From representing Sri Lanka in an Olympic swimming pool to serving up black pork curry, polos and plenty of dad jokes online, Heshan Unamboowe has a story that goes far beyond food.

Before we knew him as the man behind Bamboo Eats, Heshan was an Olympian, representing Sri Lanka in swimming at the 2012 London Olympic Games. He is also an engineer, a husband, a very proud Appachchi and, today, a content creator whose love for Sri Lankan food has brought together a community of more than 250,000 followers across Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.

Even Bamboo comes with a story. His surname, Unamboowe, went through the wonderful evolution of childhood nicknames until Una-bamboowa eventually became simply Bamboo. What began as a small page to share food he cooked or enjoyed took a turn after one hot butter cuttlefish video caught everyone’s attention—and Bamboo Eats began to find its flavour.

But what I enjoy about Heshan’s content is that it’s never just a recipe. There’s usually a memory cooking alongside it. Food takes him back to Amma preparing kaha bath and all the trimmings whenever he returned home from an international swimming competition. Today, living away from Sri Lanka, those same flavours keep him connected to home while helping him pass a little bit of Sri Lanka on to his son.

And then there is his wife, who loves Sri Lanka almost as much as Heshan does, has developed a dangerously entertaining Sinhala vocabulary, discovered a serious love for wellawahum—and a very definite dislike for bandakka! Their cultural exchanges have become some of the funniest moments on his page.

Behind the Olympian, engineer and growing social-media personality, however, Heshan seems most at home simply being a son, husband and father.

So this week on Buzz with Danu, I sit down with Heshan Unamboowe to talk about the Olympics, food and family, raising a child with Sri Lankan roots away from home, surviving the Sri Lankan food police online, his wife’s adventures with Sinhala—and why Gordon Ramsay may one day find himself washing Heshan’s dishes.

1. Let’s start with that name Bamboo Eats. It’s catchy, it sticks in your head, but where did “Bamboo” actually come from? And did you ever imagine it would become an identity followed by over 85,000 people?
It has everything to do with my last name, Unamboowe. Growing up, my nicknames evolved from Unamboowe → Una-bamboowa (උණබම්ව ) → Bamboo, and eventually that became Bamboo Eats.

Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that my cooking page would grow into a platform followed by more than 250 000 followers across Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. I’ve always loved cooking, and I originally started the page simply as a place to post photos of dishes I cooked at home or food I ordered at restaurants.

Toward the latter part of 2025, I decided to start awkwardly filming myself cooking and posting the videos online. At first, the dishes weren’t necessarily Sri Lankan, and I only had around 250 followers. Back then, I honestly felt like most people followed the page simply to support me, and not because they genuinely enjoyed the content. I know it’s silly, but I still sometimes feel that way.

Then, in September 2025, I posted a video of a hot butter cuttlefish dish, and that received quite a bit of attention. The responses to that video made me realise that people genuinely wanted to see more Sri Lankan cooking presented online in my own style.

I guess you could call that the “turning point”. From there, I started focusing primarily on Sri Lankan food, culture and the stories behind the dishes with a little bit of dad jokes sprinkled on it, and the rest is history.

2. Before you were cooking curries on Instagram, you were swimming for Sri Lanka at the Olympics! What requires more pressure: standing on an Olympic starting block representing your country or posting a Sri Lankan recipe and waiting for Sri Lankans in the comments to tell you that you’ve made it wrong?
Standing behind the blocks at the 2012 London Olympic Games was, by far, the most nerve-wracking moment of my life, knowing that I was competing in front of the entire world. I remember walking out to the pool for my event and suddenly having flashbacks of my entire life as a swimmer leading up to that moment - all the training, sacrifices and years of preparation. I almost peed my pants. (or swim trunks, if you will). That said, the comments section can certainly show a lot of emotions from followers.

For the longest time, I would get quite irritated when people commented things like, “That’s not the right way to make it.” But over time, I realised that when it comes to traditional food, the “right way” can be incredibly subjective. Sri Lankan cooking varies so much depending on the region and the household.

Now, whenever I make a video, I actually encourage people to tell me how they would prepare the dish differently. It has turned something I once found frustrating into one of the best parts of sharing cooking content, because I’ve learned and continue to learn so much from those conversations!

3. You clearly love Sri Lankan food, but you’re also living away from Sri Lanka. Has cooking become your way of staying connected to home? Is there one dish that instantly takes you back?
Apart from my family, cooking is probably the most important thing that keeps me connected to home. I go out of my way to find Sri Lankan ingredients just so I can make the food I grew up with – and that makes me miss home even more.

Growing up, Amma would make a kaha bath (yellow rice) meal every time I returned home from an international competition. It usually came with chicken curry, ala hodi (potato curry), wambatu moju, cutlets, and a salad. Every time I eat that meal now, I’m taken back to my carefree days as a kid.

