DOM FERNANDO'S SRI LANKAN FISH PATTIES

The chef-owner of London's Paradise restaurant talks about blending Sri Lankan cuisine with British produce and his gran's amazing "short eats" snacks

- TONY NAYLOR

Our role is to the push the boundaries of Sri Lankan food,' says Dom Fernando, chef-owner at London's Paradise. 'If you want traditional Sri Lankan there are plenty of good places to have it, but we thrive on creativity. We want to do something progressive.' To that end, his Soho dining room blends high-quality Sri Lankan and British ingredients in dishes which, in cooking techniques or plating, go to new places. Barbecued chicken thighs, for example, marinated in lemongrass, ginger, curry leaves and rampe (pandan leaves), are served skewered on an ambarella fruit curry with petals of Roscoff onion, glazed with Sri Lankan Lion stout. As Dom puts it: 'We don't have to be defined by traditional curry.' Launched late 2019, such innovation has established Paradise as one of Britain's more imaginative dining rooms. Despite the pandemic ('It's been a very challenging two years,' says Dom), this small, 35-cover restaurant has wowed critics and diners alike, justifying Dom's decision, over a decade ago, to swap accountancy for a life at InterContinental Hotels, where he honed his skills before Paradise.

The hospitality gene, that desire to host and feed people, was in this 39-year-old's DNA partly thanks to an aunt who took Dom - then a child - out to restaurants ('a massive event which got me into food, restaurant design and the guest exper ce'). But it's also because, growing up in Hendon, northwest London, food was central to how his Sri Lankan family bonded: ‘Food and family, gathering to cook and eat together, is really important in Sri Lankan culture. Ready meals were never a thing. Getting a Maccy D's or pizza was a serious treat. We ate together every day: my parents, my brother, sometimes other relatives, too.