Tea Inspired Gastronomy with Peter Kuruvita

This transcript was created automatically from the audio and checked for names. Minor errors may remain.

One of our first friends in tea-inspired gastronomy was a young man from Sri Lanka who went all the way to Australia and my father had to travel to Sydney to catch up with Peter. Peter Kuruvita is a Sri Lankan on loan to Australia. He is tea-inspired, he's a brilliant chef, you've seen my Sri Lanka and he's right here with us. Peter, tell us, I love the story of my father coming to your restaurant, please share it with our audience. Well I think it was about 1986, 1985 and I was in the kitchen, my name was on the bottom of the menu and a waiter came in and said there's a very distinguished gentleman out there who'd like to talk to you. So I went out and Mr Fernando said Kuruvita, are you Sri Lanka? And we had a conversation and the conversation went, he said I'm here to launch my tea, I'm coming to Australia because I love this country and he was off to speak to a very famous broadcaster

called Alan Jones to start his whole process and he just said as he left, I'll keep an eye on you and so over the years you know this happened and then 2002 you and I met and that you know the rest is and then you sent me about 32 teas and off I started on my Odyssey of trying to create this incredible product within food as well. It's been an amazing trip and I hope it continues. You know the thing about that you know people laugh when Peter tells them that we sent him 32 teas but the point about it is that gastronomy and food doesn't have a beautiful synergy that tea helps the food to bloom and the food brings the tea in such beautiful technicolour. It does and you know at that stage so as soon as I received all these teas I was overwhelmed but also the green packet had emerged into this beautiful tea series and it was so colourful and beautiful and I don't think anyone at that

stage had really understood or seen that many variant and variable teas and that was also the exciting thing for me. I just kept looking every time I smelled one of them I just thought of food and that was the beginning of that. We started experimenting and the first thing I did got on the net and thought went tea and food. One or two things came up that was it Dilhan. At that stage there were the marbled eggs which I presented a few days ago because I wanted to take us back to that history and then there was lots of tea smoke stuff where they were burning this beautiful herb to try and get smoke out of. So that set the challenge for me to start and continue and you know as a chef you get excited about ingredients and every time like if you could smell this room it would excite you. It is fresh it's like the the tea fields are behind us and that excites chefs and so it wasn't

that hard to start and continue and hopefully continue for a lot longer with my odyssey of trying to build flavour through tea. What you said in the beginning as soon as you smell it the aroma and the flavours it's food it's food. But also I think one of the things that some chefs miss not you is when you talk about a tea inspired dish you need to have some dimension of the tea influencing the dish. You do. Tell us. Well let's start with the the feeling of tea because there is if we start with a black tea when it influences it has to marry it has to be if it if it overpowers it nobody's going to like it because we all know that if you overbrew tea this stringency is too much. You need to learn and it took me a long time to get that balance through experimentation again another thing that chefs love to do. So bringing out the flavours and the taste of tea is one thing but the next part of it is because you have such a beautiful

range of tea let's take a spice chive. Think about the ingredients in it you've got cinnamon, clove, cardamom, ginger. If you blend that and you smell it you would swear that you're at a spice box and so it makes it very easy to work with those teas. A little bit harder with the different other teas I discovered things like chicken. Chicken goes amazingly well with say a chamomile which isn't one of the black teas but it's a beautiful infusion or a flower. But if we talk about a black tea to me Earl Grey. Earl Grey just stands out because the bergamot we squeeze lemon you know whenever I squeeze lemon or lime or citrus into something I say that it's adding life and as soon as I tasted that tea I thought wow this is easy there are so many dimensions to it chocolate goes incredibly well but then I've infused it with honey and brushed it on bacon so you need to let your imagination flow and that is what this tea allows you to and once you

start to flow I now get sent quite a few from that team over there of requests you know can I have a boozy high tea can I have a great gatsby high tea can I have all of these different flavors it becomes easier and easier the more you practice the more you practice and the more you understand all the different elements of the tea and the terroir and everything cooking with tea becomes very simple flavors everything simple yes to you but assume that one of our audience wants to start now tea is volatile so if you take a ranvata 6200 feet above sea level light and delicate and you cook it on a high flame or you boil it or whatever you're going to lose all the characteristics so tell us some of the methods you use to preserve the taste of tea sometimes like with a light beautiful tea like this I'm looking at this now that is a roasted chicken consomme right there it's a food right there that looks like a soup to me

and so think about that a consomme is something that is you have to be so delicate with you set that raft you let all the flavors boil through so something like this if I was to make a chicken consomme you mince the chicken you would mix it with your vegetables then mix the tea through it and what you do when you're making a consomme you chill the the chicken stock and then you add the raft and as it boils it percolates through that raft it's brewing tea and you are going to get it's going to add color but it's also going to add depth so sometimes with stock and soups people add additives add tea so be careful yes you're right Delhan you've got to be careful as you move along and you get stronger and stronger you can get bolder and bolder this is beef stock you know like something like this which is the the highest it's the yatta right yatta yeah so this is strong bold robust it looks like a glass of red wine from here

