The Walk-In Vegan Culinary Workshop hosted by Galle Face Hotel, Colombo partnering with SLYCAN Trust and Meatless Monday Sri Lanka started off in style with Chef Tora introducing the audience to a number of easy vegan recipes. While demonstrating to the audience about the vegan recipes, Chef Tora explained the health benefits of the ingredients used. The workshop was conducted in a very interactive manner involving the audience in the preparation of the food.

Members of the audience comprised of both vegan and non-vegan individuals who were all surprised at the short span of time taken to prepare the soup, cracker and dessert.

The responses of the participants about the event and veganism in Sri Lanka were as follows:

“I loved the cracker and hummus. It was really nice. I’m vegan and I think it’s really easy to be vegan in Sri Lanka with all the curries, vegetables available here also there are so many vegan cafes popping up here”

• Tina Rast (Germany)

“I liked the cracker too. I’m not a vegan but I like trying vegan food.

• Katherina Keil (Germany)

“The food was really interesting. I’ve been vegan for two years but I’ve never had anything like this before. This stuff is healthy and surprisingly very tasty. I didn’t expect vegan food to taste this good”

• Tashelle Roberts

“I thoroughly enjoyed it and I learnt some new recipes. I hope to make these for my guests, especially the little crackers and energy balls. I think it’s very easy to be a vegan in Sri Lanka, all you need is a bit of self-discipline. Also I think the decoration is important, coz these food look so tempting. I look forward for the future events too.”

• Rohana Jayarathne

“This was our first time at a vegan culinary workshop. Never knew that vegan food can taste this great. I will definitely try more vegan food in the future. I loved the chocolate balls dipped in coconut that was prepared today because it had a distinct taste and is healthy.”

• Yousuf

“This was my first time too. I thought that vegan food tastes bland, but it was really good. I enjoyed the food.”

• Harini

In a nutshell, the vegan culinary workshop was successfully able to change the attitude of the participants about vegan food. The stereotypes about vegan food being bland and boring were dismantled once the prepared food was tasted. All in all, the presentation of the food, the taste, health benefits, short preparation time and easy ingredients worked together in delivering a successful event. The audience acknowledged that the decorations made the food quite tempting making anybody irrespective of vegan or not to try it out. Chef Tora is indeed a valuable value addition to the Vegan Week 2017 as her knowledge about healthy food and her skill in vegan food preparation have led to the success of the event.

‍