Dr Hector Perera       London

We need to cook our food or depend on takeaway food or readymade foods that are available in supermarkets. The supermarket readymade foods must have been prepared a few days or even weeks ago in large scale then all what one has to do is to warm them up and eat. Who knows if they are out dated and frozen? As you all know cooked rice should not be reheated for hygienic reasons. There is a bacteria called Bacillus cereus on rice which is responsible for a minority of foodborne illnesses, causing severe nausea, vomiting, and diarrhoea. Bacillus foodborne illnesses occur due to survival of the bacterial endospores when food is improperly cooked. Cooking temperatures less than or equal to 100 °C (212 °F) allow some Bacillus cereus spores to survive. This problem is compounded when food is then improperly refrigerated, allowing the endospores to germinate. Cooked foods not meant for either immediate consumption or rapid cooling and refrigeration should be kept at temperatures below 10 °C or above 50 °C (50 °F and 122 °F). Germination and growth generally occur between 10 °C and 50 °C, though some strains are psychrotrophic. That means those bacteria that are capable of surviving or even thriving in a cold environment. They provide an estimation of the product’s shelf life, also they can be found in soils, in surface and deep sea waters, in Antarctic ecosystems, and in foods. They are responsible for spoiling refrigerated foods. Bacterial growth results in production of enterotoxins, one of which is highly resistant to heat and acids (pH levels between 2 and 11) ingestion leads to two types of illness, diarrheal and emetic (vomiting) syndrome. Sometimes when you eat fried rice, you might get diarrhoea followed by vomiting, stomach ache and headache. That is one of the reasons why one should be careful in eating fried rice from takeaways or from restaurants. One other thing, they take previous day’s cooked rice in making fried rice that is stale rice. You still prefer to eat fried rice from takeaways and from restaurants?

A few years ago when we were on holiday in Sri Lanka we had supper from a five star hotel in Colombo Fort. When all others had different things to eat, I ate chicken biriyani as one of my favourites. Around 1.00 am I had to rush to a private clinic as I was really unwell. When I described the symptoms like diarrhoea, vomiting, stomach cramps and sweating, the doctor immediately said it’s due to food poisoning by eating rice. I knew about it but never thought to get food poisoning by eating at a five star hotel. Who would ask for chicken biriyani at a five star hotel? They might have stored them for few days then reheated and served.

I learned from scratch

When I was in a boarding house in Borella, I had to depend on hotel takeaways than cooking. At the start I had to cycle or walk all the way to hotels to bring in or eat in hotels. For one reason or the other, I didn’t like these kinds of food and one of the reasons is that they are not quite hygienic. Then I tried to cook something at the boarding house and by trial and error then found the way to cook simple things such as rice and curries. There was no technique, just added some spices to things such as chicken and fish and cooked on a kerosene cooker. Those days there were no liquid petroleum gas cookers or LPG at our place. Those days most people depended on firewood stoves for cooking. This is a still a very common method in remote villages in Sri Lanka and those kerosene cookers have disappeared. This is how I started my cooking but now I have improved and found a scientific energy and smell saving method of cooking. Fortunately I had the company of three other friends in the boarding house to share these works. I must say they all got through to medicine and I didn’t get into anywhere near other than passing two subjects in Advanced level. When I found a teaching post in the same private college we studied, I found the way to come over to England for further studies.

One room to sleep, study and cook

Then only I had to stay again in a single room and I had to do all my work in a single room unlike back home, that is even cooking in a single room. I could have depended on takeaway food but for one reason or the other I didn’t like those oily food showered with salt and vinegar then eat with tomato sauce and mustard. After a while I found this abandoned kitchen by the others in the boarding house. Then I got an electric cooker with oven and grill to cook. After a while at least I could cook outside the room otherwise the cooking aroma got deposited on my clothes while cooking in the room itself. I think all others in the boarding house depended on takeaways. After a long struggle and trial and error discovered how to cook edible type of chicken, lamb and fish curries. That time I was studying at a University in Kingston upon Thames. To begin with I had to shower with body sprays to cover up this cooking aroma that smelled myself like a mobile Tandoori chicken.

Thinking in the right direction

Then by thinking in the right direction, I found how to control and in some cases to stop the smell depositing on me while cooking. I was studying chemistry for my degree and thinking with respect to chemistry, molecules, thermal conductivity, intermolecular, intramolecular reactions then gas laws and many more I developed this idea. Then only I got the method how to cook scientifically and save energy and avoid any cooking aroma depositing while cooking. I didn’t check how much energy was saved or used but I knew that not full energy was used in cooking when whatever it is cooking comes to a certain stage. This would be better explained with respect to an actual cooking demonstration.

I didn’t just write letters only to the Sustainable Energy Authority but invited to witness my energy saving cooking demonstration, then only they believed me with respect to an actual cooking demonstration. It was explained in English language with respect to some scientific terms at certain stages of cooking, not just added this and that and cooked on high fire. That is how most of the British TV chefs cook but to me that kind of British TV cooks or chefs are not cooking actually proper cooking. When anyone tried to learn driving, swimming or even playing football did they just learned things by theory only, I am sure they had to learn by actual demonstration.

They witnessed my kind of energy saving cooking

Not only that I demonstrated my kind of scientific energy saving to the Sustainable Energy Authority then I had to demonstrate it to The Invention Commission in Sri Lanka. Even now my work can be seen in their official web site. Then I went on a live cooking demonstration at Sirasa TV for 45 minutes. Then I had to explain my work both in native Sinhala language and some terms in English because I was not sure of the terms in Sinhala. If I explained all in English language then majority of people would not have benefitted with my work.

I need to help the people in England

Now for the benefit of people in England, I wanted to go to a TV show in England but so far didn’t find the way. Now I have no questions with Sri Lanka energy authorities but the questions remains only with these British energy saving experts. In case if any energy authority or an energy saving expert from England came forward and disproved my scientific energy saving cooking then I have placed £50,000 yes fifty thousand sterling to give away. My work is based on science, no tricks, it is open for arguments, hopefully accepted by them. Suppose my work is right, what would I get? When most footballers kick the ball into the gall get a heavy pay cheque similarly if my work is right what would I get? If my work is correctly followed by the viewers then they can save a considerable amount of gas and electricity, if properly done as much as 60% can be saved. Just imagine if one million or more people used my method for more than three months or more how much energy can be saved by their cooking. What would I get for educating the public to save energy scientifically that is wasted in careless cooking?

Steam power is adopted to cooking

As I mentioned before my work is based on established gas laws and on many more scientific explanations. If George Stephen could use the power of steam to pull tons of steel carriages up on Kadugannwa Hill”, would you not think that steam power can be adopted to cook something like rice and curries? Perhaps you want to know more. I am prepared show it practically as I have done on several occasions in different TV shows since 2007 to 2014 including the one in  Sirasa TV in Sri Lanka. The message must be conveyed to British TV authorities such as BBC who show plenty of cooking programmes almost on daily basis. Strictly speaking I haven’t seen a single cooking session in British TV that save energy and smell while cooking. Your comments are welcomed perera6@hotmail.co.uk