In our series of ‘Dining with our Chefs’, today we feature Sanjeeva Ranasinghe, the Executive Chef of Earl’s Regency, Kandy, an Aitken Spence Hotel. Chef Sanjeewa, in tandem with the spirits of Sinhala Tamil New Year has given us tips for preparing two traditional sweetmeats of the Kandyan region. These sweetmeats were popular yesteryear, as well as today, in other parts of the country too.

Sanjeewa was born in 1973 and studied at Nalanda College, Colombo. He started his career at Ceylon Hotel School in 1992, where he completed the Management Diploma, specialising in professional cookery (5 year). He was selected as the Best Student at the final examination in Cookery, in 1997.During his career, he has served in a vast number of hotels, in Sri Lanka, as well as overseas, having started his kitchen career at Intercontinental Colombo. Later he joined the Aitken Spence Hotel chain; Heritance Kandalama, Hotel Triton and Meedhupparu Island Resort. Then he served in leading hotels overseas; in 5 star Ana Mandara Dalat Villas in Vietnam , as Executive Sous Chef at the Sonevafushi Resort, a luxury hotel in the Maldives, as Executive Sous Chef at the Sila Evason Hideaway, Samui Thailand, as well as in many hotels in Hawaii, UK, Spain and France. He joined Earl’s Regency in November 2007.