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Canberra Today 15°/16° | Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Canberra chef leads Pastry Cup victory

CIT Pastry Chef Dammika Hatharasinghe is back in the classroom but still has his winning team jacket. Photo: Cameron Jamieson
CANBERRA’S very own master chef Dammika Hatharasinghe helped lead Australia to victory at the 2012 Asian Pastry Cup.

Hatharasinghe, a CIT pastry chef, was the sugar work instructor and mould maker for the three person team. Australia’s winning entry also won a special prize for the best sugar centrepiece.

The win will see Australia now compete in January’s “Coupe du Monde de la Patisserie” in Lyon, France.

“The bi-annual competition is not new, so your ideas need to be fresh or you’ll just be presenting

The winning Australian sugar centerpiece captures the sunshine and water of Sydney Harbour. Photo: Sandra Beeston

work that the judges have seen before,” Hatharasinghe said.

“We wanted to portray our idea of Sydney Harbour, so our final design symbolised the daylight and water that are a key feature of the harbour.”

Hatharasinghe said the team had been very motivated to win since the very start of preparations last year.

“We weren’t going to Singapore just to make up the numbers for the competition,” he said.

“We wanted to win, which we knew would be very hard because we would be up against the Singaporeans on their home turf, and they have been the reigning champions for the last six years.

“So we practiced in Sydney using an exact replica of the kitchen we would get in Singapore.

“We even did some trial runs under the exact competition conditions and timings – we started at the same time in the morning as they did in Singapore to ensure our team was in the right frame of mind to win and there would be no surprises.”

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