‘Love Food, Love Life’: Master Class with Celebrity Chef Koluu

Saturday, 4 October 2014 00:08 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

I’ve always enjoyed cooking. Yet I continue to churn out food as consistently tasteless as reading a Boko Haram manifesto while eating a paper sandwich. So, it is with great anticipation that I arrive at Chef Koluu’s home for an afternoon of culinary education, personal histories and gastronomic gratification.

We arrive at Koluu’s Casa around noon and take a seat on the verandah. As you might expect of any self-respecting celebrity, we are kept waiting just long enough. The King of the Casa is doing prep work in the kitchen and we hear the occasional order echo from the inner sanctum. A glimpse into the villa reveals a beautiful home, elegant with a subtle tip of the hat to the flamboyant. “Who wants to cook?” proclaims the Chef as he emerges beaming from the living room. The man’s stature indicates that, with food, he makes no compromises. And his demeanour lives up to the celebrity billing. You see, Chef Koluu comes with a reputation. In the era of the celebrity chef, he is probably the closest Sri Lanka has to a Jamie Oliver, a Julia Child or a Marco Pierre White. Larger-than-life cuisine, larger-than-life character. Like cooking and love, time with Kolu should be entered into with abandon, or not at all. The man’s knowledge is only surpassed by his charisma. He commands the room with his physical presence, his edgy humour and an aura of unquestionable security. The experience quickly becomes just as much about the man as it is about his craft. Try and imagine a hot-tempered rebel-in-a-white jacket with an unerring maternal drive to bring joy through food. Imagine the strut of a rutting rhino and the radiant plumes of a scarlet macaw with the colourful language to match. Imagine being seduced by witty anecdotes and stimulating aromas, lowering your guard to the warm homely glow of a comfortable chat over dinner with close friends. Trust me, this is an experience far less prickly than having Gordon Ramsey scream filth at you over a pot of hot oil. He briefs us quickly on his approach to cooking Sri Lankan food. The goal here is to teach home cooks the basics of Sri Lankan cookery and to give them the basic tools to create genuine Sri Lankan cuisine that can be savoured by locals without being spurned by a foreign palate. The menu can be customised according to your preference and, if you are visiting Sri Lanka, can be adjusted according to what produce is available in your own country. Flexible as he is on these points, he is reluctant to compromise on butter – “Good food has to have everything, otherwise where is the fun!?” he proclaims, as he stirs a pot of savoury yellow rice. The lesson moves along at a clip. We help where we can, take a step back when we need to and listen intently as Koluu holds court atop a small bench. I take solace in the fact that this kitchen is not something out of a Heston Blumenthal fantasy. Thankfully, no liquid nitrogen in sight. It is a regular old Sri Lanka kitchen with the same accoutrement and familiar limitations one might expect. I should be able to replicate this at home. Cooking well, it seems, is not synonymous with cooking fancy. And so we finally sit down and feast. Yellow rice, mixed vegetables, mallung, pork curry and dhal. Culinary tales of triumph and woe, celebrity anecdotes I cannot put into print and lamentations on the demise of the local lamprais. Koluu is unperturbed by the passage of time. Company is brightest where the food is best and on this particular afternoon, this is a great place to be. It has been said that “anybody can make you enjoy the first bite of a dish, but only a real chef can make you enjoy the last”. With Chef Koluu, you also enjoy everything in between. What a wonderful afternoon. To book your Sri Lankan Cookery Master Class with Celebrity Chef Koluu log on to www.trekurious.com. (Trekurious together with DailyFT explores Sri Lanka for the curious traveller. Trekurious works with talented individuals and great brands to create amazing experiential tours, activities, and events in Sri Lanka. You can find out more at www.Trekurious.com.)

Pix by Kanishke Ganewatte