Cynthia Shanmugalingam is a British-Sri Lankan cook who grew up in Coventry in the UK, visiting Sri Lanka every childhood holiday and eating dishes adapted by her mother and grandmother at home. She has run pop-ups and street food stalls since 2014 and is the founder of a social enterprise street food truck, Kitchenette Karts, which helps ex-offenders get a start in the food industry. In 2019 she started doing Sri Lankan Rambutan pop-ups and in 2023 opened her widely critically-acclaimed Rambutan restaurant in the heart of London's Borough Market. She has been featured on BBC news and WePresent alongside a spectrum of print media.

'It’s not just a collection of recipes, although those are diverting enough: for black pork belly curry and crunchy fried potatoes with turmeric, for coconut dal with kale, prawn curry with tamarind and so much more. It’s also an exquisitely illustrated journey across the culture and history of Sri Lanka, via its food. It is a song of coconut and sambols, of tempered spices, fresh curry leaves and fruit with salt and chilli.'

Cynthia Shanmugalingam is a British-Sri Lankan cook who grew up in Coventry in the UK, visiting Sri Lanka every childhood holiday and eating dishes adapted by her mother and grandmother at home. She has run pop-ups and street food stalls since 2014 and is the founder of a social enterprise street food truck, Kitchenette Karts, which helps ex-offenders get a start in the food industry. In 2019 she started doing Sri Lankan Rambutan pop-ups and in 2023 opened her widely critically-acclaimed Rambutan restaurant in the heart of London's Borough Market. She has been featured on BBC news and WePresent alongside a spectrum of print media.

'It’s not just a collection of recipes, although those are diverting enough: for black pork belly curry and crunchy fried potatoes with turmeric, for coconut dal with kale, prawn curry with tamarind and so much more. It’s also an exquisitely illustrated journey across the culture and history of Sri Lanka, via its food. It is a song of coconut and sambols, of tempered spices, fresh curry leaves and fruit with salt and chilli.'