Tea with Tooting Mama
Tea with Tooting Mama
Podcast Description
My personal Substack tootingmama.substack.com
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast focuses on Sri Lankan culture, food, resilience, and personal journeys, with episodes like Mahesha Rice's story of overcoming adversity, Tasha Marikkar's exploration of Sri Lankan cuisine through her cookbook 'Jayaflava', and Krisha Puwanarajah's insights on her food business connecting people to heritage.
Join Ranji Thangiah, also known as Tooting Mama, as she sits down with chefs, cookbook authors, restaurateurs, hoteliers, and food entrepreneurs to explore Sri Lankan cuisine. In each episode, guests share personal stories, food memories, and their favorite Sri Lankan dishes.
Expect laughter, life lessons, and even heartbreak, as they reflect on identity, family, and rediscovering their roots. Whether you’re after insights into authentic Sri Lankan recipes, connecting with the vibrant Sri Lankan food culture, or hunting for the best Sri Lankan food spots, Tea with Tooting Mama is your perfect podcast companion.
In this episode of Tea with Tooting Mama I’m talking to Sav Perera, former MasterChef Australia contestant and judge on MasterChef Sri Lanka.
We talk about her food memories, identity and how MasterChef changed her life.
Sav shares moving to Adelaide at 18 amid Sri Lanka’s civil conflict, while acknowledging the privilege she had as a Sinhalese Buddhist, and reflects on growing up with checkpoints, bomb threats, and a dispersed family.
We talk about her late mother Chandrika, a long-time and well-loved Sri Lankan Airlines cabin crew trainer, and how cooking helped her process grief after her mother’s death in 2017 and revisiting her mother’s steamed egg curry on MasterChef.
Sav explains her love of Sri Lankan flavours, breaks down what real lamprais is, describes Australia’s evolving Sri Lankan food scene, and outlines her work in pop-ups, content creation, diabetes advocacy, and bringing her experience as a former MasterChef Australia contestant to judging the new MasterChef Sri Lanka series.
Sav restaurant recommendations
Kurumba, Surry Hills
Hoppers Joint, Melbourne
Many Little Bar, Melbourne
Ella, Darwin
00:00 Welcome
00:11 Meet Sav Pereira
01:47 Moving to Australia
03:44 Civil War Childhood
06:25 Privilege And Diaspora
08:18 Lessons From Mum
12:48 Grief And Cooking
14:37 Steamed Egg Curry
17:40 Modernizing Tradition
21:27 Sri Lankan Food Australia
26:37 MasterChef Pressure Cooker
31:22 Purpose And Mum Energy
32:05 Cooking In Your Bones
32:42 Ninety Minute Lamprais
35:05 What Lamprais Really Is
38:04 Flow State And Food Lineage
41:57 Building A Food Career
45:45 Why Not Me Mindset
49:35 MasterChef Sri Lanka Impact
53:02 Dream Dinner Menu
56:33 Jaggery Pudding Breakdown
57:57 Best Sri Lankan Restaurants
01:00:29 Where To Follow Sav And Wrap
Sav restaurant recommendations
Kurumba, Surry Hills
Hoppers Joint, Melbourne
Many Little Bar, Melbourne
Ella, Darwin
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