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A local chef has emerged as the ‘Ice Man’ of Bahrain by crafting intricate sculptures made from blocks of frozen water.
Damith Rathnasekara, a 27-year-old native Sri Lankan, leads a complicated operation from the basement of the Ramee Grand Hotel & Spa, Seef, where he creates the attractions to be displayed in the hotel’s restaurants.
Using a variety of tools such as drills, chisels and even a mighty chainsaw, Damith can create a pair of dolphins, sea flora, sharks or even a motorcycle out of a single 100x50x25 cm block of ice in as little as an hour.
He said: “I have been crafting and making things since I was eight years old. I started out making wood and clay figures, but I’ve learned more techniques as I’ve got older. Now I make things out of Styrofoam, bread, hardened sugar, and, of course, ice.”
The hotel sought after Damith, already working in the pastry department where he decorates the pastries using his skills with sugar and chocolate, and enlisted him to bring a sparkle to their dining decorations.
Realising the process would require maximum efficiency, the hotel bosses provided Damith with his own ‘office’ in the basement – a concrete room which houses a walk-in freezer, racks of carving tools, shelves rammed with his old designs and most impressively of all, three freezing units specially imported from the United States which cost a combined BD52,000.
These units are integral to the process and the technology within them is much more advanced than the typical freezer you’d find at home.
Executive Chef Jason Lynn explained the journey that fresh water goes through before it eventually ends up on the brunch display.
He said: “It goes through three filter systems in the hotel before it gets to our final filter here in the basement. Water is then pumped into the freezing units via a hose, where it is then frozen from the inside. This avoids any excess air or impurities getting trapped and leaving the brittle and flaky white bits you get in your average ice tray at home, which is the result of outside freezing.”
The three units are each large enough to create two ice blocks, with the freezing process taking three-and-a-half days to complete. Therefore, Damith can carve 12 ice sculptures per week; two for the Thursday Seafood Night at the hotel’s Lemon Tree Restaurant, three for the Lemon Tree Friday Buffet and one every night of the week to decorate the bar in the rooftop Ruka Japanese fine dining establishment.
After the blocks are frozen solid, they are extracted from the units via a hoist and placed on a trolley before being placed upright on a special mat on the floor. Damith then sketches out his design with a variety of scalpels, before getting down to the serious business with his chainsaw and chisels.
Although Damith creates 12 designs a week, he never runs out of ideas thanks to a vivid imagination which stems from his love of nature. He explained: “I admire nature more than anything because it is so pure and beautiful. It is my main inspiration and there are so many ideas I have not had the chance to create yet.”
For special occasions, Chef Jason pushes Damith’s skills to the limit. He said: “I like giving him challenges so, for example, when the Formula One was here in April, I asked him to create an ice F1 car for the brunch. Sure enough, he made one and people could not stop praising it!
“He has never failed my expectations, and I haven’t seen him even make a mistake and have to start over again with a fresh block. Then again, with such a carefully managed and time-conscious operation, he can’t afford to!”
Damith, who pursued a career in catering after watching cooking programmes as a child, says that he would have been a fine artist instead if he wasn’t offered a job as a kitchen assistant at the age of 18.
As he applied the finishing touches to a pair of dolphins, which weigh 60kg and will require three men to lift onto the brunch display, he stood admiringly and explained: “My dream was to someday merge my two main passions of cooking and fine arts. Now I am achieving that dream here and I am very happy. I hope I can make many more designs in future”.
With a trophy cabinet boasting the winner’s prize in the recent Movenpick Hotel Bahrain pumpkin carving tournament and second place in the Dubai Gulf Food Competition Ice Carving contest, this cool customer’s imagination shows no signs of slowing down.
