Colombo, Sri Lanka
Nestlé Professional, Sri Lanka’s leading food and beverage solutions provider for the Out-of-Home segment, joined hands with the Chefs Guild of Lanka to become Platinum Sponsor of the country’s largest food and trade exhibition, Culinary Art. 
Culinary Art is Sri Lanka’s largest and most sought-after food exhibition for the F&B fraternity to demonstrate their skills through their finest creations. This year the event was represented by a record 2,600 participants, making it the largest event of its kind in the world. Held bi-annually, the three day event was patronised by over 15,000 people from all over the island and judged by some of the world’s best chefs from the World Association of Cooks Societies (WACS).
“As Sri Lanka’s leading food and beverage company with a focus on Nutrition, Health and Wellness, we have a long standing relationship with the industry through our food service arm – Nestlé Professional. As such, the Chefs Guild of Lanka has seen us partner with Culinary Art, the biggest and only event of its kind in Sri Lanka’s culinary circle, time and time again. This year too, we have strengthened our association with our partners in Sri Lanka by becoming Platinum Sponsor to Culinary Art 2013. This sponsorship is indicative of our aim to continue building on our No. 1 position with increased brand energy and strategic customer engagement,” said Ganesan Ampalavanar, Managing Director of Nestlé Lanka PLC.
“Nestlé Professional is unmatched in its relationships with the Out-of-Home sector in Sri Lanka, renowned and trusted for creative food and beverage solutions. We continued to uphold this trust as a Platinum Sponsor to Culinary Art 2013 by placing a strong focus on developing the local Chef community. As the No.1 food company in the world, we want to help the industry take Sri Lankan cuisine to the world culinary arena. In that context we, along with the Chefs Guild, created a live cooking category titled ‘New Sri Lankan Cuisine with Maggi’ and a live ‘Nescafé Creative Coffee’ competition to help showcase and develop talent in the F&B fraternity. We’re all set to continue our leadership position in the industry with innovative and strategic brand association and presence,” said Jagath Wedage, Head of Nestlé Professional in Sri Lanka. ‘New Sri Lankan Cuisine with Maggi’, a live cooking competition, helped gather over 100 teams competing for the grand title by preparing dishes using popular products from the Maggi portfolio such as Maggi Coconut Milk Powder, Maggi Chicken Stock and Maggi Magic Curry Mix. The ‘Creative Coffee with Nescafé’ competition gave its participants the forum to be creative in their preparations of both hot and chilled coffee using Nescafé, the leading coffee brand in Sri Lanka.
Nestlé Professional also boosted the ‘Chefs Corner’ with delicious cups of Nestea and Nescafé and a delicious snack for 2,600 chefs and hoteliers. The highlight of the company’s activities at the event however was the launch of Nutripro - ‘Nutrition for Professionals’; a nutrition, health and awareness programme for chefs to help them add nutritious-value to their meals.
Nestlé Professional fully intends to continue being an integral part of Sri Lanka’s culinary journey and partner with Sri Lankan professionals in sharing its knowledge and experience as food and beverage leaders. Its ambition remains to inspire its partners’ growth by delivering branded, creative profitable solutions that are ‘Making More Possible’ for its customers.