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Event host Rajinda Jayasinghe and Jayaflava author Tasha Marikkar
Tasha Marikkar signing the book
By Divya Thotawatte
Celebrating the vibrant culture of Sri Lanka, Tasha Marikkar’s debut cookbook ‘Jayaflava’is a collection of flavours and dishes designed to represent and honour every ethnic background in the country.
The cookbook, published by Harper Collins India, was launched on 20 December last year. Marikkar has included 80 different dishes in the book that are beginner-friendly and could be easily mastered. She ensures providing authentic local recipes while highlighting Sri Lankan culture through write-ups on the ethnic heritages represented in the book and through references to the country’s pop culture. To this effect the book is created to be colourful and engaging, with illustrations and bright designs that capture the vibrancy of the country.
According to Marikkar, food is a great way to highlight the cultural diversity of a country. “I spent 4-5 years researching and tried to represent every community in writing the book. I included the root of every dish. It is important that I represent the country as ethnically diverse and wished to present Sri Lanka to the world the way we see it, as a place of diverse ethnicity.”
Marikkar’s experience and inspiration behind the multi-ethnic celebrations in the book stem from her mixed ethnic background; Sinhalese, Ceylon Moor, and Colombo Chetty that her mother, Neela Marikkar, refers to as an ‘achcharu’. This exposure to a variety of dishes from different cultures and their traditions has influenced her perception of the diversity of Sri Lanka and thereby, her approach to writing the cookbook.
Despite starting her cooking journey when she was merely six, Marikkar began actively making Sri Lankan food when she was in university in London. She improved her Sri Lankan cooking with the help of her mother and her “wonderful network of aunts” and thereby expanding her repertoire and perfecting her recipes, she began writing her cookbook; a collection of easy to make dishes that are beginner-friendly and come with well-researched notes on the history of each recipe.
“The sources of Sri Lankan food are really hard to find. There are a couple of books where you can find the key sources and trace the dishes, but we have a verbal history rather than a written history. So, I had to do many interviews and learn from people about the origin of the dishes. I read several books, even Robert Knox’s. Crediting the dishes of a community is important because Sri Lankans are very sensitive about it. So you need to have your research to support you. That was a challenge.”
Jayaflava also features Marikkar’s favourite dishes, the jaggery beef curry and the red chicken curry. Jayaflava is coined by the Sri Lankan word ‘jayawewa’ and the British term ‘flava’. While the former means celebration and victory, the latter is one that encapsulates the dynamism, style and freshness of Sri Lankan cuisine, Marikkar states in her book.
Sharing food is ingrained in the culture of Sri Lanka and every meal belongs to the collective, she muses. Jayaflava is meant to help individuals around the world to cook and become familiar with authentic Sri Lankan dishes while emphasising the vibrant nature of its heritage and multiculturalism through the dishes as well.
Harper Collins India Sales Director Rahul Dixit said, “the trust that we have in the book comes from the first idea that was woven about the book when Tasha said it had to reflect Sri Lanka as a society, that is an amalgamation of great culture and the diversity in everything. The book does exactly that. It is not like the usual closed, highly stylised, international food books. This is one when you open you think about your home. You feel like eating it, that’s the strength of the book.”
‘Jayaflava’, priced Rs.7,500, is available for purchase at Sarasavi, VijithaYapa, other independent bookstores and on Amazon as well.
Pix by Sameera Wijesinghe
