The Hindu Business Line : Not so fast!

Imagine preserving food for over two years without using any preservatives or refrigeration! The brain behind this achievement was passing through Mumbai recently, and the occasion presented an opportunity for food-lovers in this city to partake of his culinary creations, all freshly made of course.

T. Publis Silva is Director, Culinary Affairs and Promotions, Mount Lavinia Hotel in Colombo, where he is assisting his fellow chefs in the making of ‘A Passage to India’ — no, not a remake of the popular film based on the E.M. Forster novel, but a new Slow Food menu crafted by his colleague Chef Ranga.

Slow Food is a non-profit, eco-gastronomic organisation that was founded in 1989 by Silva’s colleague Leonel Velazquez, Executive Sous Chef, to counteract, among other things, fast food, fast life and the disappearance of local food traditions.

But fast food has its advantages, as all those who are hard-pressed for time will readily acknowledge. Which is probably why Chef Silva has invented a ‘fast curry’. Essentially a dry curry powder with all the ingredients required to make an authentic Sinhalese curry, the ‘fast curry’ is currently available in the UK, UAE and Australia.

Food preservation the natural way is his best achievement to date. His other accomplishments include organising a cookery competition at the first-ever ‘Food and Travel Mart’ in Sri Lanka in 1986; and coordinating the ‘Bak Maha Asiriya’ food exhibition 1992 and 1993, which drew over 16,500 persons on the two occasions. Plus, an entry in the Guinness Book of Records for cooking the largest and longest Kiribath (coconut milk rice, a popular festive dish connoting good omen) with 1,020 kg of rice and served on a 600 ft long table. The accompanying Katta Sambol (fiery paste of shallot, red chillies, fermented tuna fish flakes and lime juice) that weighed 240 kg was pounded manually by a dozen chefs.

In Mumbai, under Silva’s tutelage, the Trident Hotel staff conjured an elaborate, hot and spicy banquet of fish, luscious tiger prawn, tasty chicken and veg curries accompanied by boiled rice, Buriyani (Sri Lankan version of biryani), hoppers (fermented batter of rice flour, coconut milk and a dash of palm toddy,) extra-large papads, fish preserve and red onion, concluding with desserts made of jaggery, rice and coconut which tasted quite different from the ones made in South India using the same ingredients.

Sri Lanka is renowned for its tea; regretfully, there was no Lankan chai that afternoon, nor its famous distilled drink — arrack. We settled for red, red wine.

Chef Silva had joined Mount Lavinia way back in 1957 and over the years has cooked for VIPs like the late Sir Oliver Goonatileke, the former Governor General of Ceylon, and the late Sir John Kotalawala, former Prime Minister of Ceylon (the island’s name before 1972). Besides working at the heritage hotel, he is adviser to the Embadu Resort, Kam Hotel and Summer Island Hotel in the Maldives.

Like our own Sanjeev Kapoor, Chef Silva has not confined himself to cooking; he has authored two books — Sinhala Bhojana and Hela Ratawata Iwum Pihum, which highlights traditional and new Lankan dishes.

Silva has organised several food festivals in his island country and abroad in collaboration with cookery experts in Canada, Germany, Singapore, China and India. He has also showcased his country’s cuisine in world famous hotels. One experience he cherishes is “introducing Sri Lankan cuisine to some well-known Japanese Chefs”.

He is actively engaged in food education, and has presented a number of cookery demonstrations on TV and in newspapers. “I have trained Home Science teachers, students and housewives on Sri Lankan cuisine at many seminars,” he says. What else does he have under that toque? An enquiring mind that has researched and presented the traditional meal eaten by the last King of Serendib, Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe.