Shaheen Ghazali, the chef and owner of Kurrypinch, joins Five Rules for the Good Life to share his Five Rules for Getting to Know South Asian Cuisine. Born in Pakistan, raised in Sri Lanka, and shaped by years traveling the world as a marine cadet with his father, Shaheen approaches food through the lens of curiosity, evolution, and connection. This conversation goes far beyond the idea of “authenticity” and digs into how cuisines borrow, adapt, and grow over generations. From why spice doesn’t always mean heat to how curry is often misunderstood in the West, Shaheen breaks down the common language that exists across cultures and why understanding food means looking deeper than labels.
What I love most about Shaheen’s approach is that he talks about food the way some people talk about music, art, or family history. There’s a calm confidence in the way he explains flavor, balance, and tradition without turning any of it into dogma. He understands that food is alive. It changes with migration, memory, trade, and circumstance. Sitting with him, you realize he’s less interested in defending a cuisine than inviting people into it. The best meals do that. They lower your guard, tell you a story, and make the unfamiliar feel personal. Shaheen cooks and speaks from that exact place.
Introduction
Hello and welcome to Five Rules for the Good Life.
I’m your host, Darin Bresnitz.
Today I’m joined by Shaheen Ghazaly, the chef and owner of Kurrypinch, a Sri Lankan restaurant here in Los Angeles. He shares his five rules for getting to know South Asian cuisine.
It’s about the fundamental understanding that food and cuisine is always evolving, that spice doesn’t always mean spicy, and that balance is the key ingredient to any successful meal. It is an incredibly philosophical conversation about cooking and global cuisine, and how anyone out there who wants to know more about what they’re eating should dive a little deeper.
So let’s get into the rules.
Shaheen, so nice to meet you.
Thank you for stepping away from the very busy Curry Pint to sit down and chat with me for the show.
Thank you for having me.
You were born in Pakistan, raised in Sri Lanka, and spent a large part of your early life traveling with your father. How did that shape your outlook on food?
Since I was a kid, my mom is a Pakistani, my dad is a Sri Lankan. When my mom passed away, we moved to Sri Lanka. My dad was taken care of, and since he was traveling, he taught us how to take care of ourselves by having limited ingredients at home to make food.
Breakfast, whatever it’s available.
That made me be creative and come up with my own way of food.
Since I was 10 years old, I fell in love with food, not only by looking at my aunt cook, I just fell in love with it.
We were not raised like most Sri Lankans. They go with the spices like heat, but we grew up having flavored and not too much heat going on.
That deep love of food, is that what brought you to the United States to open a restaurant?
No, the cooking was a hobby. I always enjoyed it. After I finished my college and everything, I started traveling with my dad. He was a captain in a ship. I joined the ship with him as a Marine Cadet officer and then I traveled the world.
When we were growing up, we were limited to certain things or knowledge. For example, fish cutlets, that’s a Sri Lankan dish. But when I started traveling, then I learned it’s just a term that we use when it comes to the technique, the method. The ingredients are all very, very similar.
This made me dig deep into culture and food.
When I said traveling, I have been to many countries. Whenever we touched down at a port, my first thing would be to go and try many different cuisines. Their traditional food.
So I wanted to bring, because Sri Lankan food is not that popular in LA, I just wanted to introduce our cuisine in a term people would understand.
At the end of the day, the ingredients and the technique remained true to our culture, our background, and things like that.
Was there a moment when you realized that enough people in LA, or the people who kept coming back to the restaurant, really understood what you were cooking and learned about the Sri Lankan food and the South Asian food you were serving?
Not all of them.
Sure.
I have had so many times, “Oh, this is not authentic.”
I’m like, there’s no such thing as authentic.
Sure.
Because in Sri Lanka, there are many regions, many parts, many cultures. We may use the same spices in a different manner.
For instance, we have a dish called Jaffna prawn curry. The reason we call it Jaffna, it’s a part of Sri Lanka, and they are more influenced by South Indian food. Most of the food that we have or currently use is influenced by South Indian food.
We try our level best with all the new guests who come to our restaurant to give them a brief background about certain food because the terms of curry or curry, they’re scared because I don’t know what they have in their mind, but when you mention curry they just go bongas.
Being such a lifelong devotee to food and admirer of cuisine culture, and having restaurants of your own, I’m so excited for you to share your five rules for getting to know South Asian cuisine.
1) Know that food is always evolving.
There’s been a large movement in the United States specifically about third culture cuisine.
When people call food authentic, they’re usually talking about just one point of a cuisine’s long story.
People have traded spices, ingredients, and cooking ideas across the continent.
When people visit our restaurants, especially South Asians, they might say this is not authentic Sri Lankan or Indian food, but every culture, city, and region has its own.
Having these recipes evolve means that certain words that people might be afraid of, those definitions change as well.
2) Spice doesn’t always mean spicy.
And one of the key elements, the heat of a dish and how that’s evolved, makes up your rule number two.
Spices are used for aroma, depth, and balance, not just for the heat.
My way of cooking, or what I have learned...
Agreeing on these terms or agreeing on these...
3) Not every curry is a sauce.
The approach to what goes into a dish or what even makes up a dish is something that you need to find a common language on, especially when you’re running a restaurant and explaining how that might differ in what you’re serving.
Not everyone is going to align with what you say, especially as you strike out to define your own take on the cuisine, which is a fundamental of your rule number three.
All the curries, they aren’t sauces.
The word curry describes many, many different dishes.
Some curries are rich and saucy, while others are dry, stir-fried, or just lightly spiced.
Curry is really a blend of spices shaped by each culture.
4) Cuisines often share the same ideas.
Once you get into these cuisines, as you saw in your travel across the world, a lot of the time what makes up a dish from culture to culture has more in common than differences, which makes up your rule number four.
During my travel, people in different cultures often cook with the same idea using the local ingredient.
For example, biryanis, spice, cheese, and a dish like jambalaya is similar.
Flatbread, like roti, is similar to tortilla.
The similarities show that food brings culture together more than it separates them.
One ingredient used in a different form.
At the end of the day, it’s just one word. The idea, the concept, everything is the same, and the way of making is maybe a little bit different.
If you use those ingredients and spices and everything, the end result would be pretty much the same flavorful.
5) Balance is what makes a meal.
That end result can be generalized by people who don’t understand a specific cuisine, but your fifth and final rule talks about this idea of bringing harmony to any dish to fit the right situation.
What’s your rule number five?
The balance is...
A great dish relies on a few key elements working together in balance.
I would say flavor balance, texture, aroma, freshness and ingredients, techniques, harmony, the story behind the dish.
All these come together.
People do get scared of it.
I would say, don’t be.
You try many things in your life. Just try different cuisine.
The one thing that we follow at Curry Pinch is that we cook our meal as we cook for our loved ones.
I love that.
We don’t provide unhealthy food or give it to our family members. That’s the same concept I have when it comes to our guests.
Good for you, good for your health.
Thank you so much for sharing your Five Rules.
If people want to come by Curry Pinch or see some of the food you’re cooking, where can they go?
Walk-ins are always welcome.
They can visit our website at www.kurrypinch.com.
They can reserve through Resy. We would recommend doing a reservation. There are times we are fully booked.
And yeah, for everyone listening, that’s Curry with a K.
Shaheen, thank you so much. Congrats on everything and looking forward to swinging in very soon for a bite.
Thank you very much.
You’re always welcome.
