How do our food experts cook and eat? This week, chef Shehan Lee takes our Q&A!

What’s your first memory of cooking?
When I was small my mother used to make very soft and yummy butter cakes for every occasion. Everyone loves her butter cakes and I was her biggest admirer and fan. 

What do you love about being a professional chef?
The ability to express my passion and creativity through the food I make. Secondly, I also am able to inspire many home chefs through my social media platforms.

What started Lee’s Kitchen? 
For the longest time, I had a dream to start my own social media platform for food recipes but I was never able to put the effort and the time to get it started. Then in 2020 with the Covid lockdowns, I suddenly had all the time I needed to make this dream a reality. Thanks to Covid lockdowns, I was able to inspire so many of my friends to explore their skills in their own kitchens through my recipes. They even started to share pictures of the dishes they made which truly was a very humbling and heart-warming experience to me.

An underrated Sri Lankan ingredient? 
Nutmeg and Mace

What is your go-to dish to make?
Creamy Parmesan basil pasta along with slow-baked herb chicken

What was your favourite childhood meal? 
It’s definitely my mom’s Dhal curry, Brinjal Moju, Kochchi cutlet, Kalu pol chicken, Spicy tempered Potato and Ceylon Cashew curry meal. This is the meal I always want for my birthday every year.

What dish do you love to eat but never cook?
Any Beef dish!

The last supper of your dreams? 
Trying all the Cheesecakes at Cheesecake Factory. 

What’s a meal you would make to impress someone?
Thai Chillie prawns, Chillie chicken with cashew nut, Sweet and sour fish, Black pepper pork with fried rice.

What has been the most difficult recipe that you mastered? 
Not just a recipe but a cuisine - authentic Sri Lankan food.

You travel quite a lot, which country has the best food that must be explored?
Dubai.  They have all types of cuisines and fancy foods from all around the world.

Your fool-proof recipe from Lee’s Kitchen you would recommend to anyone?
I believe all the recipes I have posted on social media are foolproof. I have always provided step-by-step instructions as well as Tips and Tricks which many chefs are reluctant to share.

What’s a dish you’d love to relive for the first time?
Turkish sweets I had in Hafiz Mustafa Dubai. Their Pistachio Baklava was out of this world!

What does your own restaurant of your dreams look like? 
My dream restaurant would be a place that serves different types of fusion cuisine and gourmet foods located in the heart of Colombo. It will be a warm and cosy place where people can park their problems outside, walk in and have their favourite meal with their loved ones while listening to peaceful music and enjoying a soothing ambience.

When you are not working - do the cooking or have someone cook for you?
Haha, depends on my mood! 

You are a chef with a keen eye for presentation - eat with your eyes or think with your stomach – which one wins?
Definitely eat with your eyes.

On your day off, how would you spend it? 
I love to do outdoor activities such as swimming, cycling, and going for walks so that it can give me peace of mind and positive energy.

What’s your comfort dish after a long day?
A good Pizza with a lot of cheese.

As an experimental chef, your thoughts on modernising traditional food?
There is always room to develop traditional recipes with new innovations, but the challenge is making those innovations complement the traditional dish without destroying its cultural values and taste.

What’s a dish that perfectly illustrates your experience, knowledge and skill as a chef?
I think the dish that really illustrates my experience, knowledge and skills in the making of Dumplings. As a kid, I have seen my Dad making Dumplings at home with a lot of patience because it’s a dish that has many steps, techniques and also requires a bit of craftsmanship. I used to help my Dad for years and watch him make them and subsequently got involved and learned every step from the master!