Savindri Perera, or Sav as she is best known, drew the applause of the judges on the latest season of MasterChef Australia for her Sri Lankan dish.
Describing her cooking style as rustic, generous and colourful, Sav’s love of cooking amped up around age 12 after discovering Nigella.
She lists onion, garlic and curry leaves as her holy trinity, nothing happens in Sri Lankan cooking without them.
Last round she Prepared Sri Lankan Chicken curry.
She said “My version of Ammi’s Chicken Curry – Spice rubbed pan roasted chicken breast | Ala kiri hodi potato puree | Picked leaf salad with pickled onions
I always knew this was going to be my hardest cook in this kitchen — and it was.
Seeing my mum’s photo in the little wooden chest just made me remember just how much of her is in me. In the photo my mother was making chicken curry, ala kiri hodi, rice & a kale sambal loaded with red onion.
I decided I wanted to do a version of my mum’s chicken curry that looks nothing like a chicken curry. The thinking process for me was to show how l’ve changed in the competition. Sav on day 1 wouldn’t have dared to do this.
I wanted to capture the flavour profiles I love and present them in a different way.
While I managed to do that, a big part of me feels like I let myself down & let myself Mum down even though that’s not necessarily true.
I wanted more time to refine the chicken, my potato puree was not smooth because I baked the potato instead of boiling it as I usually do. I am happy to openly admit these errors because there’s no shame in admitting your short comings.
The presentation is not executed how I intended — to be honest with you for a while it felt like I couldn’t even move because of how bound by grief I was in that moment. The whole point of this dish was to change how l’m doing things.