4. Your wife has become quite a character on your page too, especially with her Sinhala! Who is actually teaching her these phrases, and has she ever confidently said something in Sinhala without having the slightest clue what she was really saying?
My wife adores Sri Lanka. I’m convinced she was a Malkanthi or a Chandralatha in one of her previous lives. Naturally, like any Sri Lankan trying to teach a non-native speaker Sinhala, I gave her a crash course on all the not-so-friendly Sinhala words first. The funniest part is that she doesn’t fully understand how bad some words are. She’ll occasionally say something at a Sri Lankan gathering with complete confidence, and people react by either bursting out laughing or feeling extremely uncomfortable. Somehow, that makes it even funnier.

5. Being married to someone from a completely different cultural background must create some hilarious food moments. What was the Sri Lankan dish you introduced to your wife that she absolutely loved and what was the one where her face told you, “Never serve me this again”?
Once when Amma was visiting us in the US, she made wellawahum (coconut treacle pancakes) for us to eat when we came back home from work. My wife had never had them before, and I still remember the face she made when she took her first bite – she was in disbelief. She proceeded to eat like five of them, and to this day, it is one of her favourite snacks ever.

Amma also recently made bandakka (okra curry) for lunch and made my wife try it. One bite was all it took. She gagged, looked at me and went “please, never again. This stuff tastes like hotu (snot)”. Safe to say, slimy okra is not her thing.

6. You’re also a very proud dad, and your son clearly occupies a huge part of your world. Has becoming a father changed the way you look at food, family and the Sri Lankan traditions you want to pass down to the next generation?
Long before my son was born, I had given a lot of thought to how I would one day pass down my Sri Lankan roots, culture, and traditions to my child. So, becoming a father has not necessarily changed the way I view those things. In fact, it has made me even more aware and intentional about them. It is extremely important for me that he grows up with plenty of exposure to Sri Lankan culture, whether that’s through food, language, or traditions. I think that will help him navigate his own identity – something a lot of immigrant Sri Lankan kids seem to struggle with.

7. Let’s settle something important: if your son grows up and tells you, “Dad, I don’t like Sri Lankan food,” what happens next? Do you respect his decision, or is there an emergency family intervention with a pot of curry?
Tough question. First of all, I’m going to make sure he grows up eating the incredible variety of Sri Lankan dishes I grew up eating. More importantly, I want him to try a wide range of foods - not necessarily just Sri Lankan food, but food from all over the world. I believe food is one of the easiest and strongest ways to develop an appreciation for cultures we know little about and to connect with people of different backgrounds.

However, if there ever comes a day when my son says “Appachchi, I don’t like Sri Lankan food”
– I will still love him. But I may also take him to a psychiatrist. I’m just kidding, of course.

8. Your food looks Sri Lankan from polos ambula and wattalappan to black coconut chicken curry. What’s the one Sri Lankan dish you think the rest of the world is seriously sleeping on and deserves its international moment?
I would recommend one of my favourite meals ever – stringhoppers, kiri hodi, and koonisso coconut mallum (tempered baby shrimp with shredded coconut). It’s incredibly comforting and very approachable, especially for someone who may be trying Sri Lankan food for the first time. It’s not overly heavy or intense, but it still has so much flavour and character.

I genuinely think it’s one of those meals that deserves far more international attention. Anyone visiting Sri Lanka should absolutely give it a try!

9. Olympian, content creator, cook, husband and dad those are very different versions of one person. Which one feels most like the real you when nobody is watching, and there’s no Instagram camera switched on?
I am proud of everything I’ve accomplished as an Olympic swimmer representing Sri Lanka, an engineer in the automotive field, and more recently, a content creator. However, my family is truly my happy place, and I wouldn’t want it any other way. My life revolves around being a dad, husband, and a son, and I absolutely love it. They keep me grounded, remind me what really matters, and make me feel loved beyond measure. At the end of the day, that version of me feels the most real.

10. Finally, imagine the ultimate Bamboo Eats dinner table. You can invite five people from anywhere in the world, living or dead. Who gets a seat, what are you cooking for them, and most importantly, who is doing the washing up?
- The Buddha gets the first seat because he seems chill and I have a hundred questions for him
- Kumar Sangakkara because he is Kumar Sangakkara.
- Betty White because she’ll keep the dinner table lively.- Gordon Ramsay because I need to show him that black pork curry is better than Beef Wellington.
- Princess Diana because her presence would lighten up the room. For dinner, I’m making pol roti, katta sambal, and black pork curry. If the Buddha chooses to not eat meat, he gets my signature polos curry. For dessert, I’m making chocolate biscuit pudding topped with kithul treacle-roasted cashews. Gordon is most definitely doing the dishes so we can all have a post-meal chat in peace.