A feast of memory and heritage: Tooting Mama’s journey back to SL
Ranji Thangiah
Standing on a chair in a small North London kitchen, a three-year-old girl watched her mother cook. She remembers the garlic, ginger and onions sizzling in oil, the conversations with her mum Vasantha (Daisy) Thangiah, in that warm space, and the way food became both comfort and connection. That little girl, Ranji Thangiah – better known today as Tooting Mama – grew up to discover that Sri Lankan food was more than nourishment: it was a story, an inheritance, and a bridge between cultures.
Her father, Jebaraj (Barney) Thangiah, added his own magic to the food. His black pork curry was legendary – a dish so fiery it made the family sweat around the table. Each time he cooked it, he tweaked something; more vinegar here, extra roasted spice there, but he never wrote the recipe down. When he passed away, the curry went with him.
“That was a wake-up call,” Ranji says quietly. “Our food tells our story, and if we don’t preserve it, we lose a part of ourselves.”
It was this realisation that set her on her mission: to record, research, and celebrate Sri Lanka’s culinary heritage. What began as sharing stories and recipes online has grown into Tooting Mama – a platform that now spans a weekly Substack newsletter, food photography and a podcast, Tea with Tooting Mama, exploring how food connects to memory and culture.
Living in the UK meant learning to adapt. Sri Lankan cookbooks were scarce and ingredients like fresh pandan leaves or jakfruit weren’t always available. Ranji leaned on the classics, like Charmaine Solomon’s recipes, as well as handwritten notes from relatives, and began to translate Sri Lankan cooking into a process accessible for Western kitchens.
Cooking, for her, is never just about replication. “It’s about adaptation and creativity,” she says. “If you can’t find the ingredient, you find the essence.” Over time, she built a community of readers hungry not just for recipes, but for the cultural context that made those dishes meaningful.
Galle Fort Walks crab curry experience
Her return to Sri Lanka last month has been, as she puts it, “a food deep dive.” She has scraped coconuts for crab curry with her nephew, shared kola kenda at roadside cafés, and sipped fresh toddy poured by a septuagenarian tapper balancing on a palm tree. Everywhere she went, she was welcomed into kitchens, whether at roadside cafés or boutique hotels — to learn, watch, and taste.
“What strikes me is the abundance,” she says. “It’s not just about the food on the plate. It’s the generosity, the hospitality, the way every meal is an opening into a story.”
Her travels through the island have convinced her that Sri Lanka’s food is one of its strongest invitations to the world. “There’s so much more here than beaches and resorts,” she insists. “Hospitality, sustainable tourism, regional cuisines — each place tells a story through food. If you want to understand Sri Lanka, you have to eat it,” she says with a smile.
One of her strongest convictions is that Sri Lankan food deserves recognition on its own terms. “In the UK, people often think of Sri Lankan food as just another branch of Indian cuisine. But Sri Lanka is its own country, with its own flavours, its own traditions, its own history. It’s bold, it’s layered, and it’s unique.”
From Bohri thaal feasts eaten communally from a single platter, to Dutch and Portuguese-influenced cakes like Breudher and Love Cake, to rice and curry packets wrapped in banana leaves, every dish reflects centuries of cultural exchange. Staples such as tempered greens, herbal porridges or the humble dhal may seem everyday to locals, but to global audiences, she believes, they are treasures waiting to be discovered.
Ranji is equally excited about the chefs pushing Sri Lankan food in bold directions. In Galle, aubergine moju has been reborn as bruschetta, while pork is glazed with kithul treacle and chilli. Abroad, Sri Lankan-inspired restaurants are experimenting with mutton roll tartare or raspberry rasam. For her, these innovations show that tradition and modernity are not opposites, but partners in evolution.
Thaal cusine at Hapu Tales
She speaks with particular passion about kithul. “A high-grade treacle is unlike anything else. It’s smoky, nuanced, complex – you can’t call it just sweet. It deserves to be on the world stage.”
As part of the Sri Lankan Culture Collective, a not-for-profit platform she co-founded, she curates festivals and events that showcase Sri Lankan creativity across food, music and art. Her podcast Tea with Tooting Mama features conversations with hoteliers, chefs and creatives who are shaping a new, hybrid identity – one that belongs neither entirely to Britain nor Sri Lanka, but to the in-between space.
Ranji dreams of a cookbook that will double as a cultural archive and art book – a testament to the richness of Sri Lankan cuisine. Later this year, she will welcome people into her kitchen for immersive cooking sessions and Tooting-based Sri Lankan food tours, bringing the island’s flavours to life in London.
Asked what message she hopes her work carries, Ranji pauses. Then she says simply: “Pride.”
Pride in Sri Lanka’s food, its creativity, its overlooked staples and treasured spices. Pride in showing the world that cinnamon, cloves, moringa, kola kenda, or even a humble packet of rice and curry are extraordinary expressions of culture.
Sri Lanka, she believes, is at a turning point. Having weathered hardship, it has an opportunity to tell new stories. “We have incredible homegrown talent, world-class restaurants and bars, sustainable ways of living, and centuries-old traditions. The world needs to see that.”
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