On holidays with… Peter Kuruvita

Peter Kuruvita made a name for himself with the Flying Fish Restaurant & Bar in Sydney back in 2004 and has since opened restaurants in Fiji and most recently the Beach House in Noosa. Steve Madgwick discovers the other ingredients that make his life complete.

Born in England, his family travelled overland (through the Khyber Pass) to Sri Lanka when he was four years old, before migrating to Australia in the mid 70s. His restaurant success has been the catalyst for various cookbooks and television series.

First impressions of Australia?

My first memory was trying to get out of the airport. In those days when a Sri Lankan family travelled, the extended family would give them food. Going through customs we had things like wild roasted boar wrapped in banana leaves, which had gone off, of course.

I remember this six-foot tall red headed man at customs – I had never seen anyone like him before in my life. He started going through our stuff, grabbing a jar of dried Maldives fish, which has quiet a pungent smell. He smelled it and cried out “Jesus Christ, mate". He put the lid on it and said “just take it!". That was my welcome to Australia.

Favourite holiday destination in Australia?

I love the NSW South Coast. An old favourite was Bendalong Point, near Ulladulla. There are some cabins there called Don Hearn’s – he was a great old surfer. Seriously basic cabins! You just get away. It’s pristine and just smells clean.

Dream Australian destination?

I would love to go to Kakadu. Up there is some of the most pristine tracts of land around. I have this dream: one day I could work with the communities up there to start up a hospitality school which Aboriginals could run for Aboriginals.

How did you become a chef

I left school at 15 and nine months, wasn’t happy there [Peter says he experienced repeated racism]. So I topped the class (in cooking) and then left.

My dad badgered me every day about what I was going to do for a job. One day we were driving down through our local suburb and he said “you’ve been cooking at school, haven’t you?" He put his foot on the brake – and said: “there’s a restaurant, go and ask for a bloody job or you can’t come home tonight". I got the job and it changed my life.

Food inspiration?

I spent a lot of time in the kitchen in Sri Lanka with my aunties and grandmother and watched them cook. I was with them all the time. They had so much passion for food.

You travel a lot for your TV work. What’s the best country for food (outside of Australia and Sri Lanka, of course).

Clean fresh food, Vietnam, possibly. Variety and regionality, India. Flavour, but unhealthy, Malaysia. Seafood, Singapore. I’ve just been filming in Mexico, Mexican food is pretty damn good.

You can’t really go beyond a French base, though, it’s a great foundation stone – I fall back on that all the time.

How do you unwind?

I love to fish, as often as I can. I was just on the river yesterday – a few flathead and bream. My sons love it as well. I fish with very busy people – but we just talk and fish – focus on a common thread.

I love surfing as well – I’m no great surfer, but it’s one of those things. With surfing, you just look out into the deep blue ocean and wait for the next wave to come – not much crosses your mind.

Favourite fish to eat in Australia?

Coral trout: clean white and it’s sweet. You can make many things with it.

Must-pack item?

Nowadays a smart phone is always handy. But I have a grab bag that goes along with me everywhere. It has length of ropes, a couple of g-clamps, small first aid kit and a hat. Maybe I have a fantasy about ‘surviving’ somewhere.

Best foodie region in Australia?

Produce? Margaret River and Adelaide Hills. For foodies areas, Sydney and Melbourne.

Sydney is one big resort; everyone gravitates towards the sea – if you’ve got a restaurant by the ocean or water views, that’s the thing.

Melbourne is more of a village. Every suburb is a village and every suburb has its own identity. I believe the food in Melbourne is better than Sydney. And I’m from Sydney.

Classic ‘feeling lazy’ meal?

A lazy one just for myself, because my wife and kids don’t like it, is steamed rice and what my dad used to call “rice puller".

Fry the fish until crisp, then fry onions tomato and lime, fresh chili, dry chili. Then add the fish to it. The reason it’s called “rice puller" is that it’s so bloody tasty that you just want more and more rice.

Hot summer evening, what do you drink?

Agua Fresco – I’ve just learned about it in Mexico and it’s changed my life. A sugar syrup infused with vanilla as a base, some cucumber. A little bit of radish with half sparkling water and half ginger ale – the most refreshing drink you’ve ever had. If you want to get crazy, add tequila.

Why Noosa?

Australia doesn’t have many places like Noosa. It’s beautiful but it also has a great vibe and a foodie element to it surrounded by stunning natural beauty and discerning people.

For more information on Peter Kuruvita’s latest project, see peterkuruvita.com

Slow down and find your rhythm on a Murray River journey through time and place.

Trust is a funny thing. It seems not that long ago that my mother was insisting on pouring the milk into my cereal bowl, because she didn’t trust me not to slosh it over the table, and yet here I am on the Murray River at Mildura in far north-west Victoria, being handed the keys to a very new and very expensive luxury houseboat.

After a crash course in how not to crash, I’m at the wheel of the good ship Elevate – pride of the All Seasons fleet – guiding her upstream past red-ochre cliffs as pelicans glide above the rippled river and kookaburras call from reedy banks. There’s a brief moment of breath-holding while I negotiate a hairpin turn around a jagged reef of skeletal, submerged gum trees, before a cheer rings out and calm descends as the timeless river unfurls in front of us.

