New professional firm Okura promises top expertise for hotels and restaurants

A new company, Okura Hotel Services Ltd., has been floated by two industry professionals to promote menu designing for restaurants.

Promoters of Okura Hotel Services Ltd. are its Managing Director Ranjith Morugama, former Director Catering at the Cinnamon Grand, and Chaminda Liyanage, former Executive Chef of Cinnamon Grand, who is the F&B Management Consultant in the new company.

“We decided that we should share our professional knowledge together with many who have recently ventured into opening up new hotels and restaurants in the country,” Morugama told the Daily FT. “Sharing expertise and knowledge has become a dire need in this country in the context of boom in the hospitality and leisure industry and to take it forward,” he added.

Okura’s services are to provide advice and a total solution on internationally evolving contemporary culinary trends in the Food and Beverage segment. We provide the necessary expertise, tools and appliances to meet the challenges of new trends in this business and gearing up for the future,” Morugama said.

Among the company’s value propositions are empowering young aspiring chefs with the finer points of culinary knowledge.

For example, he said that a menu is an unwitting subconscious reflection of the character of the restaurant. The menu conveys the very personality of the restaurant.

“A good menu is of vital importance in the success of running a restaurant. By allowing the menu to portray the image of the restaurant’s brand, a restaurant can be ensured that diners will recommend the restaurant to their friends and family and by word of mouth popularity will soon be gained,” Morugama explained.

“With this in mind Okura Hotel Services undertakes in both designing and creating menus that will not only successfully resonate the mood and image of restaurant but also give it a unique difference to the norm,” he added.

Morugama is of the view that it is necessary that restaurant staff has a good rapport with the main kitchen and a clear understanding of what is being served. They should be well versed with the menus and have the ability to explain to a diner of what his/her order consists of.

“A six course menu does not mean an order of appearance alone. It must consist of a line-up of dishes that will complement each course as the diner advances from one dish to the next,” he pointed out.

Morugama and Liyanage have both developed tremendously the art of all aspects in creative cooking which will come to the aid of restaurants. They have also adhered to hygienic methods of kitchen operations which has become an integral part in today’s restaurant business as called upon by authorities.

Specialist and professional expertise from Okura Hotel Services includes:

• Training and development on all F&B areas
• Advise on planning of a layout of a kitchen in a restaurant with easy access to its service areas
• Provides their clients with expertise on designing a perfect service kitchen, where F&B operations can be done cost effectively and efficiently
• The service side of a product which would complement the menus
• Specialising in providing solutions on menu designing which boasts fusion menus and other formats
• Initiating standards and maintaining consistency.
• Assist in selecting and ordering the latest in crockery and cutlery designs available in a wide range to choose from
• Help to take business to the next level
• Training on HACCP and OHAS

Backed with nearly three decades of expertise and experience in the hospitality trade, Morugama has been the recipient of numerous awards including a Gold Medal on Excellence for Sri Lankan Cooking, a Silver Medal for Cold Food Preparations and a Bronze Medal for Gastronomic Cooking.

Having joined the hotel industry in 1984 at the then Lanka Oberoi Hotel which later became The Colombo Plaza, Morugama steadily rose in rank over the years until he obtained the title of Executive Chef position. After the takeover by the John Keells Group in 2003 and a major refurbishment that followed, once again, the name was changed to the Cinnamon Grand Colombo. He remained in this position for nearly a decade until 2011 before taking the post of Director of Catering.

Morugama was involved in the implementation of all the new restaurants at the Cinnamon Grand and the launch of the brand. He remained a hardworking, loyal and dedicated employee bringing merit to the hotel throughout his career until his retirement in 2012. A graduate from the Oberoi School of Hotel Management in New Delhi, Liyanage has been involved in the hospitality trade for more than two decades. Having notably represented Sri Lanka at the 2005 Black Box Culinary Challenge held in Brisbane, his years at Cinnamon Grand (formerly The Lanka Oberoi and The Colombo Plaza), he boasts a successful career and rose in the ranks to the position of Executive Sous Chef. His responsibilities were to overlook the many new restaurants in his capacity, eventually ascending to the prestigious title of Executive Chef in 2011.