Celeb ating

The entrepreneur bringing Sri Lankan cooking to our kitchens

Sri Lankan cuisine has grown in popularity recently, pioneered by restaurants such as Hoppers (hopperslondon.com) and Kolamba (kolamba.co.uk) in London. It’s vivid, fragrant, complex and hot, balancing an array of herbs and spices that, for the home cook, can seem challenging. But with her Komathy’s Kitchen range of curry pastes and sauces, Komathy Cumarasamy is making the flavours of her homeland more attainable. She says: “Authentic Sri Lankan cooking requires time and preparation: peeling, grinding, blending so many spices before the cooking even starts. My products cut preparation time to a minimum. The curry pastes, for instance, offer a ready prepared blend of 12 different spices.”

Civil war forced Komathy to leave Jaffna in 1985 and settle in London where she became a finance manager. She returned to Sri Lanka two years ago and re-discovered her cultural roots. Komathy, who has three grown-up children, says: “I saw the wealth of natural food produced by this beautiful island. I had the opportunity to see so many food operations: the cinnamon farmers, coconut farmers, cashew nut growers, and I visited so many spice markets.

“It made me determined to make Sri Lankan cooking more accessible in the UK, working with the Sri Lankan community of farmers and producers.”

There are five products in the Komathy’s Kitchen range – two curry pastes, and chilli, carrot and beetroot sauces, with more in development. Each one costs £5 each. komathyskitchen.co.uk