Please wait...
Please wait...
Please wait...
Home > Screenings > SBS International > My Sri Lanka with Peter Kuruvita

Genres: Factual

Demographics: 18+

People: Henry Motteram, Peter Kuruvita, Scott Tompson

Shows: My Sri Lanka with Peter Kuruvita

Companies: SBS International


10 x 25

Chef Peter Kuruvita’s culinary love affair began at a young age in the beautiful surrounds of Sri Lanka. The Kuruvita family’s wood-fired kitchen in vibrant Colombo was where Peter’s grandmother first patiently taught him the intricacies of Sri Lankan cuisine. In this 10x25 minute series Peter revisits his familial homeland, exploring kitchens, restaurants and eateries across the country, following childhood recollections and discovering traditional Sri Lankan recipes along the way. Propelled by personal anecdotes, local ingredients and ancient attractions, Peter travels from seaside fishing villages to lofty tea fields and beyond, highlighting Sri Lanka’s largely unrecognised depth of history and cultural fortitude, all of which have patiently waited to be explored.

Peter animatedly guides us through his experiences of the country, its people, spirituality and food. Starting in his childhood hometown of Colombo during the colourful celebrations for the Kelaniya Perahera festival, Peter then travels inland to the sacred city of Kandy, onwards through tea country, Hambantota and Galle, to the pristine eastern beaches of Arugam Bay before eventually concluding the series in the previously war-torn northern Jaffna Peninsula.

Throughout his travels, Peter is joined by old friends and new and together they explore the area’s culture, site-specific ingredients and recipes. Peter cooks at Colombo’s buzzing Pettah Markets with his childhood nanny, finally perfects a hopper recipe he’s spent 20 years pursuing in Mrs Amarasakara’s kitchen near Kataragama, and learns how to search for Sri Lankan bush tucker with local conservationists in Yala National Park.

Each episode of My Sri Lanka is a unique expression of Sri Lankan lifestyle and cooking, with Peter Kuruvita’s charm and ancestral ties providing an exceptional level of insight and previously unseen perspective bound to leave audiences yearning for more.