This summer, Dom Fernando's Sri Lankan Paradise in Soho shut its doors to emerge months later more tantalising than ever before: this is Paradise 2.0 and its menu will transport you to the tropics.
Katto (K): What was the motivation behind Paradise 2.0 and why now?
Dom Fernando (DF): The restaurant's four and a half years old now and across the last six months, the team and I have been really looking at what we can do to push the boat out on people's perceptions of modern Sri Lankan food. We're opening a chef's table concept in Colombo in a few month's time so we've been spending a lot more time over there working on that, so we thought okay - maybe now's the right time to progress Paradise as well.
I've evolved in the four and a half years since I opened the restaurant, from my cooking style and what I want to do, to design and service philosophy. We really want to fly the flag for modern Sri Lankan food design and hospitality - we don't want to be just be another 'rice and curry restaurant’. There are some fantastic restaurants doing that in London, but I think there's a unique space to play in just above where we were with Paradise 1.0, and we have the ambition of putting ourselves there.
K: You worked with designer Dan Preston on the refit. What was the brief you gave him, and how did it differ from the first iteration?
DF: When we opened the first time round, it was very much 'tropical brutalism', conceived through the lens of Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa. It's all about taking the outside world indoors. We wanted to continue with that, but to model it more closely to a modern Sri Lankan villa.
We want to give guests the effect that they were still sitting in the tropics, but they were sitting somewhere more residential, more relaxed, and doesn't feel as though it's a traditional restaurant.
Dan's really delivered on that design brief. Everything has been made in his studio in Haggerston, except for the limestone counter, which has come to us from Italy. But apart from that, everything is made in Haggerston. Working with him for the last four and a half years has been awesome.
K: Paradise 2.0 introduces new cooking techniques native to Sri Lanka. Why was this important to you, and which are you most excited about?
DF: I think clay pot cooking is probably our most exciting. In Sri Lanka, traditionally, in the towns and villages, people didn't cook with saucepans as we know them. They didn't have the materials so it was really expensive. So cooking in traditional clay pots is what they would do. And it's exactly what we use to make a lot of our dishes. You develop a very distinct flavour balance using clay pots over fire, and it's very difficult to replicate that with modern-day utensils.
K: What does a typical day look like for you at the moment and which aspects are you enjoying the most?
DF: So like many restaurateurs or chefs, no one day is exactly the same. A morning could be market visits or heading out towards Heathrow to pick up the Sri Lankan produce that we have shipped in once a week.
Then it’s mise en place. But not just in terms of the food. I’ll sit with the team and go through the guests that day. Who’s coming in? Who’s celebrating what?
We're also spending a lot of time on development. We might only be seven weeks in to Paradise 2.0; but in six weeks' time, we're launching the new autumn-winter menu. So that process starts two months ahead of time.
Another big part of my schedule is focused on our drinks offering. With Paradise 1.0, we sold 80% cocktails and 20% wine. But now with the new menu, it's actually reversed. It's 80% wine and 20% cocktails, which is really interesting. But what it now means is that we're working together closely as a team during the development process on wine pairing.
K: What keeps you up at night at the moment?
DF: There’s no denying that this is a stressful time. But it’s something that we bring on ourselves. Every day we’re asking what we can do better, how we can evolve.
We want to always keep on our toes, to stay inspired by looking and seeing what's out there in the world and what other people are doing in leading ethnic cuisine - restaurants like Chishuru and Okoko, who have really been flying the flag for African cuisine and the way they're developing it.
So that's always the challenge. What do we do differently tomorrow? How do we grow? How do we continue to progress?
K: Paradise treads the line between authentic Sri Lankan and innovation really beautifully - how do you manage this balance?
DF: I’d say it's a two-pronged approach. At the basis of all of our food is authenticity. We still bring the majority of everything from Sri Lanka, and Sri Lankan recipes at the heart of everything we do.
But then we think about how it's then presented to the guest.
So for example, if you look at our raw beef tartare roll or raw wild mushroom roll, it's a play on a deep fried croquette in Sri Lanka with a spiced beef filling. We took the ingredients of what that filling would be, but we made it into a dressing instead of a sauce. The raw meat or mushrooms are dressed in the same spice mix as we'd normally make these traditional beef rolls. And then we make a casing in-house, and stuff the beef into the casing as though it's a roll. Finally we give it that British twist by presenting it with a smoked charcoal oil and an emulsion. So it almost feels as though the dish has been barbecued and cooked, but it hasn't. It's still got the authenticity of the Sri Lankan spices, but presented differently.
The second prong is about food and identity. With a lot of Asian food - but especially for Sri Lankan food - every meal needs all the different elements. There should be spiciness, something warm and comforting, a protein and a carb like a roti or a hopper. That’s the approach that we've taken with all the courses.
Dom slices chillies using the Santoku Knife
K: What memories do you have from the first time you visited Sri Lanka - how has your relationship with the place developed over time?
DF: To be completely honest I used to hate it. Sri Lanka was the worst. I went there at 11 years old, and I remember walking off the plane at Colombo Airport and getting hit by the smell, the heat, everything, and thinking 'what on earth is going on?'.
We'd go and see friends and relatives all the time, it would be rice and curry five times a day at all these different people's houses. And I was like, you know what? All I want is a McDonald's. I really used to hate it.
Then from the age of about 18, I really started to connect with my family over there and the food. And now, even though I was born in London, going back to Sri Lanka sometimes feels more like home.
I would have never expected that in a million years. And I certainly never would have thought that I'd be opening up a Sri Lankan restaurant, cooking and eating and talking to people about rice and curry when thirty years ago I hated it so much. It's weird how we change through life and how we connect.
K: What were family dinners like for you growing up - how did you come to discover your love for food?
DF: It would be a real mix. At school I'd be having English food or packed lunches; but then at home we'd be eating rice and curry. Of course when you’re young you just want to fit in and I was always jealous of my friends eating pizza or chicken nuggets.
But then just before I went to university, I spent some more time with my mother, my mother's sister and my grandmother and learnt how to cook. At university I'd throw dinner parties of Sri Lankan food and it would really wow everybody. So I was like, 'oh maybe it's paying off now'.
My grandma is probably the inspiration behind all of our family now loving Sri Lankan food, and definitely behind starting this restaurant. We keep the first cookbook she ever owned here in the restaurant.
K: What does your ideal ‘day off’ involve?
DF: My dream day off is actually going out to eat. I love to go out and experience what other people are doing. When you have your own business you can end up being very insular. So for me on a Sunday - which is our day off - I’ll work out in the morning and then go out to eat.
We went to Sune in Hackney recently and spent four and a half hours just sitting there inside the restaurant eating. Then we went outside on their little terrace for drinks and it was just so nice to see the world go by and relax and be treated with that sort of hospitality.
K: Katto is founded on the idea that people nowadays want to own fewer, better things. And that they’re willing to pay a little extra for something really special. Do you agree? And if so what’s one kitchen item that you always spend a little extra on?
DF: That idea is at the centre of everything we do - both personally and professionally.
Across the last four and a half years at Paradise, I've really focused on what we buy, how we buy it, how it's been made, and what is the story around it. All of our ceramics, for example, are handmade by a Greek couple in Camberwell called Sophia Ceramics.
It's the same with kitchen equipment. It's the same with knives. It's the same with furniture. Everything in the restaurant has been purpose-built by hand with a focus on what materials we are using. And it is a lot more expensive, but it's going to last so much longer, and we're able to tell the story around it to our guests. It's like a thread throughout our brand and throughout our business that that's what we do.