Culinary expert Christopher Perera is the Executive Chef of Canada’s first location of luxury brand hotel Royal Sonesta, previously InterContinental Toronto Yorkville. The Royal Sonesta renovated its guest rooms at the iconic Yorkville property in 2019.
Yorkville, widely considered one the most high-end districts in Canada, home to the most expensive stores, and an exclusive area regularly frequented by top celebrities.
When asked about his remarkable achievements in the hospitality industry Mr. Perera credits his success to his land of birth where he learned the art of hospitality.
He realized his culinary passion at a very tender age while working with his mother inside their home kitchen in Sri Lanka. A young and motivated chef, Mr. Perera graduated from Culinary Hotel management at Ceylon hotel school Colombo where he first realized his gastronomic talent. The art of creatively combining flavours came naturally.
He began his apprenticeship shortly after his graduation and started to work in various hotels including Mount Lavania Hotel in Sri Lanka, the Bandos Resort in the Maldives Islands, and Hotel Intercontinental in the U.A.E.
Since this time, Mr. Perera has been making a name for himself in the industry by promoting his techniques through cooking demonstrations across Ontario. In 2000, he received the InterContinental Toronto Yorkville’s “Manger of the Year” award in recognition of his hard work and passion for excellence.
Throughout his career, Mr. Perera mostly worked for IHG properties, in Colombo, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi. He also spent some time at New Orleans “Three Michelin Star” training with some of the world’s most recognizable Chefs.
Today, Mr. Perera leads a culinary team that draws inspiration from Toronto’s unique cultural neighborhoods and high-quality Canadian farm products.
Mr. Perera’s ability to take a traditional recipe, preserve the integrity of its ingredients and simultaneously discover ways to evolve the dish to the next level is one of his many strengths in the kitchen.
He believes that there are no limits when cooking and that the key ingredients to formulating each dish are passion, creativity, experimentation and fun.
The Yorkville Royal Sonesta’s mascot is the Empress of Yorkville, a lioness symbolizing elegance, strength and courage.
Just as she fiercely protects her pride, we too stand united and strong, committed to teamwork and collaboration for our guests to have to an “Empress-ive” stay in her Kingdom of Yorkville.
