Inaka Weerasinghe

Head Chef - Zephyr

Inaka moved from Sri Lanka to England in 1991, bringing with him the Asian influence that has inspired the much loved menu of Café Zephyr, renowned for its breadth and for its delicious offering of both vibrant and subtle flavours. Before arriving at The Royal Yacht , Inaka’s seventeen years of experience within the kitchen further honed his natural affiliation with Australasian, Thai, Japanese and Mediterranean cooking. Among the influences to his cooking, has been working under the executive stewardship of John Torode, during his time with the Conran group of restaurants, Colin Clague who gave the opportunity to be part of many new openings,  Ken Hom at the Oriental Restaurant Group PLC,and Executive Head Chef of the Itsu Japanese restaurant, Mark Gregory.

Inaka was to subsequently work at the Grove Hotel for three years, where he further developed his talent in the kitchen, much to the benefit of The Royal Yacht. It was here that he had the amazing opportunity to cook for the top 40 golfers in the world when the World Golf Championship was based at the hotel, as well as for Martin Johnson and Jonah Lomu testimony match when they were retiring from International Rugby after the World Cup.

Inaka’s childhood certainly gave him a Palate accustomed to spices and exotic flavours at a very early age. As a small child he ate exactly what the grownups ate. With his mother cooking all the family’s food on their open stove in Sri Lanka. Whilst Inaka may not have indulged in baby food, his mother would delight him with a crème caramel especially created for him (showing her own culinary skills, since stoves aren’t normally conducive to the creation of a good crème caramel)

Every day without fail. To this day it is his favourite dessert and he would favour it over anything else he is offered.

Most recently Inaka spent some time in Dubai, before returning to The Royal Yacht in 2018 and joining forces with Joao, both Head Chef’s in Cafe Zephyr.