Love Loss & Legacy: Sav Perera

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 recommendationsKurumba, Surry HillsHoppers Joint, MelbourneMany Little Bar, MelbourneElla, Darwin00:00 Welcome00:11 Meet Sav Pereira01:47 Moving to Australia03:44 Civil War Childhood06:25 Privilege And Diaspora08:18 Lessons From Mum12:48 Grief And Cooking14:37 Steamed Egg Curry17:40 Modernizing Tradition21:27 Sri Lankan Food Australia26:37 MasterChef Pressure Cooker31:22 Purpose And Mum Energy32:05 Cooking In Your Bones32:42 Ninety Minute Lamprais35:05 What Lamprais Really Is38:04 Flow State And Food Lineage41:57 Building A Food Career45:45 Why Not Me Mindset49:35 MasterChef Sri Lanka Impact53:02 Dream Dinner Menu56:33 Jaggery Pudding Breakdown57:57 Best Sri Lankan Restaurants01:00:29 Where To Follow Sav And WrapSav restaurant recommendationsKurumba, Surry HillsHoppers Joint, MelbourneMany Little Bar, MelbourneElla, DarwinGrab my free guide to Sri Lankan cooking, and join the Tooting Mama community by signing up for my weekly newsletter here.Find my recipes here.Check out my Instagram hereNever miss a single episode by subscribing to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, and tell your friends about Tea with Tooting Mama and my Stubstack Tooting Mama. Get full access to Tooting Mama at tootingmama.substack.com/subscribe