The Murray River winding through Yarrawonga. (Image: Rob Blackburn)

Setting sail from Mildura

Murray River birds — Home to a large number of bird species, including pelicans. (Image: The Precint Studios)

A journey along the Murray River is never less than magical, and launching from Mildura makes perfect sense. Up here the river is wide and largely empty, giving novice skippers like myself the confidence to nudge the 60-tonne houseboat up to the riverbank where we tie up for the night, without fear of shattering the glass elevator (the boat is fully wheelchair accessible) or spilling our Champagne.

My friends and I spend three days on the water, swimming and fishing, sitting around campfires onshore at night, and basking in air so warm you’d swear you were in the tropics. The simplicity of river life reveals an interesting dichotomy: we feel disconnected from the world but at the same time connected to Country, privileged to be part of something so ancient and special.

Stop one: Echuca

19th-century paddlesteamers — A historic 19th-century paddlesteamer cruises along the Murray River. (Image: Visit Victoria)

The six-hour drive from Melbourne to Mildura (or four hours and 20 minutes from Adelaide) is more than worth it, but you don’t have to travel that far to find fun on the river. Once Australia’s largest inland port, Echuca is the closest point on the Murray to Melbourne (two hours 45 minutes), and you’ll still find a plethora of paddlesteamers tethered to the historic timber wharf, a throwback to the thriving river trade days of the 19th century. The PS Adelaide, built in 1866 and the oldest wooden-hulled paddlesteamer operating in the world, departs daily for one-hour cruises, while a brand-new paddlesteamer, the PS Australian Star , is launching luxury seven-night voyages in December through APT Touring.

The town is also a hot food and wine destination. St Anne’s Winery at the historic Port of Echuca precinct has an incredibly photogenic cellar door, set inside an old carriage builders’ workshop on the wharf and filled with huge, 3000-litre port barrels. The Mill, meanwhile, is a cosy winter spot to sample regional produce as an open fire warms the red-brick walls of this former flour mill.

Stop two: Barmah National Park

Just half-an-hour upstream, Barmah National Park is flourishing, its river red gum landscape (the largest in the world) rebounding magnificently after the recent removal of more than 700 feral horses. The internationally significant Ramsar-listed wetland sits in the heart of Yorta Yorta Country, with Traditional Owners managing the environment in close partnership with Parks Victoria. Walkways weave through the forest, crossing creeks lined with rare or threatened plants, passing remnants of Yorta Yorta oven mounds and numerous scar trees, where the bark was removed to build canoes, containers or shields.

The Dharnya Centre (open weekdays until 3pm) is the cultural hub for the Yorta Yorta. Visitors can learn about the ecological significance of the Barmah Lakes on a 90-minute river cruise, led by a First Nations guide, or take a one-hour, guided cultural walking tour along the Yamyabuc Trail.

Stop three: Cobram

Continue east to Cobram to find the southern hemisphere’s largest inland beach. Swarming with sun-seekers in summer, the white sand of Thompson’s Beach is shaded by majestic river red gums and dotted with hundreds of beach umbrellas, as beachgoers launch all manner of water craft and set up stumps for beach cricket. But the beach is at its most captivating at sunset, when the crowds thin out, the glassy river mirrors the purple sky, and the canopies of the gum trees glow fiery orange.

The region is also home to some fine resorts and indulgent retreats. Yarrawonga Mulwala Golf Club Resort has two riverside championship golf courses, luxury apartments and self-contained villas. While not strictly on the Murray, the historic wine town of Rutherglen is rife with boutique (and unique) accommodation, including an exquisitely renovated red-brick tower in a French provincial-style castle at Mount Ophir Estate. Fans of fortified wines can unravel the mystery of Rutherglen’s ‘Muscat Mile’, meeting the vignerons and master-blenders whose artistry has put the town on the global map for this rich and complex wine style.

Stop four: Albury-Wodonga

First Nations YindyamarraSculpture Walk — First Nations Yindyamarra Sculpture Walk is part of the Wagirra Trail. (Image: Carmen Zammit)

Follow the river far enough upstream and you’ll arrive at the twin border cities of Albury-Wodonga. The Hume Highway thunders through, but serenity can be found along the five-kilometre Yindyamarra Sculpture Walk – part of the Wagirra Trail that meanders through river wetlands just west of Albury in Wiradjuri country. Fifteen sculptures by local First Nations artists line the trail, conveying stories of reconciliation, enduring connection to culture, local Milawa lore and traditional practices. It feels a long way from Mildura, and it is, but the pelicans and kookaburras remind us that it’s the same river, the great conduit that connects our country.

A traveller’s checklist

Staying there

New Mildura motel Kar-rama. (Image: Iain Bond Photo)

Kar-Rama is a brand-new boutique, retro-styled motel in Mildura, with a butterfly-shaped pool and a tropical, Palm Springs vibe. Echuca Holiday Homes has a range of high-end accommodation options, both on the riverfront and in town.

Playing there

BruceMunro’s Trail of Lights in Mildura — Bruce Munro’s Trail of Lights in Mildura. (Image: Imogen Eveson)

Artist Bruce Munro’s Trail of Lights installation, comprising more than 12,000 illuminated ‘fireflies’, is currently lighting up Mildura’s Lock Island in the middle of the Murray. Murray Art Museum Albury (MAMA) is a hub for contemporary art, with a rotating roster of exhibitions, and is a major outlet for young and First Nations artists.

Eating there

Mildura’s diverse demographic means it’s a fantastic place to eat. Andy’s Kitchen is a local favourite, serving up delicious pan-Asian dishes and creative cocktails in a Balinese-style garden setting. Call in to Spoons Riverside in Swan Hill to enjoy locally sourced, seasonal produce in a tranquil setting overlooking the river.