the supervision of Chef Jimmy Shu of the Hanuman Restaurant. Incidentally Chef Shu was born and raised in Batticaloa before moving to Australia in his youth.
Darshini, who was placed fourth in the competition, will receive a six-month internship at the Shangri La hotel in Colombo.