Chef of Chef Works – Chef Chaminda Gamage

by Chef Works Canada,

Each month we feature a Chef of Chef Works®. If you’re a fan of Chef Works gear and are interested in being featured, email marketing@chefworks.ca. This month we are happy to feature Chef Chaminda Gamage, C.W.C, Executive Chef at Bayview Golf & Country Club, our June Chef of Chef Works. Pictured above is Chef Gamage in his Hartford Chef Coat.

 

Chef Works: Who was your greatest culinary influence?

Chaminda Gamage: At the time I was working at the Ceylon Intercontinental Hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka as a dishwasher in the kitchen, I saw the chefs working and creating different dishes and cooking with different cuisines, and they inspired me to be a chef. It wasn’t just one individual who inspired me to become a chef, but multiple people and experiences.

 

Chef Works: What’s the most rewarding part about your job?

Chaminda Gamage: The most rewarding part of my job is keeping people happy and especially keeping people’s expectations for my food high. To me, food is a language as it is something that everyone has in common, and everybody needs it. It is also a form of comfort, and I love giving that to people. The financial side is also very rewarding to me. Meeting the revenue and managing the cost according to business makes me happy because I like being able to contribute to the club’s success besides cooking and food.

 

Chef Works: Describe your kitchen…

Chaminda Gamage: No matter what kitchen I’m in, whether it is at home or at work, it needs to be clean. Keeping a clean kitchen helps me to be efficient and keep my mind at ease, which in the end, aids me in creating the best dishes I can possibly create.

 

Art of plating by Chef Chaminda Gamage

 

Chef Works: You can only have breakfast, lunch or dinner food for the rest of your life. Which do you choose and why?

Chaminda Gamage: I would choose breakfast foods if I had to choose between breakfast, lunch and dinner. As a chef, once your day starts, you really don’t know when the next time you will be able to eat. Hence, eating a good hearty breakfast, which to me is an over-easy egg, smoked salmon and a kale and peanut butter smoothie, sets me up for a long day of cooking and creating.

 

Chef Works: If you could cook for one person – alive, dead, historical or fictional – who would it be and what would you cook for them?

Chaminda Gamage: If I could cook for one person, alive or dead, I would cook for my mom and I would cook my favourite food, Italian cuisine. She is the most important person in my life and has sacrificed so much to raise me and my two other siblings. She mostly eats South Asian food, so cooking something Italian would be nice for her as it would be different to what she normally eats.

 

Chef Works: Your all-time favourite culinary tip…

Chaminda Gamage: Season and taste as you cook. Flavours change throughout the cooking process and what you start with will taste totally different by the time you’re done. As you’re cooking, taste so you know what to add or what to conceal.

 

Chef Works: How does your culinary uniform make you feel?

Chaminda Gamage: My Chef Works culinary uniform makes me feel comfortable, which is how I think everyone should feel in their work uniform. Being good in my uniform is great because when I feel great in what I’m wearing I feel confident to perform well in the kitchen.

 

To learn more about Chef Chaminda Gamage, visit his online profiles:

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