Restaurant launches meal packs to spread the love for Sri Lankan food

After struggling to hire chefs with experience cooking Sri Lankan food, business owner Chamari Ariyadasa has come up with an ingenious solution.

Her restaurant Sri Agri Kitchen has begun selling meal packs to meet demand while making Sri Lankan cuisine available to more people.

"I want to introduce my cultural food to the customers," Mrs Ariyadasa told The Standard.

The six varieties of curry on offer were made from local sources such as Volcano Produce and Merrick Bank Produce.

"So most ingredients like eggs, meat and vegetables come through local, smaller-scale producers," Mrs Ariyadasa said.

The idea came to the business owner when running one of her weekly market stalls.

"People, especially tourists, ask about meal packs," she said.

"And I meet a lot of local producers when I do the market stalls."

Mrs Ariyadasa said the meal packs had been well-received, and plans to expand the initiative further.

She'll soon bring the food to aged care programs and local caravan parks and will run a cooking class for Deakin University towards the end of February.

In the meantime, the meal packs will be on sale at markets in Warrnambool, Port Fairy, Mortlake and Portland.