Drinks and doughnuts: A perfect pairing
This month’s column is part of “Sri Lanka’s crème de la crème” series that highlights inspiring Sri Lankan chefs across the country.
A new generation of chefs is emerging in Sri Lanka paving the way in the prideful art of baking and pâtisserie. Here KIKU restaurant Pastry Chef Sineka Ranasinghe shares how she is changing the traditional narrative with her unique take on classic bakes.
Playing with flavours: Chef Sineka Ranasinghe
Enter KIKU Japanese inspired restaurant, and the first thing that might catch your eye is the bakery display case of beautiful doughnuts. Neatly laid, covered with bright coloured icings, or topped with fruit preserves, delicately touched with edible flowers, and fluffy as clouds. They look irresistible.
A month in advance of KIKU’s opening their new pâtisserie, I am eager to try a selection of three, with an effervescent garden-inspired soda, or tea pairing menu curated by KIKU’s pastry chef Sineka Ranasinghe. She presents a classic glazed cruller, paired with a lavender soda; a rhubarb and custard doughnut, paired with a Swiss elderflower and rosemary soda; and chocolate ganache Boston cream doughnut, paired with matcha tea.
The cruller is a dream—it is, all at once, juicy, sweet, crisp and melts in your mouth, balancing well with the light, floral almost citrusy lavender soda. The rhubarb jam (made in-house with no preservatives) and vanilla custard doughnut, my favourite of the three, explodes with a complexity of diverse flavours: tart, creamy, floral, textured and soft. It pairs very well with the bright, fresh and subtly sweet elderflower. Last but never least, the decadent chocolate ganache Boston cream doughnut filled with a classic diplomat cream (made of crème pâtissière and whipping cream.) It is heavenly with the earthy matcha tea. A trifecta of the most clever flavours.
I think it’s safe to say Chef Sineka has outdone herself… and I might just be the first customer at KIKU’s upcoming pâtisserie which opens in October in Hokandara.
Here Chef Sineka shares her journey as a chef:
- How did you become interested in baking, what sparked the passion?
My interest for baking started at a very young age … where my mother had the dual role of taking sole responsibility to bring up children and also tend to the domestic work. So, since I was very young, the kitchen was the sweet spot where I watched my amma find her happiness in the kitchen … she has an excellent talent for recreating a dish after tasting them once. Despite the burden of the chores, she also made sure her kids celebrated with the most fun birthday cakes.
- What was the first pastry you ate and fell in love with?
As cliché as it sounds for a pastry chef, the first pastry I ate that I fell in love with was a croissant. I had it when I was around eight years old when I visited the UK with my parents. It was the first ever memory I had of travelling out of the country and I still remember this hole in the wall bakery we went into and it just smelled of fresh pastries and coffee. The first bite into a buttery flaky croissant just blew my mind and I did not know how complex it was to perfect it.
- Where did you learn to make doughnuts?
My childhood consisted of homemade goods; our household was a firm believer of “We can make it at home” and it was miles better than any store-bought item. So, the basics of doughnut making was learnt at home, but I perfected the theory, science behind the ingredients, and technical aspects from Prima’s Baking and Training Centre, and the very talented chefs who taught us.
- What is a day in the life of a pastry chef?
The work day starts for us at midnight, or latest at 3 a.m. If we take out the sleep schedule from the equation, I personally find peace in working in the calm and quiet of the night with the kitchen to myself. The work day is only stressful when we have a deadline to meet to get the bakes out at a certain time, but other than that, it is very therapeutic. The hum of the machines mixing the dough in the background while you chop up fresh fruit for the jams and fillings is like a form of meditation. And as we clock out of our shift while the rest of the world starts to wake, we see the smiles on the faces of the ones who take their first bite of the bakes that just went out, we feel a certain warmth that words can’t explain and that is what I mostly look forward to.
- What inspires your baking and flavour choices?
I really like working with fresh produce and pairing flavours…I like to balance bold flavours with subtle ones, pairing sweet with tangy, crunchy with creamy. I like to not limit the flavours to just local profiles but to mix and match ingredients and flavours from different parts of the world.
- What do you like best about working at KIKU?
Working at KIKU is very enjoyable as I have a lot of freedom to try new things. Jackie (the owner) hypes me up to push my limits and try new things. And it’s so refreshing to see someone who also likes to play with flavours and to think outside of the box so that we put out things that are not yet out there. Everyone here is very supportive to any new idea I throw out and ways we can perfect and make it better, and never disheartening nor suppressive to new ideas and change.
- What drives you?
To try new things and see people’s reaction to what I do or make. It is something that my motivation feeds off of. My family is what mostly drives me to step out of my comfort zone… I consider myself a perfectionist and am almost never fully satisfied and think there is room for improvement and have the constant desire to outdo myself.
(Ruwanmali Samarakoon-Amunugama is the author of Milk, Spice and Curry Leaves; Hill Country Recipes from the Heart of Sri Lanka)
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