THE MAN BEHIND the story By Mikayla van Loon Photos Supplied
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t Many Little Bar and Bistro, head chef Gayan Pieris doesn’t just create Sri Lankan inspired meals, he tells stories. “Every dish I make, I do have a story,” he said. “Cooking is all about honesty for me. When I start designing a dish or even the simplest curry that I make, the produce and the techniques are the key players.” Growing up in a village in Kandy, a city located in the central and mountainous part of Sri Lanka, Gayan was surrounded by rice fields and homegrown fruit and vegetables. With seven brothers and sisters, Gayan said he was always helping his mother prepare meals and that his family experience is where his love of cooking came from. “The younger boys would go aan collect the firewood for her to cook and my sisters, they were helping with the cutting and chopping. And then as we grow up we sort of started helping her as well with the cooking,” he said. “Helping mum and dad is a part of your life, even as a kid.” For the first years of his life, Gayan and his family didn’t have electricity and therefore unable to store things in a refrigerator, so he is very used to creating meals with only fresh ingredients. The 38 year old has now lived in Australia for about 13 years and is taking on a combination of Sri Lankan cuisine with an allAustralian line up of produce and presentation. “We have something called woodapple [in Sri Lanka], which is very similar to quince in [Australia]. So, whatever we made from woodapple, I’m making from quince, from the quinces I can get here. So, we just try to achieve those flavours in a more Australian way,” Gayan said. Many Little sources its ingredients from local suppliers and its own Polperro farm; the idea is to “celebrate the land and the nourishment it provides.” “We have a bunch of really good farmers who know what they are doing,” Gayan said. “It’s much easier to work with them because the produce that comes to us is very connected to the soil and it makes my job much easier because I know the story behind it.” “The other thing is the story: just to see the ingredients from seedling to the produce that you have on your plate and appreciating the amount of hard work that they are putting into growing this amazing produce.” Since starting in the Many Little kitchen in November 2019, Gayan has slowly introduced more and more Sri Lankan inspired dishes to the menu.
E ssence
40 | PENINSULA
November 2020