Lago Italian Bistro at Colombo City Centre is set to host a unique one-night Father’s Day dining experience in collaboration with renowned Singaporean chef Derrick Kwa, inviting families to celebrate fathers through meaningful conversations and an unforgettable culinary journey.
Rather than selecting dishes from a traditional menu, each table will choose seven words from a list of twelve descriptors—including nurturing, creative, fierce, stubborn, and generous—that best capture their father’s personality. Those seven words will then be transformed into seven sharing plates, ensuring that every table enjoys a completely different dining experience.
Chef Derrick Kwa has built an international culinary career spanning fine-dining restaurants across Asia, Europe, and Australia, including Michelin-starred establishments and restaurants featured on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. He later served as Group Executive Chef for Wilde & Co., a collection of boutique luxury hotels in Sri Lanka, where he worked closely with local chefs to deepen his understanding of Sri Lankan spices, indigenous ingredients, and regional cooking traditions. This experience strengthened his appreciation for the island’s vibrant food culture and ingredient-driven cuisine.
Originally trained in digital marketing, Chef Derrick has always been fascinated by storytelling and human connection. His transition into the culinary world allowed him to express those ideas through food, using ingredients, memories, and shared experiences to create conversations around the dining table.
A Menu Shaped by Every Guest
Instead of presenting twelve dishes, Chef Derrick has created a menu built around twelve personality traits: nurturing, fierce, protective, generous, adventurous, creative, joyful, dramatic, stubborn, wise, resilient, and calm.
Each table selects seven words that best describe their father, and the kitchen transforms those choices into a three-course sharing experience consisting of three starters, two main courses, and two desserts. With multiple culinary interpretations assigned to several descriptors, no two tables will receive the same combination of dishes.
Every plate has been thoughtfully crafted to reflect the meaning behind its chosen word.
For example, Nurturing is represented by gnocchi served in rasam with sautéed aloe—a dish inspired by comfort, healing, and care. Protective combines clams, chilli, and turmeric, symbolising strength, natural defence, and traditional rituals of protection. Stubborn features goat and coffee, representing resilience, determination, and bold character.
“For me, the beauty of a meal lies in the connection it creates,” says Chef Derrick. “The best meals do more than satisfy your appetite—they make you think, make you feel, and bring people together. I wanted to design a menu that begins with conversation, where guests reflect on their fathers before the first dish even arrives, allowing the meal itself to grow naturally from those shared stories.”
Chef Derrick’s cooking philosophy begins with curiosity, carefully breaking down ideas into ingredients, techniques, and memories before rebuilding them into contemporary dishes. His menu showcases predominantly Sri Lankan ingredients while drawing inspiration from global culinary traditions and the precision of modern fine dining.
Although created for Father’s Day, the experience welcomes everyone. Guests are invited to celebrate with fathers, families, partners, or friends, using the evening as an opportunity to reflect on the many meanings of fatherhood and the people who have influenced their lives.
NCINGA and AWS Bring Together National Leaders to Shape Sri Lanka’s Sovereign Digital Future at the Inaugural ‘GROUNDED’ Symposium
Global technology solutions provider NCINGA, in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS), brought together more than 100 of Sri Lanka’s leading government officials, policymakers, and enterprise executives for the inaugural ‘GROUNDED: Sovereign Cloud Symposium’ on June 17. The event marked the introduction of AWS Outposts, a hybrid cloud solution that enables organisations to harness the full capabilities of AWS while securely keeping data within Sri Lanka’s borders, addressing growing demands for data residency, security, and regulatory compliance.
The symposium signalled a significant evolution in Sri Lanka’s digital transformation journey, shifting the focus from cloud adoption to the strategic design of sovereign digital infrastructure. Discussions centred on the principle that sustainable digital progress depends on combining global innovation with national ownership and local expertise, enabling countries to build resilient digital ecosystems that strengthen economic growth and improve public service delivery.
Delivering the keynote address, Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya, Chief Advisor to the President of Sri Lanka on the Digital Economy, outlined the Government’s ambitious vision to expand the country’s digital economy fivefold to exceed US$15 billion by 2030. He highlighted the nation’s strategic priorities of a Cloud-First, AI-First, and Horizontal Systems approach to eliminate data silos, accelerate digital public services, and improve citizen outcomes. Dr. Wijayasuriya described hybrid cloud technologies such as AWS Outposts as offering the “best of both worlds,” combining global-scale innovation with secure local infrastructure while unlocking an estimated US$25 billion in economic value.
Reinforcing the Government’s commitment, Hon. Eng. Eranga Weeraratne, Deputy Minister of Digital Economy, described digitalisation as a key driver for accelerating Sri Lanka’s economic development. He reaffirmed the Government’s Cloud-First policy and shared its long-term ambition of positioning Sri Lanka as a regional data centre hub.
A panel discussion moderated by Vajira Wijesinghe, Group Managing Director of NCINGA, explored practical strategies for implementing sovereign digital infrastructure. Panellists included Pete Herlihy, Digital Public Infrastructure Lead at AWS; Steve Dodd, Chief Digital Officer of MAS Holdings; Jayantha Fernando, Partner at Heritage Partners; and Ishari Siriwardane, General Manager – Digital Transformation Projects at SLT-Mobitel. The discussion examined key challenges including balancing digital sovereignty with innovation, developing local technology talent, and financing digital transformation initiatives at scale.
Adding further perspective, AWS executives Mayank Arora, who leads Government, Education, and Transportation for AWS across India and South Asia, and Raja Rajaram, Hybrid Cloud Business Leader for AWS in Asia Pacific and Japan, shared regional public sector success stories and demonstrated how AWS Outposts delivers a consistent and secure hybrid cloud environment for organisations operating under strict data governance requirements.
Commenting on the significance of the initiative, Imal Kalutotage, Founder and Chairman of NCINGA, said, “This marks a historic milestone for Sri Lanka as a global hyperscaler like AWS demonstrates its commitment to investing in the country. Our discussions have evolved from why digital transformation matters to how we can architect it for a sovereign nation. Through our partnership with AWS and our long-standing commitment to Sri Lanka, NCINGA is not simply delivering technology—we are helping build the digital foundations that will support the country’s economic ambitions for decades to come.”
Chef Derrick Kwa Partners with Lago for a Father’s Day Dinner Inspired by One Meaningful Question: “How Would You Describe Your Father?”
