There’s something sweet about Achala Weerasinghe. And as a young pastry chef with an arsenal of awards under his belt for his delicious desserts it’s not hard to see what it is.
At the tender age of 32, Chef Achala has scooped the title of Best Pastry Chef of the Year for the past two years at the Emirates Salon Cullinaire event, beating pastry chefs from across the Middle East. He’s also cooked for local royalty - most memorably a six foot, 50kg wedding cake - and he continually manages to stun diners at the restaurants in the Renaissance Dubai Hotel with his sweet treats.
While many of us find making the perfect pastry a tricky task, Chef Achala says if you stick to the rules you really can’t go wrong.
“With main courses, a recipe can be tweaked during the preparation process and flavours can be altered or mistakes rectified. If an ingredient in a dessert recipe is missed out or too much is added than what is stated, the outcome will be, in plain, disastrous,” he explains.
“The solution is to calm these fears, allow plenty of practice, never give up and to share a successful outcome with friends and family.”
Sharing his successes is something the Sri Lankan chef is particularly good at, especially during Ramadan when pastries form a sizeable part of the Iftar banquet.
From Awamat (fried donut balls), Mohalabiha (milk flan) and Aish Al Saraya (a bread and cream dish) there’s plenty on the menu and Chef Achala says Arabic desserts are like no others.
“Arabic sweets have a uniqueness of flavour, texture and essence of history. Those are mostly contained with nuts, rose water and sugar syrup. They don’t use fruit ingredients in the Arabic pastries.”
Chef Achala creates superb sweets for all the restaurants at the Renaissance Dubai Hotel where he has worked for more than two years and his cakes are the best-sellers at the venue’s Aquarium Lounge.
He’s even encountered parents, who’ve tasted his creations at Spice Island restaurant and ask him to create birthday cakes for their little ones. Luckily he’s a budding artist so creating chocolate Spidermen has proved no trouble to him!
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