Walking on Cloudstreet
A conversation with award-winning chef Rishi Naleendra about rootedness, identity, calling, and happiness
I’m not sure if I should call Rishi Naleendra Australian or even Sri Lankan. The chef and owner of two-michelin star Cloudstreet in Singapore, which is also 26th in Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants this year, isn’t only a transnational, he is also one of those whose sensibilities aren’t really constrained by nationality.
He was in town recently as one of two guest chefs in Grand Hyatt Manila’s “Grand Master Chef Series,” which mounted a two-night two-star Michelin takeover of the Penthouse at The Peak on the top floor of the hotel. The other chef, who took his turn on the second night, was Mano Thevar of Thevar, also from Singapore. The grand culinary and gastronomic experience was, after all, an initiative of restaurateur and food advocate Angelo Comsti under his passion project Asian
Culinary Exchange, supported by Singapore Tourism Board.
I have only lately been entertaining the idea that rooting yourself in the culture in which you came of age is crucial in any creative undertaking, so I was a little surprised when Rishi told me after dinner that he never wanted to be known as a Sri Lankan chef. Born in Colombo to parents who ran a catering business, he grew up in a milieu teeming with the aromas and flavors and textures of local fare to which, as it turns out, in his adult years, he has returned.
“I didn’t even want to cook for a living,” he confessed. “First I wanted to be a pilot, and then an architect.”
At 18, Rishi left Colombo for Melbourne, where he took up architecture. He was way into his architecture
studies when he was told it would take less time to be a permanent resident of Australia if he were in the hospitality industry instead. Immediately, armed with a somewhat enjoyable experience in a restaurant, where he once worked as a part-time dishwasher to finance his architecture studies, he set his sights on a new horizon, pursuing the art and science of cooking instead, along with restaurant management, service operations, and kitchen logistics.
To cut the long story short, he did end up not only in the restaurant industry, in which he met his wife and business partner Manuela Toniolo in one of his gigs at restaurants gaining experience, expanding his knowledge, harnessing his skills, and finding his place. In no time, after a brief stint in Sydney, he and his wife decided to move to Singapore, in which, he eventually found his place, but not before fumbling through a series of challenges expected of anyone starting from scratch in a new country.
Through a series of job hops, working from a British gastropub to a modern European restaurant, Rishi soon caught the attention of foodies and epicures, including one, the restaurateur Loh Lik Peng of Singapore restaurant group Unlisted casual eatery named Cheek Bistro. In the same year, he also opened Cloudstreet, a tasting menu restaurant that, according to Asia’s 50 Best, “draws on Naleendra’s professional comingof-age years in Australia as well as his Sri Lankan heritage.” Asia’s 50
“And you are so rooted in place anyway,” I said to Rishi.
He shook his head. “I didn’t want to cook Sri Lankan food. The only reason I do is because it sort of makes commercial sense,” he explained. “But then since we got a Michelin star as well as a melt-in-your-mouth A4 Wagyu striploin with bell pepper and a beautiful fermented soy sauce concoction. Presented for desserts were a black olive panna cotta, a Jerusalem artichoke ice cream, and a ragi financier with hazelnut Chantilly.
Rishi made special mention of the crab fat, in which he bathed the sea bass, saying it was his ode to the Filipinos, who would in his past visits always gift him with a bottle of aligue. Not only did he like it, he also ended up using it in his kitchen.
Apparently, Rishi has been to the Philippines enough times to know something profound about Filipinos that he also finds in himself. “Coming from Sri Lanka, I learned not to have resentment in life—you know, you move on, no matter what happens,” he said. “You still got to wake up in the morning. We’ve seen the civil war, the tsunami, the financial crisis… Filipinos and Sri Lankas, we have a lot in common. We know how to be happy.”