that can take a little bit more I tend not to boil I tend not to heat I tend to infuse because then you're taking one element which is beautiful say it's a piece of meat or whatever but you're also taking a second element which is the tea and you're infusing them you're marrying them you're not trying to force it down each other's throat you want them to meet in the middle and when you know like when you're tasting food and wine when you're tasting food and tea one should give way to the other and at the end you should have both that's yes it's a bit difficult it takes time I urge you to though I mean there's a lot of there's a lot of experiments in one of these tins you know like that that's two and a half that's a tablespoon full right and it grows to this incredible size so it's not hard to have a tin and try and practice and and think like this

is a great example just think about this it is so easy to look at that as food the sherry or a port maybe a pinot noir what would we cook with a pinot noir you know that we might we might end up with this one saying okay I don't want to infuse it I want to pair it so then you have two separate things and it gives you an idea that with a pinot noir we need something a little bit lighter we wouldn't go a piece of fish because it'd be too strong but if we paired those two together you end up with a match made in heaven and it's it's trial and error but we like doing that that's what chefs do. Peter we have camellia pecurian you know because you've been part of them and you've curated so many now sometimes people look at me and wonder if I've drunk too much tea when I tell them you can have an eight ten course evening with tea with tea pairing tea infused foods

tell us a little bit about your perspective on camellia pecurian with the benefit of so much experience now. Well I think it's a we've been to many countries that don't drink alcohol so that's a perfect way to start where you just pair everything with with tea but looking down the range and looking behind us there are so many different things you can start with a white tea which is like a champagne maybe you can infuse maybe make that into a little into a little custard or something like that so the two tones and that that grassy lemony tone comes through and then as you go through it's a it's a matter of I guess coming up with first the tea and even with wine dinners what I do first is I because you have to respect the maker you have to respect the tea itself any chef can go oh I want to do these 10 dishes I don't care what the beverage is first taste the beverage make sure that you understand the length the depth how much you

can push into it and if you come across a tea that is standalone beautiful put it aside and pair it but as they get stronger or different infusions I mean there are so many beautiful infusions that talk tea to me or talk food to me all the time so then it's much easier and you use it as an ingredient so camellia pecurian say there's your apple pie and cinnamon I mean anyone out there you look at it you think about going to the shop and buying a stick of cinnamon what not just sweet but savory items can also be paired with that so you have the sweetness you have that beautiful salon cinnamon and instantly you start thinking so to to make a dinner of seven or eight courses that matches balances but at the end of it you end up with the taste of tea my suggestion is it's called the kiss keep it simple and then there's another word which I won't say but keep it simple don't try and make the

food so elaborate that you can't taste the tea and vice versa don't make the food too simple that the tea overtakes it so it's about simplicity it's about a little bit of experimentation but then when you put it on the plate make sure that both marry harmoniously it's great fun yeah you'd say I'm biased but tea inspired food or many like the camellia pecurian yes to me is so much more complex than a whiskey pad or so on because of course the alcohol and the alcoholic burn influences but do you feel that we could have with the softness the more sophistication there's a subtle sophistication in tea that we could have tea inspired dinners that or lunches or breakfasts or whatever that that could have the same level of sophistication well alcohol is sophisticated in some people's eyes and other people don't have it this is universally accepted so yes it can be sophistication comes so what would be the earthiest tea that you have what

would be something that has really earthy tones anilagama single estate tea low-grown sandy soils indian ocean air so really intense humid truffles caviar so that's how high you can go because that earthiness maybe even a barramundi so what you're trying to do is pay respect to that that earthiness but also have matcha tea with it which works really well so i think with a really earthy strong tea something that comes mushrooms comes to mind i mean we haven't practiced any of this i love it when he throws throws questions at me but it inspires me because it continues to make me think about how we can do it and i ask what's the earthiest tea bang you can get it so that's the great thing too then you might say listen i'm i'm sort of going on a seafood bent and i need something a bit lighter something that has a little bit more citrus it's not too strong then i'm sure you'll be able to give me another whole lot of suggestions like

we're not even talking green tea we're talking black tea once you get into green tea it's another whole ball game and and so it's probably from one plant there's probably more ingredients here than there would be in a vegetable market as far as flavors all you have to do then is go to the vegetable fish or meat market and combine them first taste the tea let that dictate what you're going to do never disrespect the hard work of the two leaves in a bud of the way salon tea is processed and then go and match it with that or infuse it with it it's it's it's so much fun you can see i get pretty excited afternoon tea is something that we are seeing coming up all around the world for most people different countries you have an afternoon tea that is either the 18th century tradition of scones and not a lot of tea but in some cases it's it's about alcohol yeah in Sri Lanka it's a lot about heavy food which is unrelated to the

occasion tell us a little bit more about the occasion the sizing of the food and also how tea might play a role well i mean afternoon tea was was as you've told me many times it was it was designed for the the bored people who who had nothing else to do and it and it fitted in between lunch and dinner there's another story is there yes please okay okay don't repeat this okay it's confidential Anna Duchess of Bedford had a husband who was a bit of a philanderer so in the afternoons when the court wasn't in session she wanted all the ladies of the court to be in one place to make sure that her husband wasn't misbehaving with them so there you go started the tradition of afternoon tea it's a nice story i don't know if it's true but i like it sorry to interrupt you tell me more no no that's actually perfect so so then think about it we're talking in between lunch and dinner we're talking about a modern world where people are thinking about

