Starter Kit. Idea 39 of 500. Cluster 2
Village kitchen lunches, cooked with the family
The mechanism, from the book
The craft cannot be copied and the object can. In Europe people queue to watch glass being blown and then buy the glass.
The first step
Arrange one village lunch this week: a family cooks at home, guests help grate coconut and grind spices, and everyone eats together. Bring four guests from the nearest guesthouse at a trial price and pay the family most of it. The family's willingness to do it again, and the guests' reviews, are the proof.
- Who pays first
- Guesthouse and hotel guests who want to eat in a real home and meet a family, not sit in another restaurant.
- What leaves today
- Village households earn nothing from the visitors driving past; a paid lunch moves tourist spending into the village kitchen.
Ask first
- the area Medical Officer of Health. Ask what hygiene standard a family kitchen serving paying guests must meet.
- Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority. Ask whether a village lunch for tourists must register as a tourist service.
Check before you spend
That the kitchen and water are safe for visitors, that food allergies can be handled, and that the family is paid directly and fairly.
Find out these three numbers
- What will visitors pay for a home-cooked lunch with the family?
- How many guests can the family seat at one sitting?
- What does the food cost per guest?
A comparison from the book
Sigiriya. Chapter Five
"The next day there is a cooking course, or a batik workshop"
A village lunch is on the book's list of reasons to stay another day.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.