How do our food experts cook and eat? This week, Judy and Krishanthi of Rocco’s take our Q&A!
Friends turned business partners, Judy and Krishanthi are the dynamic duo who own and manage one of Colombo’s favourite pizza eateries ‘Rocco’s’. This week on Dish it Out, they talk to us about their personal food philosophies…and that one restaurant in Florence with food to die for.

How did you both meet?
Krishanthi: A short version is that our husbands were best friends and so the two of us met and we became close friends and later opened a  business together! 

Would you say you have similar or opposite taste in food? 
Judy: Oh, we both love the same kind of food and have the same taste in food.  But I mean, Krishanthi really, really loves her pizza and I…well.. I find it okay. 
Krishanthi: I can eat pizza every day and never get fed up but Judy has one pizza and that’s enough for a month for her. So in that way, we are opposite but we always have very similar tastes and preferences. 

If you could relive a dish from another country – what would it be and from where?
Judy: I know. 
Krishanthi: I know too! 
Judy & Krishanthi: Florence! It was this quaint little restaurant in Florence where you have to book two sittings and stand in line for half an hour just to get in. It’s a tiny place and we had a couple of their dishes like their artichoke omelette, butter chicken and a beefsteak and my goodness – it was to die for. The dessert was a meringue cake and we honestly thought we died and went to heaven that day! The food was just phenomenal. 

What is the most useless and useful item in your kitchen right now?
Judy & Krishanthi: Obviously our pizza oven is the most useful item in our kitchen. The most useless was the grilling machine we bought! It is so big and we never really made much use 
of it. 

What meal would you eat but never cook? 
Judy & Krishanthi: I know this is surprising – but rice and curry is just not our forte. We love to eat it but we wouldn’t make it. We love the ‘kahabath’ and ‘garlic rice’ and we do eat it but we won’t really ever cook it. We’ve grown up having different meals every day so rice and curry was never really a staple so it was usually twice or thrice a week when we had it. 

What is your go-to drink?
Judy: A strawberry mojito
Krishanthi: YES! The frozen variety. We love the one at the Gallery Café and Tintagel. 

What is your #1 guilty pleasure? 
Judy: Chocolates!
Krishanthi: Hm…. I love my cakes. 

What was your favourite childhood meal? 
Judy: Hot dogs. When we were growing up, we didn’t have all these fancy restaurants back then. You’d go to Fountain Café or something like that and have a hot dog. I used to really love the hot dogs with the mustard sauce. 
Krishanthi: Even though I don’t eat rice and curry every day, not growing up in Sri Lanka meant that rice and curry was a special treat.  So, when my mom made it – it was a special treat to have. 

Did you grow up in a cooking family? 
Judy & Krishanthi: Yes, we both grew up with families that enjoyed both eating and cooking so we were always exposed to all varieties of food; Sri Lankan, Italian, Western and Japanese. 

If you had Rs. 500, what meal would you make with it? 
Krishanthi: Honestly – I think pasta would be the best meal to make. It's really wholesome and economical and everyone loves it all over the world. 
Judy: With Rs.500, I’d make fluffy scrambled eggs…..with some crispy bacon on the side!

Who would be your dream dinner-party guests? 
Judy: I would love to have Gordon Ramsay as a guest. 
Krishanthi:….sounds like a dinner party guest from Hell! I’d love to be a fly on the wall at your party. As for me….ooh, Nigella Lawson!

Easiest meal to impress someone?
Judy & Krishanthi: Pasta! Just a few ingredients can make the most amazing meals. Pasta is very fresh and it’s very easy to make. Put some lime juice and some cream and that’s good to go as is or you can keep adding. Serve it with some garlic bread and salad and done! Fantastic meal – so easy. 

One meal for the rest of your life?
Judy:  Ribbon cake
Krishanthi: Pizza or pasta. With different toppings because there’s just no end to it. 

How did you spend your quarantine?
Judy & Krishanthi: We worked! We made a conscious decision to make sure that people who were stuck in their homes had healthy food. We had so many customers and even though it was a really tough time and it was tiring – it was worth it because people appreciated it. Our staff went above and beyond during those two months of curfew and we couldn’t have done it without them!

What would your last meal be? 
Krishanthi: I’m biased but it has to be the fungi pizza from Rocco’s. 
Judy: I’d say the lamb shanks – also from Rocco’s. We love our food – we eat it every day!