Seasons Café – the caterer for any occasion or season

Yasmin Ablej (nee Abdullah) who hails from the city of Galle Fort began her career in cooking at the urging of her beloved uncle, who first taught her to make a mutton korma. At the age of 16 years, Yasmin first began to venture into the kitchen and dabble around cooking for her family, soon enough she was cooking up a storm for her friends and family, after unearthing a passion for cooking. Yasmin studied at Southland College in Galle and although she found her love for cooking at a teenage age; made up for it in years to come. Yasmin began cooking by experimenting and trying out recipes of her father and grandfather; who had travelled the world extensively on work and had an archive of valuable recipes from all their travels. Yasmin, a house wife and mother of four lives in Colombo and runs a lucrative catering business at Pentrieve Gardens, in Kolpetty. Seasons as it is known today was launched in September 2007. It was her passion for cooking that was the driving force for this initiative.

Speaking further about her introduction to cookery, Yasmin remembers the incident that occurred in Galle Fort (in her parental home) in the 1960’s when she was a teenager who was very playful and not at all interested in any kind of cooking or food preparation. It was her favourite maternal uncle, Mr. Sanoosi Bawa, who visited her home on a weekend to find her climbing trees in the backyard of the house; who really motivated her towards preparing spicy food by sheer demonstration - wherein young Yasmin participated together with her friend. Since this incident, which brought her into the world of southern moor culinary science, she never looked back until she reached the heights of her successful business.

She was always inclined to prepare extraordinary dishes for her family, friends, and well-wishers. Basically it happened to be her hobby (some of the recipes she inherited from her grandparents and other senior family members in Galle. She remembers her father had taught the family some of the European dishes) and in her passion to excel in the said field she was motivated to engage in training programs. Particularly by completing a Prima Baking Training course inspired culinary program and also by taking up apprenticeship under a French Chef named John Pierre, blended her talents to be professional and innovative in this highly competitive field.

What encouraged her most in her initiative to be a professional happened to be the fact that her son Shamsudeen also joined her bandwagon, supporting her immensely in the business. Shamsudeen underwent a Prima Baking Training Center Diploma and continued his appetite to be a culinary expert by completing at BHMS Luzern, in Switzerland in the year 2010; after which he continued to work in City Hotel Brunnen, Switzerland as a Demi-Chef, and gained vast experience at Movenpick Mecca as Chef-de-parti before returning to Sri Lanka.

Also, Yasmin says all her efforts would have never succeeded if not for the excellent management contribution of her daughter Rusla handling the customer service. So it is a well-blended family enterprise serving to all events regarding food and beverages.
The growth of Seasons Café has now gone beyond the family days and is now engaged in training its staff to produce the tremendous demand for Seasons delicacies.

Seasons Café has gradually blossomed to be an International kitchen consisting of Euro-Asian, Mediterranean, and local Innovations, starters to desserts and coffee stops. In terms of the future, she wishes it to be among the best of restaurants in the City, and she knows that if the hard work continues it will not take long to be just that. Seasons always mindful of serving their customers to their utmost satisfaction welcomes constructive responses and customer preferences so that they may serve well continuously.  Some of its most prominent clients include MAS Active, Brandix and several embassies in Colombo.  

Seasons Café undertakes orders for any occasion from Monday to Saturday at No. 7, Pentrieve Gardens, Colombo 03; you can contact Yasmin on 0773505320 or 0774386323 to place your orders.