Celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain dropped by Seenigama - one of the major ports of call on his whistle stop tour of Sri Lanka, to film episodes for his Emmy nominated TV programme No Reservations which airs on cable channel Travel TV.
 No Reservations’ Anthony Bourdain
arrives in Seenigama
The Foundation of Goodness (FoG) was delighted to have this popular TV personality visit and received him with a traditional welcome in Seenigama.
Bourdaine in Seenigama
American, Anthony Bourdain has been a champion of the high quality and deliciousness of freshly prepared street food in other countries — especially developing countries. So it wasn’t surprising that he visited Seenigama to observe a cookery demonstration for rural women followed by mouthwatering typical southern lunch.
 Gunasekera introduces Bourdain to the FoG management team and later the celebrity
chef cools down with thambili (king coconut)
Bourdain and his No Reservations film crew were greeted on arrival by the Foundation of Goodness (FoG) founder/trustee Kushil Gunasekera and met members of the Foundation’s management team. After Bourdain and his crew cooled down with freshly cut thambili (king coconut) it was time to head to the cookery demonstration at a cookery class of the Women’s Enterprise Division at the MCC Centre of Excellence managed by the Foundation of Goodness (FoG).
 Anthony Bourdain lights the specially designed oil lamp At the MCC COE Women’s Enterprise Division
The cookery class - along with many other vocational courses available at MCC COE, are kindly sponsored by International Youth Foundation USA & Nokia and are free of cost for rural women to attend.
Although Bourdain has a reputation for consuming exotic and daring ethnic dishes, the Foundation of Goodness (FoG) kept the day’s cookery demonstration to three simple yet authentic items – pineapple curry, gotukola sambol (herbal leaf sambol) and stuffed capsicum curry.
Bourdain watched the demonstrations sitting with students of the cookery class alongside Sarath Fernando, who was instrumental in bringing down the celebrity chef to the island, Kushil Gunasekera and other members of the Foundation.
 Felicia Sorensen teaches how pineapple curry is made as Bourdain and others follow closely
First on the list was pineapple curry. Adding a further Sri Lankan touch to this very yummy dish was homegrown culinary queen Felicia Sorensen who carried out the demonstration. “Pineapple is easily accessible all over the world and takes only a few minutes cooking time” Felicia explained as she got down to business.
 Students of MCC COE Women’s Enterprise Division
demonstrate how to make gotukola sambol
(herbal leaf sambol)
Whilst the pineapple curry was on the fire, a group of cookery class students who had been tasked with making gotukola sambol (herbal leaf sambol) for the demonstration and lunch that followed, were busy picking the leaf from the Foundation’s model home garden, which has been part of its ‘go green’ endeavour managed by its Environment Sectors, one of its 30 management sectors.
 Neleeka de Silva teaches how to make stuffed capsicum curry, to a very engrossed audience
With two items now ready, the last to be demonstrated was the stuffed capsicum curry. Neleeka de Silva, who is a regular volunteer instructor at the cookery class who travels often to Seenigama from Colombo, worked her magic and taught her usual class with its exotic visitors the art of making this delicious dish.
 Sampling food from the demonstration after
which Bourdain gave a nod of approval
The wait to sample the three varieties of food was unbearable. No sooner the last item was ready it was time to tuck in and taste the outcome of the cookery demonstration.
 The TV crew films lunch being made and later
Lahiru villa chef Asiri poses with Bourdain
who thoroughly enjoyed the meal
With appetites whetted Bourdain and his crew could hardly wait to savour the rest of the fare on the menu which also included ambul thiyal and sautéed dambala followed by curd & treacle and other typically southern desserts. While the rest of the items on the menu were being prepared by Lahiru villa chef Asiri, Bourdain and his crew took a walk around the MCC Centre of Excellence, visiting its facilities such as the medical centre, preschool, computer training centre, English class, business skills class and environment project management. Finally it was time to tuck in to the delicious southern fare.
 Enjoying the mouthwatering lunch as the
TV crew of No Reservations films
All in all it was a very successful day. Founder/trustee of the Foundation of Goodness (FoG) Kushil Gunasekera was very happy that a world famous celebrity like Anthony Bourdain chose to visit Seenigama and put the Foundation and its work on the map of his food-journey around the world.
The much-traveled Bourdain - who got a first hand understanding of how this rural community model had evolved, was heard asking Gunasekera to visit New Orleans, where much work remains to be done after hurricane Katrina destroyed the city in 2005.
Gunasekera put his best smile forward – a positive sign of a plan in the making, and instead of commenting on this invitation said “the visit of Anthony Bourdain to Seenigama was yet another miraculous occurrence as it often happens. Yet on this occasion with his show being focused on international cuisine of different cultural backgrounds the stage was set in ideal surroundings when the International Youth Foundation USA and Nokia sponsored Women’s Enterprise Division students learning the art of cooking not only demonstrated what they had learnt from Sri Lankan culinary queen Felicia Sorensen and volunteer cooking instructress Nileeka de Silva who conducts classes regularly for the benefit of rural women learning new menus.”
Gunasekera expressed further joy saying “what a privilege it was to have Anthony himself seated along with the students in the audience whilst the next segment was the feature of a typical Sri Lankan variety of dishes on display at the villa presented by a young chef Asiri whose talent was highly acknowledged. More importantly Anthony Bourdain was extremely appreciative of the manner in which the Foundation of Goodness (FoG) addresses its community concerns by way of a holistic approach and touched by the humanitarian angle of its work to benefit disadvantaged children, youth, women, education, sports etc. to alleviate poverty through productive activities which he will incorporate into the prestigious show. It is a testimony to noble work done with purity of intention.”
 Anthony Bourdain and Kushil Gunasekera at
MCC COE
After the busy and hectic time spent up till lunch, Bourdain and his TV crew visited the beach whilst another crew member covered the Foundation’s Sports Academy and Village Heartbeat Project learning centre. Bourdain and his crew ended their long day in Seenigama at around 4PM.
The logistics of Bourdain’s visit were coordinated by Anthony Lordon of Cine Location Services, Sri Lanka. More pictures of No Reservations celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain’s visit to Seenigama can be accessed here.
“Compassion is a call, a demand of nature,
to relieve the unhappy -
as hunger is a natural call for food.”
- Joseph Butler
2008.12.08 |
