Lasantha Mendis — a pastry chef more accustomed to having his doughy delicacies gobbled up by oilsands workers in a remote Alberta work camp — has earned gold in one of the world's most prestigious international baking competitions.

Mendis took a break from his job in Suncor's kitchens at Mount Logan Lodge north of Fort McMurray to serve as leader of Canada's national bread-baking team at the Festival International Du Pain 2019 in Tunisia.

His sweet treats and fermented doughs took him to the top of the podium during the nine-day competition in late February.

"We won four gold medals [including] two gold medals for individual categories and the championship cup," Mendis said in an interview with CBC Radio's Edmonton AM.

A little creativity and a new way of making the breads — that's how we ended up with the gold medal. - Lasantha Mendis

"A little creativity and a new way of making the breads — that's how we ended up with the gold medal."

Competing alongside chefs from 15 countries, Mendis and his team dominated in four categories and beat out the Croatian team in the final round to take top honours.

'Very much an adventure'

Mendis said the competition was stiff. Canadian ingredients and their traditional skills in the kitchen helped his team rise to the top.

"I made bannock and we used bison meat, maple syrup, smoked maple turkey bacon and made six kinds of breads," he said

Maple cinnamon buns with lavender frosting were the biggest hit with the judges.

"The judges were very excited about that."

The team had one hour of preparation time and four hours in the kitchen the following day to make their original recipes from scratch.

Mendis had one word to describe the competition: crazy.

"It was very much an adventure because they did not give us new technology or new machines or things like that because they wanted to see how we handled the pressure, how we used our experience for that because there was no temperature control, no timers," Mendis said.

"It was stressful but we very much enjoyed it too because it was a challenge."

The team used Canadian ingredients to bake their breads. These cinnamon buns with lavender frosting were a big hit with the judges. (Lasantha Mendis)

Originally from Sri Lanka, Mendis has more than 20 years of experience in the food industry.

He began his career as a food runner in his home country and then worked in a luxury hotel in Dubai and Qatar before moving to Alberta on a work permit 11 years ago.

He gets a lot of satisfaction from his job in Fort McMurray. The money is good, the people are friendly and the camp kitchens are just as a good as any five-star operation.

"I do lots of creative things like icing carving or chocolate carving," he said.

"I really enjoy it because the camp is really friendly, the staff is really good. My co-workers and everyone helped prepare for this competition."

Mendis said he has returned from North Africa thankful for his work in Fort McMurray. He's glad to be back serving up his tried and tested recipes, including his famous cheesecake parfait.

"Everybody likes my stuff because it's all homemade," he said. "At Mount Logan lodge, they really enjoy my cheesecake parfait.

"If we don't put out the cheesecake parfait, there is going to be a little bit of trouble at Mount Logan lodge. Everybody loves it."