A winning dish on MasterChef, Sri Lankan rice and curry.

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Kumar Pereira gave a nice interview to the Sunday Times this weekend. He ‘lost’ in MasterChef, but his illustrated cookbook has been picked up by a publisher. Apparently he has a recipe for some sort of kiribath sushi. In last week’s contest to cook for the Dalai Lama, Dani won with a Sri Lankan ‘thali’, with a Sri Lankan on the panel (Shanaka Fernando).

Sri Lankans are very quick to claim diaspora as their own (when they’re successful). The default Hi Magazine cover is a foreign college girl who is back to Sri Lanka on vacation. Kumar and Shanaka are probably more Australian in heart, but nationality is all a bit illusory anyways.

If you’re thinking MasterChef Australia is some poor colonial cousin, no, or as Australians would say it Naaooo. I though Australia would be provincial, but I think this show has done more for the country than anything else. I mean, Crocodile Dundee was not especially helpful, and their cricket team inspires more anger than anything else. Now it’s like, hmmm, they have skyscrapers and an advanced and civilization.

Anyways, the Kumar interview is worth a read. He seems quite surprised at his newfound celebrity, but MasterChef Australia is so big that they move Prime Ministerial debates so people don’t miss the finals. I personally love it very much, and it’s great that Dani can win a round with rice, roti, bean curry, potato curry, dhal, and pol sambal.

Posted on Monday, October 31st, 2011 in Art, entertainment, food, Sri Lanka.