Tea with Tooting Mama discovering heritage and culture through Sri Lankan food

Sarah Baldwin is the founder of Serendip

It’s a business inspired by Sarah’s love of travel, and a childhood spent living in several different countries including Sri Lanka. 

The ethos of Sarah's business is to source artisan products that are handmade in Sri Lanka - and you’ll hear about the efforts Sarah goes to, to track down true artisan makers.

In our conversation we talk about the brands Sarah has sourced and how as a child she became accustomed to living in different cultures and getting used to different foods.

Sarah will give you her recommendations for restaurants in Sri Lanka and here in the UK.

Go grab your tea and settle in as I talk to Sara about her childhood, her business, Sri Lanka and most importantly food.

Serendip

The Kandy Esala Perahera

Rice and Carry

Barefoot

Hop & Roll

Little Sambol

Everest Curry King

Rambutan

Empire Cafe, Kandy

In this South Asian Heritage Month edition of Tea with Tooting Mama, I’m talking to Krisha Puwanarajah, the co-founder of MUVs ALL DAY. Originally MUVs started out as curries delivered to customers in jars, then became a cult supper club. Krish is now on her journey to transform MUVs. 

We discuss why Krish started a food business, how she used food and stories to connect people to her Sri Lankan culture and her heritage recipe. 

We talk about how working in Sri Lankan food has freed her to be herself. 

Grab your cuppa and tune into this podcast. 

This mini-edition of Tea with Tooting Mama is supported by Hera Project X Sri Lanka and Wandsworth Council.

* MUVs ALL Day photo story

* MUVs ALL DAY

Grab my free guide to Sri Lankan cooking, join the Tooting Mama community by signing up for my weekly newsletter here. 

Find my recipes here. 

Check out my Instagram here

Never miss a single episode by subscribing to the podcast on Apple podcasts, Spotify and tell your friends about Tea with Tooting Mama and my Stubstack Tooting Mama 

Why not take a screenshot of the podcast and post it on your  Instagram stories and let’s spread the word about this podcast and the fantastic stores we have to share within the Sri Lankan community.

Tooting Mama is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

In this South Asian Heritage Month edition of Tea with Tooting Mama, I’m talking to Thana Sivasambu, the founder of Ruci Foods. You may remember Thana from a previous episode of Tea with Tooting Mama.

We discuss Thana's motivation for starting a food business, how she uses food to connect people to Sri Lankan culture and her heritage recipe. A recipe she loves and one she would want to pass on. 

Free to be me is the theme for this year’s South Asian Heritage Month. We talk about how working in Sri Lankan food has freed her to be herself. Thana’s response might surprise you! 

Grab your cup of tea and tune into this podcast.

This mini-edition of Tea with Tooting Mama is supported by Hera Project X Sri Lanka and Wandsworth Council.

* Rebuilding Sri Lanka with chutneys, pickles and sambols

* Ruci Foods

* Thana’s heritage recipe

Grab my free guide to Sri Lankan cooking, join the Tooting Mama community by signing up for my weekly newsletter here. 

Find my recipes here. 

Check out my Instagram here

Never miss a single episode by subscribing to the podcast on Apple podcasts, Spotify and tell your friends about Tea with Tooting Mama and my Stubstack Tooting Mama 

Why not take a screenshot of the podcast and post it on your  Instagram stories and let’s spread the word about this podcast and the fantastic stores we have to share within the Sri Lankan community.

Tooting Mama is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

South Asian Heritage Month seeks to raise the profile and help people understand the richness and diversity of South Asian culture in Britain today. 

The 2024 celebrations focus on the theme, free to be me.

For this special edition of Tea with Tooting Mama I’m talking to the women behind the Sri Lankan Culture Collective: Rosh Olivelle, Thana Samasambu and Krish Puwanarajah.

It’s a platform to showcase modern Sri Lankan culture and identity in the UK.

You’re going to hear from Rosh Olivelle, the founder of Hop and Roll. 

Rosh sells hopper making kits which allows customers to make Sri Lanka’s iconic dish at home. As well as this, Rosh runs hopper making classes and caters for events. And she has just gone on to win a Great Taste Award for her Sri Lankan roasted curry powder.

As you will see Sri Lankan food is a big part of Sri Lankan culture. 

Making food central to our lives has helped Rosh, Thana and Krish be free to be themselves. 

Join me as I dig deeper into their stories, their Sri Lankan heritage and identity, and find out why food plays such an important role in their lives.

Hop & Roll

Hop & Roll Instagram

Buy Hop & Roll Hopper kits

South Asian Heritage Month

Sri Lankan Culture Collective Boutique Festival

Grab my free guide to Sri Lankan cooking, join the Tooting Mama community by signing up for my weekly newsletter here. 

Find my recipes here. 

Check out my Instagram here

Never miss a single episode by subscribing to the podcast on Apple podcasts, Spotify and tell your friends about Tea with Tooting Mama and my Stubstack Tooting Mama 

Why not take a screenshot of the podcast and post it on your  Instagram stories and let’s spread the word about this podcast and the fantastic stores we have to share within the Sri Lankan community.

Tooting Mama is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Shownotes

Ruci Foods

Paradise Soho

Rambutan

MUVS ALLDAY

Larry Jeyasekara

In this episode of Tea with Tooting Mama, I am joined by Dee Gibson, a highly sought-after British Sri Lankan interior designer. 

We talked about a pivotal holiday in Sri Lanka that changed her life resulting in Dee becoming a hotelier through the creation of her boutique hotel, Kalukanda House, which has been featured in HIP Hotels and Conde Nast Traveller. 

Kalulanda House is more than just a hotel. It has become the foundation to start a new conversation to shift the narrative of Sri Lanka. 

Her new initiative, HERA Project X, is a curated programme of events, retreats, and cultural exchange to champion women’s creativity and entrepreneurship in Sri Lanka and the global diaspora. 

Dee is looking out for like minded retreat leaders with impact who can offer enticing options and are able to provide reciprocal scholarship places to local HERA Project X beneficiaries. 

During our conversation Dee revealed her favourite Sri Lankan restaurant in London and the way she has weaved Sri Lankan food into her bicultural family’s lives.

Shownotes:

* Discover Kalukanda House and HERA Project X in HIP Hotel and  Conde Nast Traveller

* Find out more about Dee’s successful interior design practice Velvet Orange 

* The restaurants we discussed: Kolamba restaurant, Jaffna House, MUVS ALLDAY

Tooting Mama is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

I just want to say a big thank you to Dee who, over the last few months, has been gently prodding me to get this podcast off the ground.

Whether you are building a hotel or launching your podcast:

You just got to start!

Dee Gibson, Founder of Kalukanda House and HERA Project X

Grab my free guide to Sri Lankan cooking, join the Tooting Mama community by signing up for my weekly newsletter here. 

Find my recipes here. 

Check out my Instagram here

Never miss a single episode by subscribing to the podcast on Apple podcasts, Spotify and tell your friends about Tea with Tooting Mama and my Stubstack Tooting Mama 

Why not take a screenshot of the podcast and post it on your  Instagram stories and let’s spread the word about this podcast and the fantastic stores we have to share within the Sri Lankan community.