Posted by: Administrator in Food, Business on
Nov 08, 2011
To say that Nimal Amarasinghe, Executive Chef of the South Fork Grill, is far from home is a grand understatement. The likeable head of the kitchen is some 15,000 miles from his native country of Sri Lanka. Yes, the small former British colony in Southeast Asia is where Chef Nimal spent his childhood, swimming with his friends in the ocean and playing cricket with bats constructed of coconut tree remnants.
Studious and ambitious, Nimal became a computer programmer and set his sights on climbing the tech corporate ladder, the idea of being a chef never entering his mind. He earned a scholarship to study Japanese for a year in Tokyo, in preparation for upper management - Japan was the main computer client of Sri Lanka. But that's where the story takes its turn.
To earn money, Nimal worked in a restaurant kitchen on weekends and soon found himself enraptured by the art of cooking. The chef showed Nimal a few basics and when the young student caught on quickly, he began to be a part of the cooking operation. When his year of study was over, Nimal decided to forgo his computer career and become a chef. By this time, he had gained fulltime work in the kitchen which began a six-year culinary stint in Japan.
During that time, Nimal became schooled in French, Korean and Japanese cuisine, becoming a valued member of several restaurant kitchen staffs. Yet, his aspirations were to receive an actual degree in culinary arts and also to someday master the art of baking. Those desires brought him to South Seattle Community College to study at its respected culinary school. While in the Emerald City, Nimal worked under critically acclaimed chef Thierry Rautureau at Rovers. There, he learned the nuances of French cooking. Ascension in the Seattle culinary world followed along with marriage to a pastry class colleague.
Posted by: Jim Willis in Scenery on
Nov 07, 2011
Walla Walla Valley barns provide a rich source of picturesque scenes. It is difficult to travel down one of our country roads and not encounter enchanting barns. The challenge with taking pictures of barns is to avoid the "mug" shot. The solution is to employ classical composition. Think of your visits to museums and of the landscape painting you viewed. Note that in almost all cases the accent, such as a barn, was off center in the painting. So move the barn off center, say to the lower left third portion of the image.
I love this particular barn for its dramatic color and classic design. The red with the white trim just pops. It appears to have been built as a dairy milking barn. On the first level would be the milking stations. The high arched roof provides for loft storage of winter hay and feed. The small birdhouse looking structures at the peak of the roof provide venting by giving the summer heat a path to follow, rise and escape. The condition of the barn is exceptional. Currently the nation is losing about 50,000 historic barns per year. So when you see an enchanting barn shoot away because it may not be there next year and your grandchildren may never have the opportunity to see one like it.
