• Curry Souls Founder & CEO Clement Senaratne on styling SL cuisine in the Balkans

Food is a ubiquitous uniting factor everywhere in the world. Countries have built brands on their cuisine – Italy, China, Mexico, Japan and India are good examples. However, even though Sri Lankan cuisine is very distinctive and unique in flavour, look, and feel, it has not quite been a brand builder for the country. There are exceptions though. There are Sri Lankans who are taking Sri Lankan cuisine out into the world and making it trendy and contemporary. We have heard of quite a few in the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States, but, we have yet to hear of Sri Lankan cuisine in the Balkans. So, this is a first. Curry Souls is Sri Lanka’s gift to the Balkans. Its Founder Clement Senaratne is a backpacker turned restauranteur who found himself bringing the authenticity of Sri Lankan and South Asian flavours to Croatia in 2016, and to Serbia last year (in 2023). The restaurant is all about Sri Lankan curries and is a modern, funky curry house that focuses on street food. Senaratne was in Sri Lanka recently and on ‘Kaleidoscope’ last week to chat about pioneering Sri Lankan cuisine in the Balkans and maintaining the authenticity of the cuisine in a region not used to having the fiery hot flavour that Sri Lankan cuisine is famed for.

Following are excerpts of the interview:

What has been the best about Sri Lanka and our food thus far, during your visit?

I come to Sri Lanka fairly regularly, but, every time that I come, I am surprised at the change. The restaurant scene is growing so fast. I think that it is growing faster here than it is in Europe. The food offering is increasing, and competition is high. There is even food served on shovels and other innovations, which are becoming really popular. You don’t really see this in the Balkans. It is great. 

What is Curry Souls all about? 

Curry Souls originally started off after I entered the restaurant business in Sri Lanka. My background is in the corporate sector, but I decided to open a restaurant on the Sri Lankan coast with some of my friends serving Mediterranean cuisine and targeting tourists. While I was holidaying in Europe, I thought about creating a curry franchise chain representing Sri Lankan flavours. So, Curry Souls was born. It is a modern, funky, hip take on a curry house, based on Sri Lankan street food. 

What has the feedback been in taking curry to the Balkans?

When we first got there, people told us that it was a mistake, saying that ‘Balkan people don’t like to eat strange food’. Curry was completely unheard of. It just happened to be that nobody had gone there and served the Balkans food like ours before. Once we served it up, they loved it. Of course, we had to play with the spice tolerance, but we have kept everything else authentic. Every dish can be ordered at one of four levels of spice, which ensures that the locals and the tourists can enjoy the food. 

Do you see them ordering the levels of spiciness that Sri Lankans like?

We have not seen the Balkan locals doing that, but the British and American tourists do come in and order the maximum spice level. They like their spicy food. 

There seems to be a sense of adventure when it comes to cuisine. What do you think?

Food is like a global language. When it comes to travel, it is all about where you go to eat in a foreign country. Food is a common language that represents the regions. People are excited when they come to our restaurant. I often hear people say that they have never tried Sri Lankan food before. Now, our food is taking its spotlight in the world. People have known Indian food for a while. Now, I feel that Sri Lankan food is the sexier version of Indian cuisine. Everyone wants to have it and experience it.  

Did you have to ‘Indian-ise’ your Sri Lankan food to get people to like it? 

Not at all. The only thing was the play on the spice levels because Balkan people are very sensitive to chillie when you compare this part of the world. The rest of our flavours retain the original Sri Lankan taste. 

You said that people initially told you that it was a mistake. Why actually did you take curry into that region?

It was a spontaneous decision. The idea popped into my head one August and by one February, I had already moved and set up shop. In one December, I opened the restaurant. At the beginning, nothing was thought and planned out. There wasn’t too much thinking going on. It is great to see what that spur of the moment led to.

What are the challenges that you have had and how have you circumvented them?

Many people ask me if it was scary to go to a completely unknown country where they don’t really speak English and start a business. This part was a challenge, but the people are really warm and welcoming. Over the years, I got the hang of operating there, although I still have not managed to learn the language. And now, after successfully running a restaurant in Croatia for seven years, we have also expanded to Serbia. We opened our doors there last year and the restaurant has been a phenomenal hit. 

What have been your signature dishes that have really taken off?

I am a big kottu fan. When I was living in Sri Lanka, I used to go around the country looking for the best kottu spots. Kottu is a popular part of the Curry Souls brand. Also, we do it the traditional way. We do it old school, with the metal choppers, making a loud noise and a big drama about it, topping it up with some gooey cheese. People get really excited when they see this. They really cannot fathom the amount of flavours going in.

What other dishes do you have?

We are Curry Souls, so we do four very good curries – a chicken curry, a tuna curry, a vegan curry, and a black pork curry. Our main dish is kottu. We also have a couple of fusion dishes, like hot butter cuttlefish – which is not really Sri Lankan, but has become more Sri Lankan than Chinese – and fried rice and noodles. We keep our food simple, but it is more modern. We try to capture the essence of the popular dishes back home. 

You started off in 2016. At that point, were there other South Asian restaurants in the vicinity?

There was only one when we got there, but, unheard of. Curry Souls put South Asian cuisine on the map. Two years into the operation, we had two Indian restaurants open up 100 metres away on both sides. That was the popularity. It happened quite fast. It is the same story with Serbia now. We are introducing the cuisine. It is exciting because Curry Souls is being featured in the national media. They come to us, because, for them, Sri Lanka is a paradise and they just want to know more about the Island through its food.

You worked through Covid-19. How was that? 

Covid-19 was a real test of fitness. We saw an incredible amount of restaurants closing down during this time and we also saw new restaurants popping up. It was incredibly hard. Fortunately, we had some support extended to keep businesses alive in the region, although we had to make some tough decisions. One month after Covid-19, things went crazy, and in Croatia, there was a massive earthquake right after that. It was a double impact on us. We called all our employees and told them that either we all take a hit and nobody loses their job, or some of us lose our jobs while some of us don’t take a hit. As a team, we decided that nobody would lose their job. It was a really tough time, but it really built us up. I think that time was when some of my best development took place. I was trying new things while secluded at home. So yes, we managed to pull through.

What are the misconceptions or fears that Europeans have about Sri Lanka and Sri Lankan food?

Honestly, I would say that I have not heard of any misconceptions about the country as a destination. There are a few people out there who still struggle to point to Sri Lanka on a map and some who think that the Island is a part of India. However, many refer to Sri Lanka as a paradise. Often, I get asked why I left Sri Lanka because it is such a paradise. I don’t hear anything negative about Sri Lanka, unless it is the instability of the country which is blown out of proportion by the media. When it comes to food, the one fear is hot and fiery spice. We often get branded as a restaurant that is all about spice, but, in truth, we are about intense flavours and not just about hot food. This is something that we try to get people to understand.

You spoke about flavour. How do you source the Lankan spices and curry powder to get that authentic flavour?

Our curry powder is our secret recipe. It is produced for us by a company in Sri Lanka, through a very good friend who is a partner in the restaurant now. Other than our curry powder, we source our ingredients from local markets in the region.

What is next for Curry Souls?

Our goal is to take Sri Lankan food to the easy access segment of dining around Europe and achieve maximum reach. We are setting up two more stores in Serbia, and plan to open 26 franchise stores by 2029. We have some very good partners on board – big companies that believe in our brand. We have big plans and I have my work cut out for me. I am very excited and we will see how things turn out.

(The writer is the host, director, and co-producer of the weekly digital programme ‘Kaleidoscope with Savithri Rodrigo’ which can be viewed on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. She has over three decades of experience in print, electronic, and social media)