Chef Peter Kuruvita

It would be such a waste to use all the lovely tea that you have only to make beverages. The truth is, tea has the potential to jazz up your meal.

Australian celebrity chef and Dilmah Tea ambassador Peter Kuruvita shows the tricks up his sleeve to bring the aroma of tea and its infusions into your dishes and even into your vodka.  

Kuruvita has tasted and experimented with a wide range of teas since 2004 in cooperation with Sri Lanka-based tea company Dilmah.

“For cooks, we are always looking for ingredients. For those who want to be creative, tea has made a big impression,” said Kuruvita, who gained worldwide fame for his culinary TV shows, during his recent visit to Jakarta.

“And it’s not easy as it sounds, you have to break all the rules to ensure you can get the flavor from the tea.”

If you want to present a strong tea taste, Kuruvita suggested you to use black tea that grows in low altitude.

“Tea grows in high altitude — such as green tea, white tea, oolong, [brings] all those lovely soft tea flavors,” Kuruvita said.

If you are desiring to present a more unique tea flavor in your dishes, infusions — such as chamomile and jasmine green tea, could be the right choice.

“Chamomile tea, because it’s a flower, it is acidy and has got a beautiful back tone to it, but it has the fullness as well. I feel it goes really well with chicken,” he said.

The lovely aroma of jasmine green tea is a match to your prawn dishes.

“Take a handful of the tea and throw into a pot and then put a steamer on top. Then, you cook prawn on top of the jasmine green tea. You’ll taste a little aroma of jasmine green tea and the sweetness of the prawn.”

A shot of tea-infused vodka could be an interesting beverage to try on the weekend. However, making tea vodka is not as simple as making a chili vodka, where you simply put chilies into a bottle of vodka.  

“We tried [the technique] with tea bags. No flavor came out because the alcohol was too strong,” Kuruvita said.

“I just discovered this a year [and] a half ago, if you got a cream gun and you put the vodka and tea bag into it and shake it, instantly you’ll have the tea’s flavor and color in the vodka.”

At a dinner reception at T-Lounge, Huize van Wely, Pacific Place shopping mall in Jakarta, Kuruvita presented his tea-inspired menu using the Dilmah Exceptional collection.

To complement a seared salmon dish, he smoked yogurt over Dilmah Exceptional’s lychee rose and almond tea and used the same tea to make granite (shaved ice).

“I didn’t want to add anything to the salmon because it is such a beautiful fish. So, you have to, sort of, pay homage to it.”

The granite and smoked yogurt presented hot and cold sensations to the salmon dish, while the fruity tea gave a refreshing touch to it.

“Fish always goes well with the acidity of lime so that [the tea] is part of it.”

Rosemary tea harmonizes well with beef dishes. Kuruvita infused the tea into a peppermint vinaigrette and drizzled it on seared wagyu beef on brioche and beef jerky crumbs.

He amped up the dining experience by pairing each dish with tea beverages, interestingly served in wine glasses — creating an impression that the beverages were chardonnay or red wine.

A glass of Dilmah’s jasmine pear dragon tea was served to accompany the salmon dish. For the beef dish, Kuruvita served a glass of Supreme Ceylon. All the drinks served slightly warm, except for the last beverage — an iced serve of Dilmah’s finest Ceylon rose tea.  

“A warm beverage with your meal cleanses your tongue and gets you ready to taste everything.”  

Eighty percent of caffeine would come out of tea in the first 15 seconds of steeping, Kuruvita said. You can naturally decaffeinate by steeping the tea for 15 seconds and discard the liquid. Use the same tea leaves with fresh hot water to brew.

Kuruvita had befriended Dilmah founder, Merrill J. Fernando, long before he began experimenting with Dilmah’s tea. Thirty years ago, Fernando came to Kuruvita’s restaurant in Australia on the sideline of his activities of expanding Dilmah’s market in the country. In 2004, Fernando introduced Kuruvita to his son, Dilhan, who envisioned introducing the tea in a modern way.  

“We made sorbet, chocolate and are now starting to look at how not necessarily just the tea of Camellia sinensis, but all the infusions that Dilmah does. Tea is basically a beverage, once we’re adding new flavors, then it becomes interesting for the cooks.”

Kuruvita and Fernando shared the love for tea, including those growing in Sri Lanka.

Born in 1963 in the UK to a Sri Lankan father and Austrian mother, Kuruvita spent his childhood in Colombo, Sri Lanka. In 1974, the family moved to Sydney, Australia.

“Whenever I ate spicy food, my grandmother would give me a cup of black tea with a bit of palm sugar,” he recalled his memory in Colombo.

“My relationship with tea has been going for a long, long time. All my life. But it wasn’t until I met with Fernando that I did start to understand the intricacies of it, which wasn’t until 2004 when I started to cook with it did I realize the unlimited potential it has,” he said. “I think it’s up to your imagination.”

— Photos by Yuliasri Perdani

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