Multyfarnham Cookery School was the recipient of the award for Cookery School of the Year 2016 at the inaugural Food Awards on Monday, 21 November which were held at the Crowne Plaza, Dublin.
Kamalika Ranasinghe, who runs the cookery along with her husband Dyantha, started her career at her mum’s bakery and restaurant back in Sri Lanka where she is from originally. At age 16, she completed a cake making and wedding cake diploma in the capital city of Colombo after which she joined the Le Meridian chain- an upscale, design-focused international hotel brand.
It was then she met Dayantha – a pastry chef in Sri Lanka and together they travelled to many countries working as chefs before settling in Ireland eleven years ago.
As well as working at many award winning restaurants throughout the midlands, the pair opened a coffee shop in Mullingar but yearned to share their combined vast knowledge of food and cooking.
Dayantha had tutored part-time in the Athlone Institute of Technology (A.I.T.) and Kamalika had provided many classes and demonstrations at LARCC Cancer Centre in Multyfarnham, where she catered for the residents so putting their experience of teaching together and start a cookery school in 2014.
Between them, the couple have won many medals and awards both in Ireland and abroad including silver and gold medals for their dishes at the International Salon Culinaire, the UK’s largest and most prestigious chef competition programme, and gold and silver at the Chef Ireland Culinary Competition.
Kamalika told Topic that she wants participants to go home with a passion to cook.
“After years of working and traveling as chefs in many countries, we decided to share our knowledge and expertise to others who are interested in creating culinary dishes without a fuss but with a twist.”
Classes provided at the school vary from European, Asian, Thai, Italian style bread making, desserts as well as special seasonal classes such as Christmas baking. The school also runs team building events and will cooperate functions as well as fundraising nights for local charities.
A clearly delighted Kamalika said the pair were delighted to receive their award. “We have been working very hard over the years and to win an award for best cookery school among very famous other cookery schools from all over Ireland was great.
The fact it was nominated by the public and all the wonderful comments, and reviews sent by our customers and students was very special. All I can say is years of hard work was recognised and I am very proud to win this award. Without all you lovely people supporting us we wouldn’tbe here and we are proud to win this award.”
