A GLASGOW street food business is taking a permanent residency in Bonnie & Wild’s Scottish Marketplace in the Scottish capital.
Winner of this year’s People’s Choice at the recent Scottish Street Food Award, Kochchi is about to move into Bonnie & Wild’s food hall, where founders Suki Jayaratne and Shehan Fernando will be cooking alongside food stalls including top chefs from Creel Caught, Salt & Chilli Oriental, El Perro Negro, east PIZZAS and Joelato.
Mr Jayaratne said: “We were brought up around traditional home-cooking and Sri Lankan Street food are passionate about sharing our amazing island dishes with other people. Kochchi has turned our dream into reality and for this we're very lucky.”
After converting a horsebox into a mobile kitchen, Suki and Shehan took their Kochchi business to food and music festivals like TRNSMT, Craft Beer & Street Food and PlayGround Festival. They also provided mobile catering to the sets of the Amazon TV series Good Omens with David Tenant and superhero film Bat Girl.
Suki and Shehan quickly established Kochchi as one of the country’s best street food operators and won the People’s Choice gong in this year’s Scottish Street Food Awards.
Mr Jayaratne said: “Now we're looking forward to a more permanent kitchen at Bonnie & Wild where we'll be sharing our iconic Sri Lankan Street Food dishes that are vibrant and packed with flavour. Our creative combinations are made with local produce and cater to vegans, veggies and meat lovers alike.”
Mr Jayaratne added: “You can expect dishes like our legendary Kotthu, our show-stopping Hoppers and signature Deville dishes.”
“And if you like heat, then our ‘Deville’ dishes will be sure to have your taste buds tingling.”
The addition of Kochchi to Bonnie & Wild means the Scottish Food Hall in the St James Quarter has a diverse line-up of first-class food operators that includes Gary Maclean’s Creel Caught, Jimmy Lee’s Salt & Chilli Oriental and his recent start-up Leith Woks, Tony Singh’s Radge Chaat, alongside Edinburgh’s east PIZZAS, award-wining burger stall El Perro Negro, gelateria Joelato, pancake house Stack & Still, plus boutique bottle shop Inverarity Morton. The new Scottish deli Soup & Caboodle is also due to open in the next few weeks.
Ryan Barrie, Bonnie & Wild’s operations director, said: “I’m delighted that Suki and Shehan are bringing their Kochchi Sri Lankan street food to Bonnie & Wild. I love the food, but I also love the energy and passion Suki and Shehan bring with it.”
Mr Barrie added: “This is yet another example of the diversity and brilliance of Scotland’s food scene, which is beautifully demonstrated within our Food Hall, featuring some of the country’s best chefs using some of the country’s finest products and natural ingredients.”
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