photo by Tom McConnell
It probably would have been quicker to just ask Heather Jansz what she hasn't been doing lately.The woman who first brought really, really hot and spicy cuisine to Minnesota has her fingers in so many pies, chutneys and sambols that it's hard to keep track without a website.
You might remember her as Heather Balasuriya, from the days when she was chef and co-owner of the Sri Lanka Curry House. I first met Heather about 30 years ago, when she and her then-husband, Evan Balasuriya, were running a little café in northeast Minneapolis called Mulligan Stew House #1. An entrepreneur with dreams of franchise fortunes had hired them to run the first of what was envisioned as a national Mulligan Stew chain.
The stew wasn't a big hit, and there never was a Mulligan Stew House #2, but word got around about the terrific, spicy Sri Lankan curries that Heather offered as daily specials. Mulligan Stew House #1 soon became the Sri Lanka Curry House, the first restaurant to introduce Minnesotans to really hot and spicy cooking. The café quickly outgrew its storefront, and moved to more spacious and stylish home in Uptown.
Much later, after Heather and Evan split up, Heather opened up the short-lived Curry Leaf Deli. I had heard that she was working at Macy's as a personal shopper, and doing a little catering on the side, but it turns out she's been up to a lot more than that.
When I caught up with her recently, Jansz brought me up to date on just a few of her current activities - these days, she's a cooking teacher, caterer, singer, personal chef, restaurant consultant and personal shopper. You can find a lot of the details on her new whizbang website, www.heatherjansz.com, where you can also watch videos of Heather giving a cooking lesson, and singing, (with local guitar legend Dean Magraw.) Dinner parties catered by Heather come with an optional bonus: on request, she'll bring along Magraw and perform a private concert after the meal.
The cooking classes come in lots of different versions: large groups, small groups, one-on-one, as do her catering services. Her repertoire of dishes for dinner parties and classes ranges from simple Sri Lankan curries to an elaborate Indonesian rijstafel. Many of these are the same dishes she served at the Sri Lanka Curry House, and later at the Curry Leaf Deli in Saint Paul, but Heather says her cooking style has evolved since those days - she now incorporates the Ayurvedic philosophy of food and health into her dishes. She also offers her homemade spice blends, spicy sambols, savory salsas and chutneys for sale - check the website for details.
Her cookbook, Fire & Spice: The Cuisine of Sri Lanka (co-authored with Karin Winegar), is out of print, but you can find used copies on the Internet selling for as much as $175.
"On the rotti again..." Yes, Heather's food -- and humor -- is still spicy. Her food appeals to all the senses -- you can feel decadent and healthy in the same bite! She has fed me for years and now that I've moved to Chicago I still must have her food. I have her cook for me and my friends here, teach me how to do some of the dishes or I pick up food when I'm in Mpls. And I happen to think that the warmth you feel from eating her food is just from the spices but also from the passion she puts into everything she does.
I have never met Heather, but what a fan of her and her cooking I am. At the height of the hardest time in my life" morning sickness" (anyone who has had the awful pregnancy induced nausea knows I am not exaggerating) I was introduced to Heather's food. It was amazing. I was able to eat everything she had made. It tasted so wonderful and I felt so good. My mind, body and spirit have been begging for more ever since. It is so hard to wait for more of her cooking. Thank you so much Heather for sharing your talents and gifts with us.
Mary Smith
Great article about "the curry diva"!
I've been a fan of Heather's cooking AND singing for years. Living dangerously close to the Sri Lanka Curry House when it was on Hennepin, I was fairly addicted to the deviled shrimp, veggie rotis and all the rest. When I'd discovered she'd popped up again with the Curry Leaf Deli in St. Paul, I was thrilled. We reconnected again when I find out (thank goodness!) that she was catering. Heather (and veggie roti) and I were reunited. She blew my friend's minds catering my husband's birthday party and continues to blow mine with her cooking. For those of you seeking out her amazing food, know that there's much more than just veggie roti. . .even her salads are thrilling.
While a student in England I became addicted to hot curries. Imagine my horror, when arriving in Minneapolis in 1970, at finding no place to indulge my habit. Until one day friends took me to that little cafe in Northeast. 38 years later (!) we are still here, thanks in no small part to Heather's friendship and her wonderful cooking.
As someone who became a friend of Heather's many years after venturing into the Sri Lanka Curry House for mind-blowing meals, I can attest that she is the dynamo described in this article and more! Her infectious energy makes her addicting to be around...and her gift of making food that is at once healthy, stimulating and satisfying makes her indispensable in a community that can be, well, kind of un-spicy for dreary months at a time. I wholly recommend you fabricate an excuse - fake a wedding or a retirement - to have Heather cater something for you. You will be hooked. (I'm recruiting new people all the time and thinking of starting a cult.) Did I mention I love her cooking?
Heather Jansz has been cooking for me, my friends and business associates for years. I recommend her to everyone because she can make a great spicy meal without it being so hot that you can't enjoy it. In addition to this, for many years she has donated her services for charity silent auctions. One in particular, Our Children's Homestead, in Illinois, often has to auction off two of Heather's catering gigs because of their past popularity and demand. Finally, Heather is very aware of the health benefits of foods and spices, which is very timely in this age of awareness of body and spirit. As a cancer survivor (and during my treatments), I paid for Heather to prepare foods, dressings, recipes, etc. to ship to me in Chicago because she and her food are just that good!