The Laboratory Technologist Who Took The Test Of Time

By Ranee Mohamed

We didn’t have to say ‘’cheese’ to make Chef Rohan Fernandopulle smile, he had reached his goals and beyond. His team emerging as winners at the recently concluded Culinary Arts Competition is but one ingredient in Rohan Fernandopulle’s recipe for success.

In the Hilton Hotel in Colombo Executive Chef Fernandopulle walks around, cool as a cucumber as  eleven squeaky clean kitchens are ablaze to please differently delicious desires.
Gone are the days when chefs were relegated to the back of the kitchen. Rohan Fernandopulle is truly a consultant, a culinary consultant, giving food advice and menus over his mobile phones to the cream of Sri Lankan society.
Despite his many awards and honours, Rohan Fernandopulle says that it is the basics that he learnt from his grandmother that remain his foundation.
Young Rohan Fernandopulle had been the apple of his grandmother’s eye and she had been more than willing to teach him. But his parents had other plans for him. Those were the days when medicine, law and ‘’becoming a pilot’’ were professions sought after. But Rohan did not want to bite off more than he could chew.
Besides, he wanted something more than a meal ticket, he so desperately wanted to follow his heart.
Thus  to please his parents, he took on to medicine. He followed a medical related profession; frightened that he may displease his parents. Rohan Fernandopulle realized that he was not wholly happy doing a medical related job; he also knew that one cannot make an omelette without breaking the eggs.
“I was always interested in cookery. When I was young, I would cook dhal curry and rice and pol sambol. They dishes received rave reviews from my grandmother. I still follow her recipe for the crab curry and it has never failed me,” smiles Rohan Fernandopulle as he sat immersed in self-confidence within the tastefully designed interiors of the Spoons.
But Rohan Fernandouplle has never been spoon-sped. His climb up has been a struggle. Today, he is merely enjoying the fruits of his labour.
Recalling his early life, Fernandopule spoke of the times  when he worked as a Laboratory Technologist – a time when his hands were in a laboratory but his heart was with the hotel trade.
“Then I saw an advertisement in the local newspapers and applied for it. The job was for management trainee in a resort hotel. We were rotated by the department and my second department was the kitchen,” recalled Fernandopulle. But the young and restless Rohan wanted to swim ashore and reach his destination.
From this resort hotel the enterprising young Rohan Fernandopulle crossed over to the city. “My dream was to join a five star hotel. There were some vacancies with the Hilton Hotel…”
And in the next scene of his life, Rohan Fernandopulle was sitting before a panel, being interviewed for a job at the Hilton in Colombo.
Eager to achieve his dream, the keen young Roshan Fernandopulle had in fact questioned the veteran hoteliers “Will I be able to be an Executive Chef one day?”
“Yes, why not? If you prove yourself…” they had answered. And yes, he proved himself. He did even more.
Thus he has worked this way, making his job his life – for over two decades at the Hilton, – where he says  he belongs – “to the Hilton chain.” So much so that he knows not just the kitchens inside out, but the hearts, minds and abilities of his capable team.
“We have a unique programme, an apprenticeship training programme which trains young people. It is a three year programme and it is for those who have done the basics and also for school leavers. Apprentices are rotated every threemonths in eleven different kitchens.  I have discovered exceptional talent among these young people. Some people come in, they are unable to even hold a knife properly,” said Fernandopulle who modestly trims talking about  his own role in carving out thee young people into exceptional chefs.
The apprenticeship programme helps to churn out the  talent by rotating the youth in various departments of the hotel
Confident and unruffled, Rohan Fernandouplle seems to have achieved everything he wanted in his life. Today he is responsible for eleven satellite  kitchens and a multitude of different staff.
Creating menus is a challenge to Fernandopulle who knows everything one ought to know about food and menus. “When we do a new menu, I get the team involved and they are so proud to be a part of it,”’ he said
“Food,” said Executive Chef Roshan Fernandopulle, “is  like fashion. It changes with the times.”
Roshan Fernandopulle went on to say that if a plate that was made five years ago was given to a guest today, chances are that he may be laughing. “Food has changed in presentation and content.
The times of cooking with butter and cream have melted away and according to Chef Fernandopulle, these ingredients have been substituted with lighter options.
“Though the sauces have got lighter the basic have not changed. People today do not want really heavy food. They like to eat food that is fresh, light, looks nice and tastes good,”pointed out Fernandopulle.
So what does the Executive Chef like to eat?
I go home to  have my only main meal for the day – dinner. And it is always my  wife’s rice and curry,” says Rohan Fernandopulle with a smile. Clearly, it seems like his wife Marina cooks better.
Rohan Fernandopulle’s  20 year old daughter has followed in  his footsteps. Maryanne Rachithri Fernandopulle who was at the Institute of Paul Bocuse in Lyon, France, is now on an internship at the Ritz in Paris.
Not wanting to be outdone by all the sizzle in his family, his son Ruwantha went on to Deakin University in Melbourne to acquire First Class Honors in Accounting, Finance and Investment and a Dean’s Merit Award.
Sri Lankan Chefs are known worldwide for their culinary talents and Executive Chef Rohan Fernandopulle is no exception. As if being a steaming success in his own country is not enough, he is the only Asian to be in the Club des Chef des Chefs known to be an exclusive club for the greatest of chefs from around the world.
“It’s my team, my team,” insists Roshan Fernandopulle when it comes to his work at the Hilton. It is this team spirit in Fernandopulle that enables him to walk in with his head held high. The aroma of diverse cuisine that lingers from the different restaurants at the Hilton Hotel, warms his very heart.
raneemoham@hotmail.com

Chef Rohan Fernandopulle
Enters His 27th Year With The Hilton International Chain
After working in Europe and Middle East, Rohan made his way back to Sri Lanka not realizing that one day, he would head the entire kitchen brigade in the hotel. Fernandopulle led Hilton Colombo Culinary Team in the Black Box Regional Championship (Live Cooking) in 2002 in Japan and won the Silver Medal (1st Runner-up).  At the Culinary Olympics 2004 held in Germany, which is considered to be the biggest culinary competition in the world, he bagged one Gold medal, one Silver medal and a Diploma.  He has also won many medals at the Food and Hotel Asia International culinary competitions in Singapore.
Besides being the first National Executive Chef of Hilton Colombo, he is also the only Sri Lankan member of the prestigious ‘Club Des Chefs Des Chefs’.  Rohan has prepared  banquets for most of the visiting State Guests, such as Prince Charles, Pope John Paul 11, Princess Anne, The President of Bangladesh, President of Maldives, President of Palestine, former US President Clinton, Prince Albet of Monaco, Chinese Prime Minister and many others too numerous to mention.  Tras ethnic cuisine was his brainchild in Sri Lanka, where even he serves for State Banquets. He brings out the Sri Lankan flavours in his modern fine art of cooking, with an emphasis to the state of the art chic presentation.  He also won the Chef of the Year Presidential Award in Travel & Tourism 2008.