The joy of experimenting
View(s):A frequent visitor to Sri Lanka, Kumar Pereira of Masterchef fame tells Smriti Daniel how his cooking is now all about reinventing old favourites with a healthier twist
Kumar Pereira still remembers how his mother used to mix prodigious quantities of her rich cake in a well-scrubbed bathtub. The recipe, which until now was a closely guarded secret, appears in the recently published “Kumar’s Family Cookbook.” ‘Mama’s dark, moist cake comprises chunky bits of fruit and nuts, held together with roasted semolina, butter and eggs, flavoured with spices, rosewater and brandy,’ he writes. He goes on to describe how the final product would be graded. The highest quality version – boasting a thick layer of marzipan and a strong hit of his father’s best cognac – was reserved for the family’s most intimate inner circle. Kumar also remembers how he got into trouble once when he innocently asked his mother which grade to bring out in front of their guests.
A Kumar special
Though based in Australia, where he enjoyed his season of fame as one of the more popular contestants on Season 3 of Masterchef, Kumar is a now a regular visitor to Sri Lanka. When we meet with him on a Tuesday, it is on the verandah of the Colombo Swimming Club where he is recovering from leading a culinary tour around the country in collaboration with Jetwing Hotels. He was also due to cook up a storm at Park Street Mews later that evening, and has been busy imagining new dishes.
Kumar is often resistant to being typecast as an Asian cook – after all his food is inspired by his experiences as a student in 1960s London, working for a living in 1970s and 1980s Hong Kong, (where he also met his wife Sally) and finally by their years living in Australia with its diversity of cuisines. So when in Sri Lanka, he prefers to experiment. “I’m not a traditional chef. There’s no way I can teach Sri Lankans how to cook rice and curry,” he 
says, “they’d be way better at it than me.” Instead Kumar chooses to return to his favourite ingredients – and reinvent them.
For his dinner that night, among a slew of other dishes Kumar has dreamed up a cold coconut soup and a delicate pannacotta made with cashew nut milk and served with a reduction of kithul treacle and tamarind.
“In my cookery classes, I work with my favourite things – tamarind, coconut in all its forms, jaggery and kithul treacle,” he says now. On his culinary tours, he will demo a new recipe every so often and this time around his sweet and sour prawns have been a hit. He begins by building on the traditional base of onions and garlic. The sweetness comes from the kithul, the sourness from tamarind, and a hit of heat from the curry powder, and chill. The prawns are kept in their shells and some coconut water is stirred in so that the crustaceans cook in the steam. Kumar finishes the dish with a handful of crunchy, deep fried murunga leaves and slivers of soft, white coconut meat. “It takes me 10 minutes, and it’s so easy. It’s got a lovely fresh flavour.”
Kumar plans to return in September for another culinary tour, and this time he hopes to introduce his guests to the East Coast. “I’ve been there as a child and loved it, the style of food is very different,” he says. Kumar is keen to celebrate local produce – serving up dishes like prawns in kurukkan butter – and in particular to introduce people to the great variety of vegetables grown on this island. He’s also dedicated to eating healthier (he even shaved a few eggs off his mother’s rich cake recipe) and says he serves up a lot of low-fat dishes.
Pix by Indika Handuwala
Listening to him talk, it’s clear Kumar has only continued to grow after his stint at Masterchef. He even writes in his book: ‘New food has become my world and given me a new life and new confidence.’ When asked about the latter, Kumar responds: “I was very naïve three years ago. I’ve got more and more confident
New ways with old favourites: Kumar with guests at Park Street Mews
and I’m not afraid of experimenting. I’ve done some lovely things, made my fair share of mistakes but the more I experiment and the more confident I become, the more I enjoy myself.”
That confidence is evident as well in the increasing number of writing assignments he’s been taking on as well as in his paintings and sketches. Aside from the book, there are a charming series of cards with lovely drawings of vegetables and fruit on the cover and recipe suggestions on the inside. (While the book is only available online, the cards are on sale at Barefoot.)
It’s his pleasure in the writing that has been a revelation though. Kumar even says he’s toying with the idea of penning a fictionalised history of his family, and growing up in Sri Lanka. Pointing out the few pages in the cookbook where he dips into his past, he says: “I really enjoyed it – writing about growing up here and the family – it was very cleansing in a way.” Now, he’s ready to do a bit more. “There’s so much that goes on in these big families. I would love to write about mine.”