Vipula Athukorale creates extremely detailed sculptures from butter. The level of detail in his work is so fine that he cannot even breathe on the butter before cutting figures. 'If you breathe, it moves your hand,' he said. 'You can't do that. So I lean in, take a deep breath, hold it, do what I need to do and then lean back and breathe out.'
The sculptures take a very long time to create. But once finished, the sculptures can stand on display for years. 'I did a Viking ship when I was in Bahrain, and that is still on display in the hotel lobby. It has been there for years.”, says Mr Athukorale.
Vipula Athukorale was born in Sri Lanka and has worked in top-class hotels in Greece, Iraq, Cyprus, Bahrain and England. Mr Athukorale, 46, picked up two gold medals and a silver at the international Salon Culinaire Awards in London last week.