their diet but they're not just thinking about their diet they're thinking about food being medicine and in that way you have to think about that with your afternoon tea make it light but also and make it varied we did one just recently where we actually did it as a plated afternoon tea and that was brilliant because people weren't overwhelmed with everything and we controlled the order in which they ate it so you start with something light and then you move on and of course you have to finish with dessert but one of the things we did just recently we served a little tart as a dessert and i did it also a few days ago i did a cucumber gin and tonic cake so the the the cake was actually infused with cucumber it made it much lighter and fresher and then we did a gin a gin buttercream with a piece of cucumber and and mint on it and when you ate it it was like having a gin and tonic with no alcohol in it at all we used a alcohol free

gin and so there's there's ways to do it but i think afternoon tea should be an occasion where everyone meets uh take some time out and have a meal that is well balanced and light but leaves you able to have a dinner as well should be flavorsome should be light should be i mean sometimes you can have three or four teas and you should i think but sometimes you have to be careful that there is too much tea so it's a balance of what you're going to give them you can give them a white tea champagne that's a great way to start if you want to do it with no alcohol and that can be paired with just a little bite of something that refreshes and starts the day or you go traditional and i've seen some amazing things now some some of the people have created little boxes and you open that box and you have different drawers so there's many ways to create that afternoon tea vibe

make it classy make it really uh beautiful and and also make sure that as you said it's not about filling yourself with as much as possible it's not about sugar sugar sugar the scone is is is good the cucumber sandwich in my eyes is dead but people still do it the reason say the cucumber sandwich there's butter on it so i feel that when you when you have all this butter it's going to coat your tongue as well and you won't be able to taste the tea having said that the tea will help to emulsify and also cleanse your palate but a scone let's start thinking a little bit sideways on that people expect it don't they but i did recently a cheese biscuit which was basically a scone but what we did was we made a gravy which was like an onion gravy infused with a really strong tea so you got that you know when you picked it up it was more afternoon tea than a than a dessert but it went on the dessert section

we also did this tart case a little light tart and it was it had the vegetables of the garden from where we were so you're thinking sweet and garden vegetables it's actually pretty cool it's tasty it's refreshing and it's different i think people want something different these days they'll hunt and i think that afternoon tea space is a great way great place to put it it's a nice way also as you said come together have a few hours together you know afternoon tea normally falls around 233 pick the kids up drop them off somewhere come on come come in relax because you're going to go home and have to deal with everything else so it's a wind down it's a mid-afternoon relax session and you're obviously consuming tea which is going to be good for you as well i was in japan a few weeks ago and there are afternoon teas in some properties have become so popular they're starting at 11 so they go from 11 until five but you're absolutely

right afternoon tea has a certain size it's bite size there was an interesting perspective that we heard from Suresh in Lureli a few days ago and his opinion was that afternoon tea was for people who didn't have the time to engage in a formal occasion over lunch and who filled in that necessity to have milestone have that elegance in dining and so on using an afternoon tea so elegance and to which tea lets itself beautiful and i think elegance is a is a good word because we're we're not at the pub having a schnitzel where we're enjoying an incredibly handcrafted beverage with something that is you know made with love and passion and really everyone that does afternoon tea wants to make a statement because once you do they're going to keep coming back pretty talked about tea as a ingredient um as a beverage as an ingredient but i think what moves us so much what it moved my father uh to to you know when you

say uh he always used to tell us i devoted my life to tea you know that's a pretty strong statement but it is to the the story behind this because each cup or glass of tea embodies not only great taste not only natural plant-based antioxidant goodness but also a purpose a purpose that is expressed in the lives of people and in and in nature how does this work as part of what you constantly tell us that you know chefs want stories and want authenticity i i think you can make peace with food and tea i mean if you think about um the delegates that came to our last conference they were from all over the world some parts of the world where people didn't get on but you know what they were brought together by this they were brought together by the the the the want to create incredible experiences and so i think this will continue what your father has started and what you're continuing is is is i think it's a pure perfection it's not blended and you know

the story the Dilmah story is incredible the the way he decided that he wanted to bring all the money back to Sri Lanka i'm involved i was actually today talking to the director of one of the culinary schools where Dilmah has just changed people's lives forever and it just made me think that you know it's not just it's not just this cup of tea but it's everything else that happens behind the scenes when you drink this beautiful tea so the story continues his passion and his desire to bring salon tea to the people while bringing the money back to Sri Lanka is well and truly alive and all of us are just little little characters in this incredible story that love the product and love i mean to give me uh artistic creativity and freedom to be able to continue to to create an event hopefully i'll be part of that story as well brilliant so peter i think there's only one thing left to do which is to echo my father's words so you need to choose a tea i'm going the i'm going

the strata water yeah intense yes humid beautiful uh structure bold fruity tea i'm going to go actually with uh beautiful uh from Somerset estate in the magnificent dimula valley so with that i think uh do try do they do try it cheers thank you do try it