From Thambuththegama to UK culinary stage

The inspiring rise of the mushroom farmer's son, Pethum Tharuka Hettiarachchi

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IN the glittering world of fine pastry and sugar artistry—where imagination meets microscopic precision—one name from Sri Lanka's dry-zone heartland is now earning admiration across the United Kingdom: Pethum Tharuka Hettiarachchi.

Today, he is recognised as one of Britain's most promising young sugarcraft artists. Yet his remarkable ascent began not in a world-class culinary academy or a polished professional kitchen, but in Thambuththegama, a rural village in the Anuradhapura district, where life was defined by simplicity, sacrifice, and resilience.

Growing up as the son of a hardworking mushroom farmer, Pethum's childhood was shaped by limited resources but limitless dreams. Opportunities in the culinary arts—especially in specialised fields like sugarcraft—were nearly nonexistent in his region. But what he lacked in exposure, he made up for with natural artistic ability, curiosity, and relentless drive.

At Thambuththegama National College, he balanced academics with long daily commutes, household responsibilities, and the early stirrings of creativity. After his O/L examinations, determined to support his family and save for his future studies, while completing his A/Ls, he took on cash-in-hand work in catering, hotels, and outdoor events during after school hours—often performing fruit and vegetable carvings that revealed a talent far beyond his years.

These were challenging times, but they forged in him the qualities that would later define his artistry: discipline, humility, precision, and a refusal to give up.

In rural Sri Lanka, pursuing a career as a sugar artist is almost unimaginable. But while others saw impossibility, Pethum saw a path.