GOLDEN CHEF
June - July 2020 Gulf Gourmet
A FUSION OF
TALENTS
After the pandemic-induced break, the Golden Chef’s Hat Award is back to test the talent of budding chefs. Chefs Ashoka Yapa Bandar and Kondala Rao Yadagiri from Five Jumeirah Village Hotel are set to challenge competitors with their delicious fusion creations... Ashoka Yapa Bandar
He came to Dubai after college on the advice of his uncle, who was a waiter in a hotel here. Chef Ashoka Yapa Bandar has not looked back since. He’s already been here for nearly a decade. The 29-year-old junior sous chef from Five Palm Jumeirah is trying to hone his skills through competitions as he goes about building a career in the most exciting culinary hub in the Middle East. He initially joined the Le Meridian Dubai Hotel & Conference Centre as a steward. However, after witnessing the creativity of chefs, he was inspired to move into the kitchen. “Within six months, I started learning pastry from scratch,” Chef Ashoka says.
“As a commis III, I had to do a lot of ground-level work initially but I enjoyed every moment.” A year and a half later, he moved to Sofitel, the Palm as a commis I. “I got a promotion within the first year to demi chef de partie. My executive chef was quite happy with my performance. So when he moved to Five Palm Jumeirah in 2017, he brought me along.” At the Five Palm Jumeirah, Chef Ashoka is a part of the team that makes desserts for all the outlets of the hotel. There is also a cake shop that the team caters to. Chef Ashoka finds pre-openings especially challenging but also sees
them as a great opportunity to learn. “There is always a lot to do because you have to build things right from the bottom up. Also, there are so many teams to work with. So you learn the value of teamwork and also how to deal with different personalities.” He feels the same about competitions. So far, Chef Ashoka has won two bronze medals for live cake decorations at the Emirates Salon Culinaire Sharjah and Dubai. For the Golden Chef’s Hat Award, he is putting together a dessert that uses Nestle chocolate mousse, KitKat, milk chocolate and dark chocolate. “The KitKat will give it a crunchy feel. I have used the dark chocolate along with the milk chocolate to vary the sweetness and bitterness of chocolate. There’s also raspberry mousse, sesame seeds and pistachio crumble. Finally, the lime confit adds some sourness to the sweetness. It’s a fusion of different international tastes.” In the next 10 years, Chef Ashoka wants to have learnt enough to open his own pastry shop in Sri Lanka. “My two sisters and my mother want me to return. It was hard for them when I decided to leave the country. But I wanted new experiences.”
Ashoka Yapa Bandar
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Kondala Rao Yadagiri
He’s especially grateful for his boss, Chef Adnan Khan, for encouraging him to participate in competitions. “He’s very supportive and that makes a huge difference to my motivation levels. I hope to do him proud.”
