Words: Tina Edward Gunawardhana
Photographs: Courtesy of Damindra
Offering authentic Japanese cuisine with a mix of Sri Lankan and Scandinavian touches, chef Damindra Tillekeratne is the proud owner of his eponymous restaurant in Copenhagen. A chance conversation with Sri Lankan hotelier Dheeshana Amarasekera revealed the existence of Damindra, a sushi restaurant run by a Sri Lankan and billed as the best kept secret in Copenhagen. Meeting Chef Damindra in Copenhagen was a sheer joy as he revels in his role as a chef of Japanese cuisine. I was invited to be at his restaurant at 6.30 sharp. As I am always a stickler for being on time for appointments, I found the restaurant easily as it was a short walk away from Copenhagen’s iconic Black Diamond, the building which houses the Royal Danish library.
The restaurant is very compact and has provisions for 10 covers. Its intimate setting adds to the ambiance especially as Damindra is very hands on and makes it a point to personally welcome diners, talk them through the menu options while making the sushi in full view of the diners and serves the food while maintaining a cheery disposition throughout even when it is full house.
An alumni of Royal College, Colombo, Damindra is very proud of his alma mater and says he is indebted to his school for teaching him valuable lessons which have held him in good stead throughout his life.
He explains that he was attracted to Japanese cuisine because of its “combination of flavours, and the colourfulness of the cuisine.” As a Sri Lankan in Japan he was enthralled by the flavours and harboured a dream to one day open his own Japanese sushi restaurant with a Sri Lankan twist to it.
Having been put through his paces at Hotel School in Sri Lanka where he graduated from, he travelled to China and Japan and a raft of other countries where he picked up various cooking techniques while broadening his culinary knowledge.
Fate brought him to Denmark where he realised he wanted to make it his base. Soon the dream of opening his own Japanese restaurant was gnawing away at him. He soon made an action plan and in next to no time he had set up Damindra.
“I wanted to create my own identity and how I present the cuisine. My aim was to focus on the clients and make them feel special while they were in my restaurant.” he explains.
