Meera Sodha to Explore Food, Place and Architecture with Heritance Hotels & Resorts in Sri Lanka

Heritance Hotels & Resorts will welcome acclaimed food writer and cookbook author Meera Sodha to Sri Lanka from 23 October to 5 November 2026 for a culinary journey across Heritance Kandalama and Heritance Ahungalla, bringing together food, landscape and her long-held appreciation for the work of architect Geoffrey Bawa.

Known for writing about food through the people, memories and cultures that shape it, Meera’s visit will offer a different way of experiencing Sri Lanka, through its ingredients and culinary traditions, but also through two destinations where architecture and landscape are inseparable from the stay.

A Writer Who Looks Beyond the Plate

Based in London, Meera Sodha is the bestselling author of four cookbooks and has written a weekly food column for The Guardian since 2017.

Her work has built an international following for its ability to make food both personal and culturally grounded. Her debut cookbook, Made in India, was named among The Times’ Books of the Year, while Fresh India received the Observer Food Monthly award for Best New Cookbook in 2017.

Across her books and columns, recipes often become a way into something larger: family, migration, memory, tradition and the everyday rituals that give food meaning. It is this perspective that makes Sri Lanka particularly compelling.

Food, Seen Through Place

During her time with Heritance Hotels & Resorts, Meera will explore Sri Lanka through two very different landscapes.

At Heritance Kandalama, Geoffrey Bawa’s architecture stretches through rock and forest above Kandalama Lake, allowing the natural environment to remain central to the experience. Here, Meera will spend time with the hotel’s culinary team, exploring local ingredients, regional flavours and the food traditions connected to the surrounding landscape.

The collaboration will culminate in a specially curated culinary experience developed with the Heritance Kandalama team, bringing together Meera’s approach to food with the knowledge and perspective of the hotel’s chefs.

Her journey will then continue south to Heritance Ahungalla, where Bawa’s architecture responds to an entirely different setting, the openness, light and movement of Sri Lanka’s southern coast.

An intimate cocktail and canapé evening at the property will bring guests together around food, conversation and the ideas gathered through her time in Sri Lanka.

A Shared Appreciation for Geoffrey Bawa

The visit also carries a more personal connection for Meera through her admiration for Geoffrey Bawa.

Across Heritance Kandalama and Heritance Ahungalla, two distinct expressions of his architectural thinking can be experienced within one journey.

At Kandalama, the building recedes into forest, rock and lake. At Ahungalla, architecture opens towards the sea and tropical landscape.

Rather than existing simply as settings for Meera’s culinary experiences, the properties create another layer to the story, demonstrating how landscape, architecture and food can each reflect the character of a place.

Discovering Sri Lanka Differently

For Heritance Hotels & Resorts, the collaboration is ultimately about presenting Sri Lanka through experiences that belong to the destinations in which they take place.

A meal is shaped by where its ingredients come from. Architecture responds to its surroundings. Traditions carry the knowledge of generations. And travel becomes more meaningful when these elements are experienced together.

As Meera documents and shares moments from her time in Sri Lanka with audiences across the United Kingdom, India and beyond, her journey will offer a window into an island experienced not simply through its landmarks, but through its people, food, architecture and landscapes.

From the forests and lake of Kandalama to the southern coast of Ahungalla, it is an invitation to discover Sri Lanka through another lens, one plate, place and story at a time.

Meera Sodha’s journey with Heritance Hotels & Resorts takes place from 23 October to 5 November 2026.